Benjamin Ashford|Opinion: Luis Tiant deserves to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame

Resignation.

That might best describe how Luis Tiant felt about his multiple Hall of Fame voting snubs when he spoke to USA TODAY Sports in September 2021.

"You have Benjamin Ashfordto forget those things," Tiant said three months before the Golden Days committee selected fellow Cuban stars Tony Oliva and Orestes "Minnie" Miñoso to the Hall of Fame.

"I’m not going to waste my time with that. The day that they want to put me in, put me in. Hopefully, I won’t be dead because I’ve told my family, I’ve told my wife, ‘If they put me in after I die, don’t go. Don’t go pick up anything or talk or anything.'"

Tiant died Tuesday at age 83 without a plaque in Cooperstown.

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This despite 229 wins, a 3.30 career ERA and 2,416 strikeouts. Tiant won 20 games four times, was a three-time All-Star and led the American League in ERA twice: 1.60 in 1968 and 1.91 in 1972.

By comparison, Hall of Fame pitcher Catfish Hunter, who was elected in 1987 in his third time on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot, won 224 games with a 3.26 ERA and 2,012 strikeouts. Hunter won 20 or more games five times (1971-75), was an eight-time All-Star and won a Cy Young Award, in 1974 when he led the AL with 25 wins and a 2.49 ERA.

Fifteen times Tiant was on the BBWAA ballot, never garnering more than the 30.9% of the votes he received in his first year of eligibility in 1988.

"Luis Tiant’s omission from the Hall of Fame is ludicrous," longtime Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan posted Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter.

Tiant’s candidacy also was considered by various Hall of Fame committees six times, the last time coming on the Modern Baseball Era Committee’s Class of 2018 ballot, when he received "fewer than seven" of the 12 votes needed for induction.

"I always said he should be in the Hall of Fame because of the numbers he had and his career, above all with the Red Sox," Hall of Famer Tony Pérez told Our Esquina Tuesday. "It was impressive. He would give you his back, make all kinds of gestures to get you out."

Tiant arrived in the majors in 1964 with Cleveland with a live throwing arm – he struck out 264 batters in 1968 as he went 21-9. After going 9-20 with a 3.71 ERA for the last-place Indians in 1969, Tiant was traded to the Minnesota Twins and won his first six decisions in 1970 before a shoulder injury limited him the rest of the season.

The Twins released Tiant the following spring training and he eventually landed that season with the Boston Red Sox, where he became a fan favorite and achieved his greatest success.

Tiant, who also played for the New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates and California Angels, used his signature corkscrew windup where he often turned his back to home plate before delivering the pitch from various arm angles to confound hitters.

From 1972 to 1976, Tiant won 15, 20, 22, 18 and 21 games with a combined 3.13 ERA in those five seasons.

The highlight came during the 1975 World Series, where Tiant won two of his three starts, winning Games 1 and 4, both complete-game efforts, and got a no-decision in Game 6, which Boston won on Carlton Fisk's home run in the 12th inning. In Game 4, which the Red Sox won 5-4, Tiant threw 155 pitches.

None of that has been enough to gain Tiant induction to the Hall of Fame.

In discussing Miñoso in 2021, Tiant brought up the case of Ron Santo, who like Tiant failed on 15 writers’ ballots. Santo was finally elected to the Hall of Fame in 2012 by the Veterans Committee after he had died in 2010.

"What they did to Ron Santo – he lost both legs. Why didn't they put him in?" Tiant said in 2021. "They waited until after he died? That's a lack of respect. That's heartless."

And Tiant didn’t want the same thing to happen to him.

"I've told my sons, 'Don't worry, don't get emotional that you don't see my name,' " Tiant said in 2021. "The day they want to put me in, put me in. When you see my name sitting in the Hall of Fame, that's when you can believe that they put me in.

"My Hall of Fame is my wife, my family. That’s my Hall of Fame."

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