Luis Tiant, the Boston Red Sox pitching hero, died on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, though a cause of death was not announced. He was 83 years old.

Nicknamed “El Tiante,” he spent 19 seasons playing Major League Baseball with eight of those seasons in Boston. Tiant won 229 games during his career and had a career ERA of 3.30. He had 2,416 strikeouts, he threw 49 shutouts, he pitched 187 complete games, and had four seasons with at least 20 wins. Tiant was a three-time All-Star and won two ERA titles in the American League.

Luis Clemente Tiant Vega was born on November 23, 1940 in Marianao, Cuba. Tiant made the Cuban Juvenile League All-Star team in ’57 when he was 16 years old, and he was picked up by the Mexico City Tigers. He played three seasons with the Havana Sugar Kings and was picked up by Cleveland to play in their farm system.

Tiant’s Major League career began with six seasons with the Cleveland Indians, then he pitched a season at Minnesota before landing with the Red Sox in ’71. After leaving the Red Sox, he pitched two years with the New York Yankees from ’79 to ’80, one with the Pittsburgh Pirates in ’81, and his final season was with the California Angels in ’82.

Once he retired from playing, Tiant was a Minor League pitching coach with the LA Dodgers and Chicago White Sox’s farm systems, and he was the pitching coach for Nicaragua during the ’96 Olympics. He was the head coach for the Savannah College of Art and Design baseball team, he was a pitching coach for Boston’s Lowell Spinners, and was a special assignment instructor for the Red Sox.

Tiant was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in ’97 and was also a member of the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Hall of Fame. Despite being on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for 15 years, he was never inducted.