The forgotten Yankees pitcher who should be in the Hall of Fame

The vast majority of Baseball Hall of Fame discourse centers around the BBWAA ballot, featuring a slew of recently retired players and adding new names every year. That's where Yankees ace CC Sabathia finds himself in 2025, and don't worry, we have plenty more time to debate that.

While nothing will be announced on that front until late January, as ballot tracking ascends to a fever pitch, the Hall has a much closer announcement to make, as the Classic Baseball Era Committee has a meeting scheduled for Sunday and a determination to make.

Once called the Veterans Committee as a blanket descriptor, retired players, executives and luminaries now gather annually to debate the merits of a more specialized group of candidates: eight greats broken down by different periods in the game's history. Though this year's group is comprised mostly of (relatively) modern options, five of the eight nominees have passed away, diminishing some of the celebratory joy surrounding their possible selections. There's just ... a difference between watching one of the game's greats summon unbridled joy at receiving recognition, and watching his family sadly reckon with the fact that another midsummer memorial just popped up on their schedule.

Unfortunately, the latter is what might be in store for the most prominent ex-Yankee on the ballot: Luis Tiant, whose windup defied the written word. Tiant was better known as a Red Sox (1971-1978) and Cleveland righty (1964-1969), but he actually defected to the Bronx after Boston lost the one-game Bucky Dent Playoff. If you grew up in that era, that one-two punch is likely a prominent reason you despise the Yankees (sorry, but not at all sorry).

Tiant's passing was announced on Oct. 8, two months before the committee was set to debate his merits. Though he's a bit light on accolades (three All-Star selections) and the type of counting numbers that used to make or doom a case (229-172 record), Tiant's resume has only been emboldened by the way that modern assessors view starting pitching.

It has also been emboldened by the fantastical nature of the myths that surround his remarkably unique career. If you're telling the story of baseball, why would you have any desire to exclude Luis Tiant and his whimsy from the narrative?

Former Yankees, Red Sox Luis Tiant deserves Hall of Fame consideration on Dec. 8

People don't typically limit damage as well as Tiant without earning recognition from their peers. People also don't typically rise from the field into the shrine of the eternals without the Hall of Fame smiling and nodding along the way. Anyone who watched Tiant deal for the mid-70s Red Sox, with his endless leg kicks, buffet of windups, and displays of torsion knew they were watching the most important pitcher in the world, at that moment in time. That deserves a bronze plaque.

Though his Yankees career is often thought of as a footnote in his tenure, he did reserve a bit more magic for 1979 before the wheels fell off in 1980, Tiant's age-39 season. He threw 195 2/3 innings across 30 starts in '79, registering a 3.91 ERA. Perhaps more importantly from a rivalry perspective, he deflated the Boston clubhouse by defecting after feeling disrespected by the Red Sox flimsy one-year offer.

As Carl Yastrzemski put it, retelling his tale to the Boston Globe, "When they let Luis Tiant go to New York they tore out our heart and soul."

While David Cone may be the greatest Yankee pitcher to be locked out of the Hall's walls, Tiant is probably the greatest pitcher who crossed paths with pinstripes who has yet to be enshrined. Ideally, that all changes on Sunday.