There will never be another quite like Luis Clemente Tiant Vega, the legendary Cuban pitcher with the one-of-a-kind windup who thrived when the lights shone brightest.

Tiant died on Tuesday at age 83, survived by his wife Maria, their children Luis, Isabel, Daniel, and John Papile, and several grandchildren.

Tiant began his professional career in the Mexican league before the Cleveland Indians purchased his contract in 1962. He made his Major League debut on on July 19, 1964, and spent his first six seasons in Cleveland. He won his first of two ERA titles in 1968 with a minuscule 1.60, but when he lost an MLB-leading 20 games the following season, Cleveland traded him to Minnesota, where the Twins released him after one year due to what they believed was a career-ending broken scapula.

Boston was Tiant’s second act, one of those rare sequels that is better and more memorable than the original. The Atlanta Braves passed on him, but the Red Sox took a chance and their faith was rewarded. After a rough first season in ’71, the 31-year-old “El Tiante” posted an MLB-best 1.91 ERA over 43 games – including 19 starts, 12 games finished, 12 complete games, six shutouts, and three saves – in ’72 and was voted Comeback Player of the Year.

As the Fenway Faithful lovingly serenaded him with chants of, “Looie, Looie,” the fiery right-hander racked up 122 regular-season wins in his eight years in a Red Sox uniform. He also took one of the most impressive losses by any pitcher in MLB history. In Boston’s 15-inning 4-3 loss to the Angels on June 14, 1974, he pitched 14 ⅓ innings and threw an estimated 220 pitches, outlasting future Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, who threw 235 pitches over 13 innings.

“El Tiante” rejoined the Red Sox organization in 2001 and remained with them until his passing, working as a coach, broadcaster, and special assignment instructor: 31 years in total. He was and will remain among the most beloved figures in New England sports history, an honor rarely, if ever given to a player who leaves for the Yankees. After 63 starts and winning 25 games over the ‘77-78 seasons, Boston offered him a meager one-year deal. Tiant said, “They treated me like some old fool,” and signed with their hated rivals.

Two seasons in the Bronx, one as a Pittsburgh Pirate, and a final season with the club known then as the California Angels rounded out a 19-year career. On Sept. 4, 1982, Tiant walked off the mound for the last time. Over 573 career regular-season games, including 187 complete games and 49 shutouts, he posted a 3.30 ERA and a 229-172 record. He won two ERA titles, was a three-time All-Star, received MVP votes four times, and finished in the top-six in Cy Young voting three times.

The Red Sox were over half a century into their championship drought when Tiant pitched in his only playoff run with the club in 1975. He pitched the entirety of Game 1 of the ALCS, holding Oakland to one unearned run on three hits. Then, he threw a complete-game shutout against the Cincinnati Reds in Game 1 of the World Series. He went the distance in Game 4 as well, throwing 155 pitches, and gave Boston another seven innings in Game 6. The Red Sox won all four of his games that October before falling to the Reds in a heartbreaking Game 7. He never made it back to the postseason.

Tiant was born in Marianao, Cuba on Nov. 23, 1940. When Fidel Castro imposed travel bans upon Cuba after the Bay of Pigs crisis in 1961, Tiant was told by his father not to come home. They wouldn’t see each other again for over a decade.

As the Red Sox closed in on the American League pennant in the summer of ’75, US Sen. George McGovern visited Cuba to meet with Castro. He also delivered a letter from Sen. Edward Brooke III of Massachusetts, who wanted the Cuban dictator to permit Luis Sr. and Isabel Tiant to leave Cuba so they could finally see their son pitch.

Castro, a devoted baseball fan, not only granted the request, but gave the Tiants permission to remain in Boston indefinitely. On Aug. 21, they landed at Logan Airport and were finally reunited with their son. Five days later, the elder Tiant donned a Red Sox cap and threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Fenway. That October, he watched proudly as his son pitched in the World Series.

As a young man, Tiant moved to two foreign countries, dealt with a language barrier, racism, loneliness, and the fear that he might never see his family or set foot in his homeland again. His eventual reunion with his parents was short-lived; Luis Sr. and Isabel never returned to Cuba, but in December 1976, they passed away within three days of one another.

Throughout his life, Tiant remained kind-hearted, good-humored, and true to his unique self. He grew a horseshoe mustache in the 70s and kept it for the rest of his life. He smoked his cigars anywhere he could, including in the clubhouse whirlpool. He gave his Red Sox teammates nicknames, calling catcher Carlton Fisk ‘Frankenstein.’

In his Hall of Fame speech in 2000, Fisk described Tiant thusly: “The best and most colorful pitcher I ever caught, and the best and most colorful pitcher in Red Sox history.”

Tiant was a fixture at every spring training and Fenway Park every year. He drove the golf cart around the Red Sox’s Fort Myers complex, often wearing his oversized leather bomber with a fur collar. When he wasn’t observing and helping players, he’d sit with former teammate Jim Rice, cracking wise and telling stories to anyone fortunate enough to be in his warm and magnetic presence.

Fans who went to his ‘El Tiante’s’ stand on Jersey Street to purchase Cuban sandwiches at Red Sox games would often find the man himself sitting next to the booth, always happy to pose for photos. Less than two weeks ago on the final day of the 2024 MLB season, he sat in the Legends’ Suite at Fenway Park, waved to the adoring crowd, and watched the Red Sox win one last game.

Luis Clemente Tiant Vega had two dreams. The first was to return to Cuba, which he was finally able to do in 2007.

The second was to be enshrined with his fellow greats in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He’s in the Red Sox Hall of Fame and the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame, but Cooperstown is long overdue. Tiant has more wins than any Cuban-born pitcher in MLB history. He threw more complete games than Don Sutton, Don Drysdale, Lefty Gomez, and Dizzy Dean, and more shutouts than Bob Feller, Whitey Ford, Catfish Hunter, and Sandy Koufax. All of them received their bronze plaques long ago.

“I’d love to be in the Hall of Fame someday,” Tiant told the Herald when his name was on the Golden Era ballot in November 2018. “I just hope they do it before I die, so I can drive out to Cooperstown with my family.”