LUIS TIANT
Luis Tiant was and is one of the very greatest big-time performers in sport and in life.
He defied the odds throughout.
And with panache.
Or “duende,” a bon mot of the late great George Frazier.
A colorful character (in fact, a world-class personality might offer a more apt description) he emigrated from Cuba as a teen and carved out a Hall-of-Fame caliber career as a Major League Baseball starting pitcher.
Having just viewed snippets of a CHARLIE MOORE OUTDOORS episode featuring Tiant, images of him and his wonder come flooding back to memory.
More on Mr. Moore later.
Tiant’s MLB Career was in full swing and perhaps a bit beyond in 1975 when he showed the baseball world and all its aficionados what kind of force on the rubber he really was.
In the American League Playoff Series versus the A’s and in the World Series against The Big Red Machine, he was other-worldly.
I was there. I know my baseball. And I know Luis.
In a 19-year Major League career (1964–1982) toiling for 6 clubs Tiant compiled a 229–172 record with 2,416 K’s, 187 complete games, 49 shutouts & a lifetime 3.30ERA in 3,486.1 innings pitched.
A 3-time All-Star and 4-time 20-game winner, he led the AL in ERA twice (1968;1972). His 1.60 ERA in 1968 was the AL’s lowest since Walter Johnson’s 1.49 ERA in 1919 — smack-dab in the middle of what came to be known as baseball’s Dead Ball Era. Only Hall-of-Famer Bob Gibson had recorded a lower ERA (1.12 ironically also in 1968 for the St. Louis Cardinals, the lowest ever in the Live Ball Era).
The AL leader in K’s for 9 innings (1967–1.024) as well as the league leader thrice in shutouts (1966; 1968; & 1974) represented significant achievements also dotting Luis’ sparkling baseball resume.
El Tiante, a moniker bestowed upon him during his heroic tenure in Boston — resulting in his selection as a member of the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame (1997) — perhaps was genetically predisposed to a larger-than-life-personality as the only child of a doting mother and a great left-handed pitcher for whom he was named, who hurled for both the Negro League’s NY Cubans & the Cuban Pro League’s Cienfuegos among others.
Legions of die-hard Cuban baseball fans followed the exploits and travails of Luis Tiant, Sr. certainly on the mound and possibly elsewhere as his magical persona — undoubtedly gifted to his son — served to enhance his legend.
Nothing pleased the man dubbed “Lefty” — or better yet “Sir Skinny” — more however, than being granted permission by Castro (courtesy of a special one-time visa) to take his wife to the US to watch their son pitch in the 1975 World Series.
The family was reunited after 15 years.
My personal contact, though peripheral, was real and enduring.
In the fall of 1975 I was beginning my senior year at Harvard University.
This time frame was the crown jewel of an otherwise fantastic youth. The world was my oyster in so many ways and the perfect gleaming pearl came in the form of working as an usher at Fenway Park during the American League Playoff Series and the ’75 World Series, thought by many to be one of the 2 or 3 greatest Fall Classics in baseball history.
The smell of popcorn, hot dogs, lousy beer and pot wafted through the charming little bandbox as always but the feeling was different.
Clearly this was the Big-Time.
And although heroes abounded, El Tiante was the man.
Slightly off due to an annoying array of back problems which plagued him during the regular season, Luis still managed to notch 18 wins for the pennant-winning Sox.
But it was in the postseason that his stock went through the roof.
In the playoffs, he summarily dispatched the 3-Time WS Champion A’s twirling a 3-hit complete game (7–1) victory. (The Playoff Series then were best-of-five affairs).
Opening the World Series with his parents in attendance Luis corkscrewed his way to a 5-hit shutout (6–0). All six of the Red Sox runs came in the seventh inning, the first of which was scored by…Tiant.
With the DH not yet allowed, Luis led off the inning with a base hit, somehow solving Reds ace Don Gullett. He eventually lumbered home with the ballgame’s first run, courtesy of a Yaz single.
In Game 4 El Tiante threw 173 pitches in his second complete game Series win and he had a no-decision in Game 6 — the Carlton Fisk Epic — which is widely acclaimed as the greatest game ever played. Certainly it’s in the conversation, at the very least.
In the middle of it all of course was Luis whose father and I rejoiced both in the stands and even once while doing our respective peeing at adjacent urinals.
(We each recognized the value of hydration and knew as well that Luis was making hardball history right before our very eyes).
As for Mr. Moore, he is nearly as prodigious a character as El Tiante; to borrow from the Yiddish dialect, a real “chochem” indeed.
An accomplished fisherman to be sure, Charlie Moore has insinuated himself into our consciousness courtesy of his angling acumen all the while sporting the latest in local professional athletic team apparel, not an inexpensive pursuit for the lay fan, truth be told.
He eats fine food, drinks only top-shelf liquor and lovely wines with an occasional imported beer chaser, and keeps the company of various and only the most celebrated heroes and luminaries in the world of sport.
Not a bad gig if you can get it. This is every thinking-fan’s ultimate dream job and then some.
And his presence and visibility has exploded in such a way that the 5-time New England Emmy Award Winner was able to parlay his madcap and zany style into membership of the New England Sports Hall of Fame.
He has written a book — his memoir actually; had a new Brigham’s Ice Cream — a fabled New England institution — flavor named for him and is an Executive Producer of Behind the B, NESN’s popular 24/7 Boston Bruins up-close-and personal backstage pass creation.
His burgeoning empire continues to grow.
