RIP Luis Tiant

Tied with Yaz for most beloved Red Sox in the Curse era. RIP.

 

Wait. 83??? Cue the I’m f’ing old memes.

 

Went from 20 wins to 20 losses in consecutive seasons with the Indians, the year after they lowered the mound and changed the strike zone. Also pitched with the Yankees, Pirates and Angels.

RIP to the man with a thousand arm angles.

 

He's one of the guys I emulated as a kid when we'd play in the front yard.

I had the high knee and rotation down pretty good.

 

A buddy and I covered an Angels-Red Sox game in Anaheim in 1982 where Tiant, then 41, pitched well. In his postgame interview he was asked about his age and his heavily accented answer was something like, "they say I feefty, I ninety, sheet, I'm one hundred and 10." We still laugh about it 42 years later. RIP to a legend.

EDIT: That game was his final career victory.
August 17, 1982: Angels’ Luis Tiant beats Boston for final career win – Society for American Baseball Research (sabr.org)

Edit 2: My friend remembers the quote this way, it's probably somewhere between our two memories: “Everyone ask me…my age, how old you are. You feefty? You ninety? You a hundred? Sheet, I wish I live to a hundred. Forget about peetching!”

 

El Tiante - who didn't imitate his wind-up as a kid when warming up or throwing it around during practice?

 

I'd have guessed much older. Seemed like he was 45 when he pitched in the 75 Series, which he could have been MVP of.

 

I remember listening to his MLB debut on the Indians' Niagara Falls radio affiliate. It was a summer Sunday afternoon and he threw a four-hit shutout against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. They had just recalled him from Portland.

That station was a godsend for an Indians fan trapped in Yankee country, which the 716 was (and still is, I believe).

 

If Colavito was my dad’s favorite Indian, Tiant was his favorite pitcher.

 

Unfortunately it seems likely he’ll get in the Hall in a couple months, since that’s what the committee is good at. His committee group will be announced soon, he’ll be on it again and I bet they put him in this time