I’m too young to have seen him play, but I remember him from an episode of Cheers.
jazilli
His 1.60 ERA in 1968 is the lowest for an American League pitcher in the live ball era with a minimum 150 innings pitched. Tiant threw 258 innings that year.
hubagruben
When I was a kid, probably 5 or 6, my favorite player was understandably Pedro Martinez. My parents had bought tickets to a game Pedro was supposed to start, but he was scratched because there was rain on the way or something. Before the game, Luis Tiant was outside the stadium signing autographs. I didn’t know who he was but he seemed important, so I asked my parents if I could go get an autograph. When I finally got my chance, I straight-up asked him “Are you Pedro’s dad?” My silly young brain figured that he was making people feel better about his son not being able to pitch that night by signing autographs for the crowd. My parents have always had a good laugh at my expense for that one.
Luis, of course, found a lot of humor in my question and gave a good cackle. He turned to my parents with a big grin and asked them to get out an old Red Sox yearbook for me to take a look at sometime. They obliged, and I became a big Tiant fan after that. RIP to a great player and a great guy.
9 Comments
Aw no.
Damn, another great gone.
Castellano HR incoming.
66.1 bWAR. Probably should be in the hall through that other process.
Get this man in the Hall of Fame! Long overdue!
RIP to [the greatest windup of all time](https://x.com/PitchingNinja/status/1067394722807853059)
Should be in the HOF.
I’m too young to have seen him play, but I remember him from an episode of Cheers.
His 1.60 ERA in 1968 is the lowest for an American League pitcher in the live ball era with a minimum 150 innings pitched. Tiant threw 258 innings that year.
When I was a kid, probably 5 or 6, my favorite player was understandably Pedro Martinez. My parents had bought tickets to a game Pedro was supposed to start, but he was scratched because there was rain on the way or something. Before the game, Luis Tiant was outside the stadium signing autographs. I didn’t know who he was but he seemed important, so I asked my parents if I could go get an autograph. When I finally got my chance, I straight-up asked him “Are you Pedro’s dad?” My silly young brain figured that he was making people feel better about his son not being able to pitch that night by signing autographs for the crowd. My parents have always had a good laugh at my expense for that one.
Luis, of course, found a lot of humor in my question and gave a good cackle. He turned to my parents with a big grin and asked them to get out an old Red Sox yearbook for me to take a look at sometime. They obliged, and I became a big Tiant fan after that. RIP to a great player and a great guy.