The former Portland Beavers star who brought the Red Sox to the brink of a title has died at age 83

BOSTON – Luis Tiant, the charismatic Cuban with the horseshoe mustache and mesmerizing turn-out, who played for the Portland Beavers, brought the Red Sox to the brink of a World Series championship and threw himself on the doorstep of the Baseball Hall of Fame, is died. He was 83.

Major League Baseball announced his death in a post on X on Tuesday, and the Red Sox confirmed he died at his home in Maine.

“Today is a very sad day,” Boston and California teammate Fred Lynn wrote on .”

With a swaggering style and an iconic wobbling windup that froze hitters in the box, “El Tiante” was a three-time All-Star and four-time 20-game winner. His greatest single season came in 1968 with Cleveland, when he went 21-9 with 19 complete games and nine shutouts – four of them consecutive. His 1.60 ERA was the best in the AL in half a century and he finished fifth in AL Most Valuable Player voting; 31-game winner Denny McLain won it as well as the league's Cy Young Award.

These performances, along with Bob Gibson's 1.12 ERA in the Netherlands, earned 1968 the nickname “Year of the Pitcher” and helped convince baseball to lower the pitching mound to give batters more chances. Regardless, Tiant won the AL ERA title again in 1972 with a 1.91 mark for the Red Sox (losing the Cy Young to Gaylord Perry with a 1.92 ERA and 24 wins).

“Luis embodied everything we love about the game: resilience, passion and an undeniable sense of belonging to something bigger than himself,” said Red Sox chairman Tom Werner. “But what made Luis unforgettable was his vibrant personality. He was a gifted storyteller who always told stories filled with humor, honesty and an enduring loyalty to his teammates. We are all deeply saddened by his death. We lost one of the greats today.”

The younger Tiant, the son of a Negro League star, was 229-172 overall with a 3.30 ERA and 2,416 strikeouts. In his 19-year career, spent mostly with Cleveland and the Red Sox, he pitched 187 complete games and 47 shutouts. He also had two stints with the Portland Beavers, going 15-1 with a 2.04 ERA in 1964 and 13-7 with a 3.82 ERA in 1981.

Tiant's death comes a week after the death of baseball's all-time scoring leader Pete Rose, whose Cincinnati Reds faced Tiant's Red Sox in the 1975 World Series – what is still considered one of the greatest matchups in baseball postseason history.

Tiant shut out the Reds in Game 1, threw 155 pitches in another complete game victory in Game 4, and was back on the mound for eight innings in Game 6, which Boston won on a Carlton Fisk home run in the bottom of the 12th. The '75 Series, which Cincinnati won in seven games, is often considered the best of all time.

It was also a national coming out party for Tiant's special appearance, in which he wiggled his hands as he reached the designated position and then turned his back to the batter before throwing. The proposal would be emulated by generations of children in New England and across the country, but Tiant himself was unsurpassed.

“Luis had an unforgettable presence that made you feel like you were part of his world,” said Red Sox owner John Henry. “He put everything into his love for the game and the people around him. He was magnetic and had a smile that could light up Fenway Park.”

After retiring in 1982, Tiant worked as a minor league coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox and was the pitching coach for Nicaragua at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He remained active in spring training with the Red Sox and was visible around Fenway Park, often signing autographs at the ballpark's El Tiante Cuban sandwich stand before games.

Tiant was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame but never reached the National Shrine in Cooperstown, New York, receiving a high of 30.9% of the vote in 1988, his first year of election. He was also reviewed and rejected three times by veterans committees.

“A hard day to hear of the death of Luis Tiant. “A former player we loved coming into the clubhouse,” tweeted former Red Sox infielder Kevin Youkilis. “Always making jokes with that infectious laugh and saying, 'Man, you're a sick puppy!' Forever grateful for the time we shared with a legend. May his memory be a blessing!”

–Jimmy Golen | AP Sports Writer