I tip my cap to Mr. Moore. Truly. In fact, it would be my pleasure to meet him (and perhaps even consult with him on any number of fronts). After all, anyone who could offer these gems as caught on tape in the Micky Ward episode, is worth my time — and I quote:
“…The Mad Fisherman is that good; even when he doesn’t do good, he usually y’know, he kinda does okay…” ; &
“ I made a career outta a C+ Average, boys and girls…”
And a most successful career it has been and promises to continue to be (absence of book-smarts notwithstanding).
So here’s the rub if it can be described as such:
Luis Tiant has not been awarded his game’s highest honor — induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame — and Mr. Moore has been recognized in such a grandiose fashion that a compelling argument may be made that he has scaled the heights (most admirably) and in fact, reached the very pinnacle of his industry’s success.
The starkness of this revelation both shocks and beguiles me.
This is to begrudge Mr. Moore nothing; he has earned his place. He is deserving of the many accolades bestowed upon him.
Rather, it is to lament Mr. Tiant’s mystifying lot.
Simply stated it is a travesty that Luis Tiant is not a member of Cooperstown’s exalted Hall.
Hard-boiled baseball purists have forever trumpeted the requisite resume line items needed to ensure HOF entry.
For a hitter, a career .300 average; 3,000 hits; &/or 500 HRs would demand a 75% vote/approval rating.
For a starting pitcher, either 300 wins or a like # of career saves for a reliever (300+) would offer a clear signal to a candidate that formulating thoughts for an acceptance speech would be a good idea.
And over the years there have been many exceptions to and notable deviations from this model, a testament to the whims and fancies of the nation’s baseball writers who have been awarded a vote.
By my reckoning at this writing 41 starting pitchers (including a relief pitcher or two whom had also achieved notoriety as a starter) with fewer than 300 wins have gained entry into the Hall.
Of this number, 29 recorded fewer than 250 victories and 19 notched fewer than 220.
Sixty-nine hurlers in all have their plaques adorning Cooperstown’s hallowed halls.
Luis Tiant, one of Cuba’s — and the great game of baseball’s — most prominent ambassadors is not among them.
Nowhere to be found.
Chief Bender, 212 wins — in. Jim Bunning, 224 wins — in. Jack Chesbro, 198 wins — in. Stan Covelski, 215 wins — in. Dizzy Dean, 150 wins — in. Don Drysdale, 209 wins — in. Lefty Gomez, 189 wins — in. Jesse Haines, 210 wins — in. Catfish Hunter, 224 wins — in. Addie Joss,160 wins — in.
Sandy Koufax, 165 wins — in. Bob Lemon, 207 wins — in. Rube Marquard, 201wins — in. Pedro Martinez, 219 wins — in. Hal Newhouser, 207 wins — in.
Hank O’Day, 73 wins-110 losses (in 192 starts); 3.74 ERA — in.
WAIT, WHAT?
Dazzy Vance, 197 wins — in. Rube Waddell, 193 wins — in. Ed Walsh,195 wins — in.
Where is Luis??? 229 wins; 3.30 ERA.
Where is he?
On the 22nd. of March in the year 2016 he was one of the two heroes selected to throw out the first pitch in Havana, kicking off an historic meeting between MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban National Team, a gala event attended by President Obama and Cuba’s President Raul Castro among scores of renowned others.
At 75 years of age & with the same-sized signature paunch he sported in his Red Sox glory days, he threw a sleight-of-hand strike.
The crowd went wild.
That he would be celebrated on this momentous occasion was a foregone conclusion.
Luis Tiant gained induction into the Venezuelan Hall of Fame in 2009. He played in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League in parts of 5 seasons between 1966–1982. With 37 wins, 29 complete games, a 2.27 ERA and a no-hitter in 1971, he deserved the honor.
In 2014 Tiant’s name appeared on the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Golden Era Committee (GEC) election ballot for the second time vying for possible 2015 HOF consideration. (The GEC replaced the former Veterans Committee in 2010).
Its mission (beginning in 2011):
To critique and elect retired MLB players, managers, umpires and executives from the period between 1947–1972 whose eligibility for election by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BWAA) had expired. Winter meeting elections take place every 3 years.
The GEC is a group of 16 and is comprised of 8 Hall of Famers, 5 Executives and 3 Media members. (The non-voting Committee Chairman and Secretary is the Hall’s Chairman of the Board, Ms. Jane Forbes Clark).
A 75% approval/vote (12 of 16) is required for election, as is the case for HOF election.
Ron Santo was the first and only of ten GEC Ballot candidates elected to the HOF Class of 2012. Santo received 15 of 16 votes good for a 93.75% approval rating.
Luis Tiant received 3 votes or 18.75%.
In the election for the Hall’s Class of 2015, none of the 10 candidates received the required 12 votes. Dick Allen and Tony Oliva were close with 11 (68.8%) and Jim Kaat corralled 10 (62.5%).
Luis Tiant was stuck at 3.
TRAVESTY — trav-es-ty; noun; “a false, absurd, or distorted representation of something.”
“synonyms: perversion of, distortion of, corruption of, misrepresentation of, poor imitation of, poor substitute for, mockery of, parody of, caricature of…”
Luis Tiant, Jr., the great El Tiante, belongs in Cooperstown.
Period.
I am certain that no less an authority than Charlie Moore, The Mad Fisherman, would agree.
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in February 2017.]
ADDENDUM: Luis Tiant turned 79 on November 23, 2019. He has appeared on 21 different HOF ballots without remotely reaching the 75% of votes or approval rating required for enshrinement.
