For Your Consideration: Luis Tiant

While the Baseball Writers’ Association of America casts its ballots in the next month for the Hall of Fame, the Modern Baseball Era Committee will consider 10 candidates for a vote this weekend.

In a process revamped in 2016, no longer is there a Veterans Committee; instead, players from different eras will be considered on rotating schedule. This year, the 16-member Modern Baseball Era committee will consider players whose greatest contributions took place from 1970-1989. Players need at least 75 percent of the ballots for induction — 12 votes — and each member of the committee can cast a vote for up to four candidates. This year’s candidates are Luis Tiant, Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Al Simmons, Alan Trammell and Marvin Miller, former director of the MLB Players Association.

Over the next week, La Vida Baseball will weigh in with the pros, the cons and the betcha-didn’t-knows of the Hall of Fame’s Latino candidates for 2018 — starting with El Tiante.

229-172/3.30 ERA/2,416 K — 66.7 WAR — 55.6 JAWS

By Efraín Ruiz Pantin

Born in Marianao, Cuba, about six miles southwest of Havana, Luis Tiant was the only child of Luis and Isabel. His father was a crafty lefty with a bedazzling repertoire of pitches who was legendary in Cuba and in the Negro Leagues — so good that many people would still pick him ahead of his right-handed son for their fantasy league team.

The father tried to discourage the son from following in his footsteps, because back then he felt that a black man couldn’t succeed in baseball. Thanks to his mother’s support, Tiant persevered until he debuted with the Cleveland Indians halfway through the 1964 season.

Over 19 seasons, Tiant also pitched for the Twins, Red Sox, Yankees, Pirates and Angels. A three-time All-Star, he led the American League in ERA twice and in shutouts three times. Among Cuban major league pitchers, Tiant remains the all-time leader in wins, shutouts, strikeouts and WAR.

The case for Tiant

Tiant was one of the best pitchers of his generation and a cultural icon, beloved for his Fu Manchu mustache and a twisting windup that let him say hello to the centerfielder. It’s no exaggeration to say that Tiant had at least six different pitches, each with three release points — over the top, three-quarters and sideways. Reggie Jackson once called him “The Fred Astaire of baseball.”

During his career — from 1964 to 1982 — Tiant was seventh in the major leagues in shutouts and 10th in wins and strikeouts. In his first seven seasons, while pitching for the Indians and Twins, he went 82-67 with a 2.88 ERA.

Later, while pitching in hitter-friendly Fenway Park, he won 20 games three times and led the league with a 1.91 ERA in 1972. Not to mention the two games he won in the 1975 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.

Based on W-L and ERA, Tiant compares favorably with two pitchers in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Jim Bunning (224-184 and 3.27) and Catfish Hunter (224-166 and 3.26).

The case against Tiant

He played for too many bad teams, got to the postseason only twice, never won the Cy Young Award and lost 20 games in 1969, his last season with Cleveland.

What the metrics say

Tiant’s career WAR is the 40th best in history among pitchers. But according to JAWS, or the Jaffe WAR Score, a metric that averages career WAR with 7-year peak WAR — Tiant compares less favorably with those already enshrined in Cooperstown.

Starting pitchers in the HOF average a 73.9 WAR, a 50.3 7-year peak WAR and a 62.1 JAWS. Tiant has a 66.7 WAR, a 44.6 7-year peak WAR and a 55.6 JAWS, making him below HOF average.

In a game judged more and more by analytics, these differences might be too much to overcome.

Greatest moment

Without doubt, the 1975 World Series. After Fidel Castro came to power, Tiant went more than a decade and half without returning home to Cuba and seeing his parents, other than one visit with his mother in Mexico City. Castro allowed Luis and Isabel to leave for the States in August of ’75, when the Red Sox were in first place in the American League East.

Not only did Tiant’s parents get to see their son pitch in a major league game, the father got to throw the ceremonial first pitch, using a full windup and insisting on a second throw when his first try was low and away. And after the Red Sox clinched the pennant by winning the ALCS, they also got to see their son start Game 1 of the World Series when, in a masterful performance, Tiant bedeviled Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Pérez and the rest of the Big Red Machine with a five-hit shutout.

“We haven’t got anybody in the National League like that, nobody who throws spinning high curveballs that take two minutes to come down!” Rose said.

To prove that the first time was no fluke, Tiant came back in Game 4 with a 155-pitch complete-game win. He also started Game 6, lasting 7.0 innings in one of the most celebrated World Series games in history, a mythical back-and-forth 12-inning affair that ended with Carlton Fisk’s solo home run after midnight.

Fact you probably don’t know

Before Big Papi, there was El Tiante, a barrel-chested, portly, cigar-smoking character who kept his teammates laughing with his pointed humor and self-deprecating jokes.

Tiant was cherished by teammates and Boston fans alike. Every time he took the mound, Fenway swayed to the chants of “Loo-Eee, Loo-Eee.” According to Peter Gammons in his book “Beyond the Sixth Game,” Carl Yastrzemski cried when he heard that the Red Sox let Tiant sign with the hated Yankees.

“They tore out our heart,” Yaz said.

Added teammate Dwight Evans, “Unless you’ve played with him, you can’t understand what Luis means to a team.”

Featured Image: MLB Photos

Inset Image: Rich Pilling / Getty Images Sport