Luis Tiant, Cuban Legend of MLB, Dies at 83

October 8, 2024

The greatest Cuban pitcher in Major League Baseball history, Luis Tiant, passed away in recent hours at the age of 83, confirmed by several sources from the United States, the country where he had resided for decades.

Journalist Francys Romero noted that the right-hander born in Marianao on November 23, 1940, was experiencing kidney problems, although it has not yet been revealed if that was the cause of his death.

"El Tiante" made his MLB debut on July 19, 1964, wearing the uniform of the Cleveland Indians and pitched his last game on September 4, 1982, with the California Angels.

In 19 seasons at the highest level, he achieved 229 victories (49 of them shutouts) distributed across six organizations, which also include the Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and Pittsburgh Pirates.

He was selected for three All-Star Games (1968, 1974, and 1976) and on two occasions was the American League ERA leader (1968, 1972). He worked a total of 3,486.1 innings, in which he allowed 1,400 earned runs, for a remarkable ERA of 3.30. Likewise, he recorded 2,416 strikeouts and issued only 1,104 walks.

Although he never received enough votes to be inducted into the American Baseball Hall of Fame, the Boston Red Sox inducted him into theirs in 1997.

He has been the subject of several books and audiovisual products, such as the autobiographies El Tiante and Hijo de La Habana, or the documentary El hijo perdido de La Habana.

There is no other pitcher born in Cuba with better numbers than Tiant in MLB. Fortunately, his story with the island's fans was able to be rescued many years later, when he threw the first pitch of the historic game between the island team and the Tampa Bay Rays in March 2016, in the presence of then-presidents Raul Castro and Barack Obama.