Luis Tiant won 229 games, with 2,416 strikeouts, a 3.30 ERA, 187 complete games and 49 shutouts. He was a three-time All-Star for and four-time 20-game winner. He was the American League (AL) ERA leader in 1968 and 1972 and the AL leader in shutouts in 1966, 1968, and 1974.
In today’s game, where you can win a Cy Young award with zero shutouts and zero complete games, those stats would send you straight to the Hall of Fame but Tiant was not elected to the Hall of Fame.
In 1968, Tiant Led the American League in ERA (1.60), shutouts (nine, including four consecutive), hits per nine innings (5.30) and strikeouts per nine innings (9.22), while finishing with a 21–9 record. His .168 opponent batting average set a new major league record, and his 19 strikeout/10 inning performance against the Minnesota Twins on July 3 set the American League record for strikeouts in a game. His 1.60 ERA iwas the lowest in the AL in nearly half a century (since Walter Johnson’s dead-ball era 1.49 in 1919).
He did not win the 1968 Cy Young Award because Denny McClain of the Detroit Tigers won 31 games in 1968, won the AL Cy Young Award (unanimously) and the AL MVP.
RIP Luis Tiant
