Luis Tiant, RIP

The Red Sox legend passed away this week, and Shank has the column:

Luis Tiant was a beloved Red Sox icon, but to us, he was also ‘Uncle Luis’

New England is deeply saddened.

Luis Tiant has died.

Everybody’s favorite.

Only Red Sox fans of a certain age can fully appreciate what it was like around here in October of 1975. That’s almost a half-century ago, so young folks will have to believe us when we tell you that there was truly nothing like the El Tiante phenomenon when the Red Sox had it going that season. Baby Boomer Sox fans with imagination still hear chants of “LOO-ie, LOO-ie” bouncing around ancient Fenway Park.

Know this: Before there was Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, or David Ortiz, Boston had its first Latin American superstar in Tiant, the roly-poly Cuban righty with a Fu Manchu mustache who turned his back to batters as part of an elaborate windup that resulted in dazzling, unhittable pitches whizzing past befuddled batters (”wheeling and rotating on the mound like a figure in a Bavarian clock tower,” wrote Roger Angell).