FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) -Two years after flying out of Cuba in 1961 on his way to baseball stardom, Luis Tiant heard about a friend’s family that departed by boat.
It never made it to freedom in Florida.
“I remember there were 45 people – I grew up with the family – grandmother, grandfather, mother, son daughter,” Tiant said Tuesday, casually leaning on a bat in the shade outside the Red Sox clubhouse. “And they get in the boat and try to cross and the boat breaks in two and they all die.”
The former Boston pitching star knows how lucky he was that his pitching ability got him out of the Communist nation two years after Fidel Castro took over. He also knows Castro’s resignation Tuesday as president is an opportunity to improve the lives of those still there.
“I feel bad for most of those people that stayed in there most of those years and suffered,” said Tiant, a spring training instructor with Boston. “Hopefully, it will change.”
During his 19 major league seasons, Tiant was an outstanding pitcher with a unique delivery in which he twisted his body so he nearly faced center field before delivering the ball.
Now, at age 67, he remains an eye-catching figure with his thick, white droopy mustache and mirrored sunglasses.
He’s not a political person but feels strongly about one issue: the U.S. embargo on economic dealings with Cuba that has contributed to its poverty must end.
“I think it’s crazy,” Tiant said. “Everybody does business with Cuba – Latin America, China, everybody – and what is the difference? We are 90 miles from Cuba. We don’t have a relationship with them. That’s crazy. It makes no sense to me.
“The people have suffered enough. They’ve gone through a hard life. Forty-six years I’ve been out. I hope it changes.”
Tiant left the island to play in Mexico. He said his departure was delayed when Castro restricted flights after the April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, an unsuccessful attempt by Cuban exiles backed by the U.S. government to overthrow Castro.
Tiant was aboard the first flight after air travel resumed, he said, “and I never came back.”
He could have returned, but he had built a life in the United States and became a citizen in 1969.
He went back for the first time last November as part of a movie project about his life. He saw his old home – “I didn’t even recognize my house,” he said – and visited relatives.
“I wanted to see my family. I wanted to see my country before I die,” Tiant said. “We’re here and we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. We might go to bed and never get up.”
The right-hander had a long, successful baseball career.
In 19 seasons, he was 229-172 with a 3.30 ERA, was chosen for three All-Star games and had four 20-win seasons. He spent his first six seasons with Cleveland and one with Minnesota before pitching eight years for Boston.
Then he went to the New York Yankees for two years and Pittsburgh for one before finishing up with the California Angels in 1982.
“I played baseball all my life,” Tiant said. “I don’t know too much about politics, only what I see, what I hear or what I read in the papers.”
Now he wonders about the future of his native country.
“I give credit to the people that stayed there, the people hanging in. They’re struggling there, but they survive,” Tiant said.
If not for his baseball skill, that could have been his life.
“I’m lucky,” he said. “I could get out and come here and play baseball and make a name for myself. It could have been bad, maybe not making a name for myself. If I’m not good at baseball I would have to stay there and I don’t know if I’d be alive or die.”
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