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Luis Tiant, a 19-year-old major league player and pitching legend, dies at 83

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Luis Tiant, a 19-year-old major league player and pitching legend, dies at 83

Luis Tiant, whose unexpected twist of fate helped him to 229 wins in his 19-year major league career, has died. He was 83.

The Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Guardians confirmed the right-hander's death on Tuesday.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Luis Tiant,” the Red Sox said in a statement on X. “Everyone who met him on or off the mound knew he was a true force. A fixture in Fenway and Fort Myers.” Beyond his playing days, El Tiante was a member of the family. We send our love to our wife Maria, her children and grandchildren.

The Cuban-born Tiant was a four-time 20-game winner, a three-time All-Star and led the American League in ERA twice – 1.60 in 1968 with Cleveland and 1.91 in 1972 in Boston, where he became a legend and Became a fan favorite. He helped lead the Red Sox to the 1975 World Championship.

He won 18 games with a 4.02 ERA that season, after winning 20 games (3.34 ERA) in 1973 and 22 games with a 2.92 ERA in 1974. In the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, Tiant won two of his three starts, winning Games 1 and 4, both complete game tries, and receiving a no-decision in Game 6, which Boston won on Carlton Fisk's 12th-inning home run.

Tiant went 21-12 with a 3.06 ERA in 1976. In eight seasons with the Red Sox, he went 122-81 with a 3.36 ERA and earned All-Star nods in 1974 and 1976. He was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1997.

Tiant's other 20-win season came in 1968, when he went 21-9. He struck out 2,416 batters and finished his career with a 3.30 ERA in 573 appearances (484 starts).

Tiant played for Cleveland (1964-69), Minnesota (1970), Boston (1971-78), the New York Yankees (1979-80), the Pittsburgh Pirates (1981) and the California Angels (1982).

In 15 years of voting for the Baseball Writers' Association of America Hall of Fame, Tiant never received more than the 30.9% of the vote he received in his first year on the ballot in 1988, and missed induction in six committee elections.

Fellow Cuban players Tony Oliva and Orestes “Minnie” Miñoso were elected to the Hall of Fame in 2021 by the Early Days Committee. The last time Tiant participated in a committee vote was in 2018.

“I told my sons, 'Don't worry, don't get emotional because you don't see my name,'” Tiant told USA TODAY in 2021 about not being elected to the Hall of Fame. “The day they want to put me in, put me in. Hopefully I won’t be dead.”

Reuters contributed to this report..

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