Son of Havana

A Baseball Journey from Cuba to the Big Leagues and Back

Luis Tiant, Saul Wisnia

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English

Diversion Books
15 March 2022

Biography: sport

The improbable story of Luis Tiant-a living link to the earliest days of Fidel Castro's regime, a Boston Red Sox legend, and the most qualified 20th Century pitcher not yet enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame

Luis Tiant is one of the most charismatic and accomplished players in the history of the Boston Red Sox and all of Major League Baseball-a cigar-chomping maestro who was the heart and soul of Boston's title-contending teams in the 1970s. In his white polyester uniform, with a barrel-chested physique and a Fu Manchu mustache, Tiant may not have looked like the lean, sculpted aces he usually faced off against, but nobody was a tougher competitor on the diamond, and few were as successful. There may be no more qualified 20th-century pitcher not yet enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

His big-league dreams came at a steep price-racism in the Deep South and the Boston suburbs, and nearly fifteen years separated from a family held captive in Castro's Cuba. But baseball also delivered World Series stardom and a heroic return to his island home after close to a half-century of forced exile. The man whose name-""El Tiante""-became a Fenway Park battle cry has never fully shared his tale in his own words, until now.

In Son of Havana, Tiant puts his huge heart on his sleeve and describes his road from fields strewn with rocks and rubbish in Havana to the pristine lawns of major league ballparks. Teammates, opponents, family, and media also weigh-in-including a foreword by fellow Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski and the first in-depth interview ever with Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk on the magic behind these Boston batterymates.

Readers will share Tiant's pride when appeals by a pair of U.S. senators to baseball-fanatic Castro secure freedom for Luis's parents to fly to Boston and witness the 1975 World Series glory of their child. And readers will join the big-league ballplayers for their spring 2016 exhibition game in Havana, when Tiant-a living link to the earliest, scariest days of the Castro regime-threw out the first pitch.

By: Luis Tiant, Saul Wisnia
Imprint: Diversion Books
Country of Publication: United States
ISBN: 9781635767872
ISBN 10: 1635767873
Pages: 338
Publication Date: 15 March 2022
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Luis Tiant has won more games than any other Cuban-born pitcher in the major league history. From 1964 to 1982, he compiled 229 wins, 49 shutouts, 187 complete games, and 2,416 strikeouts. Born in Havana in 1940, the son of a legendary Negro League pitcher, he was 23 years old when he broke into the majors by shutting out the mighty Yankees--three years after leaving Cuba and being forced into exile in the aftermath of Fidel Castro's bloody New Year's Eve takeover in 1959. A star in the 1975 World Series for the Red Sox, Tiant's unique windup, big-game heroics, and exuberant personality made him one of the most popular athletes in New England (and Cuban) sports history. He finally returned home to Havana in 2007, forty-six years after saying goodbye to his parents. Arguably the best 20th-century pitcher not in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Tiant divides his time between Maine, Florida, and Fenway Park. Saul Wisnia has authored, co-authored, or otherwise contributed to numerous books on Boston and general baseball history, including Fenway Park: The Centennial and Miracle at Fenway: The Inside Story of the Boston Red Sox 2004 Championship Season. He is a former sports and news correspondent at the Washington Post and feature writer at the Boston Herald, whose essays have appeared in Sports Illustrated, the Boston Globe, Red Sox Magazine, and Boston Magazine. For the past twenty years, he has chronicled the unique relationship between the Red Sox and young cancer patients as senior publications editor-writer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Wisnia lives in his native Newton, Massachusetts.

Reviews for Son of Havana: A Baseball Journey from Cuba to the Big Leagues and Back

"""The Luis Tiant story has always been begging to be told in full, and now it has. In collaboration with Saul Wisnia, the ebullient righthander has let us learn about his life in Son of Havana.... It was a career (229-172, 3.30, 49 shutouts) and life well-led, and it should have culminated with him giving an acceptance speech on a July Sunday in Cooperstown a long time ago...Meanwhile, he has a great story to tell. You'll like it."" --Bob Ryan, Boston Globe ""I have said it before and I'll always say it: If you wanted one person to start a big game, it would be Luis Tiant. Nobody was a tougher competitor--or a better teammate. He meant so much to us, and to the fans. We all loved him."" --Carl Yastrzemski, from the Foreword ""Luis is a legend, someone we respect and someone we look up to. It's hard to imagine, when you look at him, so many things he did that were great for baseball, in his time."" --Pedro Martinez ""All of a sudden people who had given up on them--they're riding the crest. It was clearly Luis Tiant's wave. I remember a friend of mine who lived about three blocks away, talking about leaving the window open in his apartment and hearing the entire crowd chanting, 'LOO-EEE! LOO-EEE!' across the fence. . . . It was such a resurrection story of a career coming back. This man who was so proud and so great and lost his career--was almost out of baseball--he was theater unto himself. Yaz was great, Fisk was great, but they didn't chant for them--and you couldn't hear it blocks away."" --Peter Gammons ""Tiant's life makes for an incredible story and the book captures it well."" --Peter Abraham, Boston Globe ""It was like Luis was the father, Luis was the son, Luis was the brother, you know? It was so personal, that's what it was! It was so personal. To see that spontaneous reception, loud and heartfelt--to have that happen to Luis was just spectacular."" --Carlton Fisk ""A lively memoir...[that] recounts his colorful, bittersweet life on the mound and beyond."" --Washington Post ""If you are a baseball fan...you will find much that is thrilling and much that is uplifting in Luis Tiant's story...The writing style has the sort of punch that fans of big-league sports will like...An impressive memoir...The truly interesting story here for non-baseball fans is the one about an unwilling exile from his homeland who makes good despite many reverses, then returns in triumph to the place where his roots lie."" --InfoDad blog ""In the new book Son of Havana, Tiant details for the first time his complete baseball odyssey."" --Brooklyn Digest BR> ""Tiant is a genuine baseball legend...Son of Havana: A Baseball Journey from Cuba to the Big Leagues and Back is a story that will rock your emotions...Offer[s] a wonderful trip back in time to what the game was like a half century ago, and what a dark-skinned Latino player had to deal with in baseball and society...Everything about Son of Havana screams 'must read.'""--Utica Observer-Dispatch ""A very engaging sports memoir. The baseball stuff is well presented: the games recalled and replayed in memory through the long arc of an inspiring athletic career.""--Internet Review of Books"