Boston Red Sox: 30 Greatest Players in Team History
20: Luis Tiant, SP (1971-1981)
Luis Tiant, or El Tiante, only spent eight of his 19 MLB seasons with the Red Sox, but his time in Boston was almost in arguably the most memorable time period of his career.
Arguably the best year of his entire career came with the Red Sox in 1972, when Tiant went 15-6 with a 1.91 ERA.
While with the Red Sox, Tiant was the team’s ace, and would pitch in some big games for the Red Sox back in the 1970’s. Most memorably was Tiant throwing a complete game three hitter in the 1975 ALCS against the three-time defending World Series champion Oakland Athletics. Tiant allowed only one unearned run in that game, and was the driving force to send them to the World Series.
He would follow-up that performance starting in Game 1 of the World Series by beating the Reds 6-0 only allowing 5 hits while shutting out the likes Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, and Joe Morgan. The Red Sox could not win the World Series that season, but it was through no fault of Tiant’s, who pitched well in his following three starts of the series.
Tiant has not been inducted into the Cooperstown since his retirement, but in 1997 he was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame as well as being inducted into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002.
Bio on Tiant was given by DJ Smith. Check out his work, and give him a follow on Twitter, @dj_smitty.
Next: Number 19