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Luis Tiant

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Baseball Player

The Resume

    (November 23, 1940- )
    Born in Marianao, Cuba
    Birth name is Luis Clemente Tiant Vega
    Nickname is El Tiante
    Right-handed starting pitcher in MLB
    Pitched for the Cleveland Indians (1964–69), the Minnesota Twins (1970), the Boston Red Sox (1971–78), the New York Yankees (1979-80), the Pittsburgh Pirates (1981) and the California Angels (1982)
    Career stats:
    Win-loss record: 229-172, ERA: 3.30, Games started: 484, Complete games: 187, Shut-outs: 49, Innings pitched: 3,486, Strikeouts: 2,416, Walks: 1,104
    3-time All-Star (1968, 1974, 1976)
    Led the AL in shutouts in 1966 (5), 1968 (9), and 1974 (7)
    Led the AL in ERA in 1968 (1.60) and 1972 (1.91)
    AL Comeback Player of the Year (1972)
    Won the Babe Ruth Award for performance in the 1975 Wold Series
    Guest starred on the NBC TV series 'Cheers' (1983)
    Inducted to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame (1997)
    Inducted into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame (July 23, 2002)
    Subject of the Farrelly Brothers' 2009 documentary film 'The Lost Son of Havana'

Why he might be annoying:

    Experts believe his father was the superior pitcher of the two, but racism prevented the senior Tiant from joining Major League Baseball.
    Splitting time between Cuban and Mexican baseball in 1961, the Bay of Pigs turned a three-month stint in Mexico into a 46 year exile from his native Cuba.
    With stellar stats for the Indians during the 1960's, an injury-plagued 1969 saw him released by them at season's end.
    He stayed in the big leagues two years too long, and had dismal seasons with the Pirates and Angels.
    With a better than average career, the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) failed to elect him to the Baseball Hall of Fame during his 15-year eligibility window, leaving his election fate in the hands of the Veterans Committee.
    A lifelong cigar smoker, in the 1990's he launched his own line of cigars, branding them El Tiante.

Why he might not be annoying:

    In 1966 he was the first pitcher in the 50-year expansion era to earn four straight shutouts.
    1968 was a monster year for him, where he pitched for an unbelievable 1.60 ERA (the lowest in nearly 50 years), with 21 wins, 264 strikeouts and nine shutouts.
    Peter Gammons stated it was 'one of the five greatest seasons in the history of baseball.'
    An injury forced him to reinvent himself, and his new quirky corkscrew delivery, that saw him staring more at the second baseman than the batter, confounded hitters, turning him into a Red Sox icon.
    Chants of 'Loo-Eee, Loo-Eee, Loo-Eee' permeated Fenway Park, causing Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski to reflect, 'I've never heard anything like that in my life. But I'll tell you one thing: Tiant deserved every bit of it.'
    Though his team lost in seven games to the Cincinnati Reds in the 1975 World Series, he earned the Babe Ruth Award for his efforts, winning Games One and Four (and a no-decision in Game Six, which was won by the Red Sox on Carlton Fisk's dramatic homer in the 12th inning).
    In Game Four he threw an unheard of 173 pitches.
    His parents were given a special visa in 1975 to watch him pitch for as long as they liked, but after just 15 months in the U.S. they died within an hour of each other.
    Never a huge fan of Fidel Castro (whom he met twice as a minor leaguer), he was saddened and frustrated after returning to Cuba, lamenting about relations between his native and adoptive countries, 'It's amazing how you got some program for 50 years, and it don't work...This no make sense to me. Open it for people to go down there. They can go see their family, American wanna go, they can go. Why not?'

Credit: Scar Tactics


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 15 Votes: 53.33% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 17 Votes: 41.18% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 13 Votes: 53.85% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 26 Votes: 65.38% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 32 Votes: 59.38% Annoying