Page 97 - 1975 BoSox

90 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
ough his mother had visited Mexico City to visit Luis and his family in 1968 (his father was reportedly jailed, with his release only assured on her return), Luis had not seen his father in 14 years. A renowned jokester, his mood darkened when he thought of his homeland and his parents. In December 1974 he told Boston Herald reporter Joe Fitzgerald: “My father is going to be 70 years old soon, and I don’t know how many years he has left. He’s working down there at a garage, serving gas, and I can’t even send him a dime for a cup of co ee on Christmas.”13 Luis spoke of his parents often, and had been led to believe many times over the years that a reunion could be arranged. When asked about his namesake, Luis would say, “I am nowhere near the pitcher my father was.”
In May 1975 US Sen. George McGovern (D-South Dakota) made an uno cial visit to Cuba to see Fidel Castro. While it was not the reason for his trip, he carried with him a letter from his Senate colleague, Edward Brooke III (R-Massachusetts), making a personal plea that Luis’s parents be allowed to visit their son in Boston. e letter suggested that “Luis’ career as a major league pitcher is in its latter years” and “he is hopeful that his parents will be able to visit him during this current baseball season.”14 e very next day, Castro approved the request and put the diplomatic wheels in motion for a visit.
After several delays and postponements, Isabel and the elder Luis touched down in Boston’s Logan Airport on August 21. eir son, with his wife, Maria, his three children, and dozens of reporters and camera- men, greeted them. As witnessed in homes all over New England, Luis embraced his father and shame- lessly wept. Isabel told her son, “I’m so happy I don’t care if I die now.”15
On August 26 the Red Sox arranged for Luis’s parents to be introduced to the crowd and for his father to throw out a ceremonial rst pitch. After a prolonged ovation, the 69-year-old Tiant, standing on the Fenway Park mound adorned in a brown suit and Red Sox cap, took o his coat and handed it to his son. He went into his full windup and red a fastball to catcher Tim Blackwell — alas, low and away. Looking vaguely
annoyed, he asked for the ball back. Once more he used his full windup, and oated a knuckleball across the heart of the plate. e fans roared as he left the eld. His son later commented, “He told me he was ready to go four or ve innings anytime.”16
e younger Tiant was hit hard that night and again four days later. e whispers in the press box included the lament that it was a shame that his parents had not gotten here a year earlier, when Luis was still an e ective pitcher. At this point, Luis (with a record of 15-13 and an ERA of 4.36) took 10 days o to rest his aching back.
On September 11 manager Darrell Johnson decided to give Luis one last chance to get it going, against the Tigers. e Red Sox lead, once as high as nine games, was now ve. Luis responded with 72⁄3 innings of no-hit ball before allowing a run and three hits. When asked about the hit by Aurelio Rodriguez that ruined the no-hitter, Luis’s father responded, “Don’t talk about a lucky hit. e man hit the ball pretty good.”17
Luis’s next start, on September 16, was the biggest game of the year and one of the legendary games in the history of Fenway Park. e hard charging Orioles, now 41⁄2 games out, were in town and Jim Palmer faced Tiant. Many observers claim that there were well over 40,000 people in the park that night, several thousand over its o cial capacity. Predictably, Tiant pitched his rst shutout of the year, a 2-0 ve-hitter, and the crowd chanted all evening (“Loo-Eee, Loo- Eee, Loo-Eee”). Later in the month Tiant pitched another shutout against Cleveland, and the Red Sox won the pennant by 41⁄2 games.
After these three remarkable performances,Tiant was the obvious choice to start the rst game of the divi- sional playo s. He three-hit the Athletics to spark a Red Sox sweep. One week later he began the 1975 World Series with a ve-hit shutout of the Cincinnati Reds. In Game Four, in perhaps the quintessential performance of his career, Luis threw 163 pitches, worked out of jams in nearly every inning, and recorded a complete-game 5-4 win. He could not hold a 3-0 lead in Game Six, and was nally removed trailing