"Luis Tiant turned, twisted and spun his way to a 13-8 record last season, delighting the partisans at Yankee Stadium. His record fooled those who felt he was nearing the end ... but deception is his trademark. If you expect a fastball, you're guaranteed something off-speed and if you expect Luis Tiant to confess his real age, he'll tell you to check his birth certificate. (For the record, it says he's 39 years old.) It's hard to pin down the Grand Old Man.
His finest single-game performance last season was against the Oakland A's when Looie beat them with a one-hitter on July 8. Down the backstretch of his 16th big league season, Luis won his final three decisions and six of his last eight. Not bad for someone who almost faded from the game just a decade ago.
Luis came up in 1964 with the Indians, posting a 10-4 record and a 2.83 ERA, including a three-hit, 11-strikeout shutout performance over the Yankees in his major league debut. He played with the Tribe for five more years, posting a 75-64 record over that span. In 1970, Luis found himself pitching for the Minnesota Twins and he posted a 7-3 record with a respectable 3.39 ERA. The next season, Minnesota released Luis and he pitched in the Braves farm system, winding up the year with the Red Sox. He stayed with Boston for seven-plus seasons, compiling a 121-74 record before his arrival in the Big Apple.
After his playing career, Luis will be the Yankees' Director of Latin American Affairs and a finer ambassador you'll never meet."
-The New York Yankees Official 1980 Yearbook
"In his first year with the Yankees in 1979, Tiant matched his 1978 season with the Red Sox. He had an identical 13-8 mark in two fewer appearances.
Luis lost his Yankee debut on April 13, 12-2 in Chicago, then had four no-decisions before recording his first Yankee win on May 22 at Detroit. He finished strong for the Yanks, winning his final three decisions and six of his last eight. Over his final 21 starts, Luis was 12-6 with a 3.49 ERA, lowering his final ERA from 5.24 to 3.91; he got as low as 3.50 at one point last year, after beating the A's, 10-2 on July 19.
Tiant pitched his low-hit game of the year against the A's on July 8, beating them 2-0 in Oakland with a 1-hitter, with only a fourth-inning single by Rickey Henderson. It was the third 1-hitter of his career. Luis had three three-game win streaks in '79, and his best strikeout game was a 9-K performance against the Twins on August 25. He had his best 1979 success against the Blue Jays, going 4-0 against them with a 2.12 ERA (he has never lost to the Jays, going 7-0 lifetime). He was 2-0 over the A's with a 1.00 ERA.
In a move that shocked the fans of Boston, the popular Tiant joined the Yankees over the winter of 1978. He had joined baseball's exclusive '200 Club' that year when he beat Nolan Ryan and the Angels in Anaheim on August 16.
Tiant made one of the greatest comebacks in sports history when he was unconditionally released by Minnesota in March 1971 and by Atlanta that May. He caught on with Louisville in the Red Sox system and then came to Boston, where he ran up a 122-81 record in eight years. He had a great year in his first full season in Boston in 1972, going 15-6 and leading the league with a 1.91 ERA. Luis had 20 win seasons in 1973, '74 and '76, and is one of only six pitchers ever to win 100 games for the Red Sox.
1979 was Tiant's 21st year in professional baseball; he started with the Mexico City Tigers in 1959. His first major league team was the Cleveland Indians, who traded him to the Minnesota Twins, along with Yankee pitching coach Stan Williams, for Dean Chance, Bob Miller, Ted Uhlaender and Graig Nettles on December 12, 1969. Tiant has 49 career shutouts through 1979, second to Jim Palmer's 51 among active A.L. pitchers. He has now won at least 10 games for eight straight years.
Luis was 2-0 in the 1975 World Series and is undefeated in postseason play (1-0 in LCS). He appeared in the 1968, '74 and '76 All-Star Games.
He was 10-4 in his first year in the big leagues in 1964 with Cleveland and pitched a 3-hit, 11-K shutout over the Yankees in his first major league game. In addition to his three 1-hitters, Luis has pitched seven 2-hitters. His career strikeout high was a 19 strikeout performance against the Twins on July 3, 1968 while with Cleveland; he had struck out 13 in his previous start on June 29. Those two games tied the major league record for strikeouts in consecutive games (32).
Tiant led the American League in shutouts with seven in 1974, with nine in 1968 and tied for the lead with five in 1966. He was named the Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year in 1972.
He had a no-hitter in his minor league career beating Winston-Salem, 4-0 on May 7, 1963 while pitching for Burlington. Tiant lists his greatest thrill in baseball as pitching before his father in the 1975 World Series. A White Sox fan as a youngster, Rod Carew and Mickey Rivers go down as his toughest opponents.
This is the second year of a two-year contract Luis signed with the Yankees. He will serve as the Yankees' Director of Latin American Affairs for 10 years after he is done playing."
-New York Yankees 1980 Media Guide
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