Luis Eleuterio Tiant Bravo
[ (; August 27, 1906 – December 10, 1976), also known as Luis Tiant Sr., was a ]Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
n professional baseball
Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world.
Moder ...
pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...
in Negro league baseball
The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relativel ...
, the Cuban League
The Cuban League ( Spanish: ''Liga cubana'') was one of the earliest and longest lasting professional baseball leagues outside the United States, operating in Cuba from 1878 to 1961. The schedule usually operated during the winter months, so the ...
, the Mexican League
The Mexican Baseball League (, or LMB, ) is a professional baseball league in Mexico. It is the oldest running professional sports league in the country.
The league has 20 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games ...
, and in the Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...
. He also performed with barnstorming teams.
Career
Tiant's career extended from 1926 through 1948. In the Negro leagues, he played for the Havana Red Sox, Cuban Stars West, Cuban House of David/Pollock's Cuban Stars, and New York Cubans
The New York Cubans were a Negro league baseball team that played during the 1930s and from 1939 to 1950. Despite playing in the Negro leagues, the team occasionally employed white-skinned Hispanic baseball players as well, because Hispanics pl ...
, between 1928 and 1947.[SABR BioProject: Luis E. Tiant](_blank)
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Tiant featured a screwball
A screwball is a baseball and fastpitch softball pitch that is thrown so as to break in the opposite direction of a slider or curveball. Depending on the pitcher's arm angle, the ball may also have a sinking action. The pitch is sometimes known ...
. Bill James
George William James (born October 5, 1949) is an American baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books about baseball history and statistics. His a ...
and Rob Neyer ranked it the seventh-best screwball of all time.
Personal life
Tiant's son, Luis Clemente Tiant, was a major league starting pitcher from 1964 to 1982. In August 1975, the elder Tiant and his wife were granted permission by Cuban leader Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...
to visit the United States, so they could watch their son pitch in the major leagues. The Tiants' visit to the US is featured in the 2009 documentary film about their son, ''The Lost Son of Havana''.
The elder Tiants remained in the US, and the elder Luis died 16 months later in Milton, Massachusetts
Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Milton is an immediate southern suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. The population was 28,630 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census.
Milton is located in the relatively hilly ...
. His wife died three days later. They were funeralized at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Milton.
References
Further reading
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External links
an
Baseball-Reference Black Baseball stats
an
Seamheads
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tiant, Luis Sr.
1906 births
1976 deaths
20th-century Cuban sportsmen
Baseball pitchers
Baseball players from Havana
Cuban baseball players
Cuban expatriate baseball players in Mexico
Cuban expatriate baseball players in the Dominican Republic
Cuban expatriate baseball players in the United States
Cuban House of David players
Cuban Stars (West) players
Negro league baseball players from Cuba
New York Cubans players
Pollock's Cuban Stars players