Goodbye to Luis Tiant at the age of 83.
Known for his herky-jerky windup, Tiant won twenty games four times and led the American League in ERA twice in a career that saw him completely re-invent himself.
With the Cleveland Indians, Tiant was a fearsome young fireballer and in 1968, Tiant fired one of the best and yet unknown seasons in history when he finished 21-9, nineteen complete games, nine shutouts, 264 strikeouts, and an ERA of 1.61.
Hitters hit only .168 against Tiant in 1968 but an injury would see Tiant lose twenty games in 1969 and traded to the Minnesota Twins in 1970, who released him after the season.
Boston signed Tiant, who began to rotate his body with his back to the batter before turning around to throw, creating a deception for the hitter and arguably the most imitated windup on playgrounds and little league fields across the country!
Starting in 1972, Tiant won twenty games three times for the Red Sox and would win twelve games or more each season until he left Boston after the 1978 season.
Tiant retired after the 1982 season with 229 wins for his career.
Goodbye to Joey Jay at the age of 89.
The first player to make the majors after playing Little League baseball, Jay was also one of the most successful "bonus babies" of the 1950s ( if a player signed a bonus for more than $4,000, the player must remain on the big league roster for two years).
Jay signed for $20,000 with the Milwaukee Braves in 1953 and spent two seasons with the Braves before a seasoning stint in the minors.
After three seasons with the Braves, Milwaukee traded Jay to the Cincinnati Reds before the 1961 season, where Jay would win twenty-one games to lead the National League in wins for the surprising 1961 National League champions.
Jay won twenty-one games again in 1962 but Jay would pitch only four more seasons, winning thirty-three games with the Reds and the first season of the Atlanta Braves before retiring.
Goodbye to Rudy May at the age of 80.
A left-handed pitcher, who could start or relieve, May led the American League in ERA in 1980 for the Yankees and was known for his sharp curveball.
May won eighteen games for Baltimore in 1977 who rewarded him with a trade to Montreal.
May was also noted as the one pitcher that Hall of Famer Rod Carew would always ask out of the lineup when May was scheduled to be the opposing starting pitcher, due to Carew's struggles against May.
Goodbye to Rico Carty at the age of 85.
The National League batting champion in 1970 when he hit a sizzling .366, Carty was a career .299 hitter in fifteen seasons for six teams, most notably with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians.
Carty was known as a deadly hitter, hitting over .300 eight times and reaching double-digits in homers eleven times with three seasons that are quite incredible and almost forgotten by most fans.
In 1969, Carty just missed the batting title by not having the required plate appearances when he hit .342 in 339 plate appearances and hit sixteen homers and then actually won the batting crown in 1970, hitting .366 with twenty-five homers and one hundred one RBI, both seasons with the Braves.
Carty was elected to the 1970 All-Star Game as a write-in candidate, one of the few to accomplish that honor.
Carty's most amazing season, however, was 1978 when at age 38 and splitting the season between two terrible teams (Toronto and Oakland), Carty hit .282 with a career-high 31 homers and 99 RBI.
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