Son of Havana

A Baseball Journey from Cuba to the Big Leagues and Back

By: Luis Tiant, Saul Wisnia - With, Carl Yastrzemski - Foreword by

Narrated by: Leon Nixon

Luis Tiant is one of the most charismatic and accomplished players in Boston Red Sox history - a cigar-chomping maestro who was the heart and soul of Boston's teams in the 1970s. In his white polyester uniform, with a paunch in his belly and a Fu Manchu mustache on his face, Tiant looked like a guy rolling out of bed for a Sunday-morning beer league. But nobody was a tougher competitor on the diamond, and few were as successful. There may be no more qualified pitcher not yet enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

His big-league dreams came at a steep price-racism in the Deep South and the Boston suburbs, fifteen years separated from a family held captive in Castro's Cuba. But baseball also delivered World Series stardom and a heroic return to his island home after a half-century of forced exile. The man whose name-"El Tiante"-became a Fenway Park battle cry has never fully shared his tale in his own words, until now.

In Son of Havana, Tiant puts his huge heart on his sleeve and describes his road from fields strewn with rocks and rubbish in Havana to the pristine lawns of Major League ballparks. Ballplayers, family, and media also weigh-in-including a foreword by fellow 1975 hero Carl Yastrzemski and the first in-depth interview ever with Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk on the magic behind the Boston batterymates.

©2019 Luis Tiant and Saul Wisnia (P)2019 Tantor

Great insights and backstory

Always a fan of Luis, I was curious about his origins and full career. Great book.

EL TIANTE' WINS AND DOES IT ALL IN AN AMAZING BOOK - FROM AN OLD CINCINNATI BIG RED MACHINE FAN OF 1975!

El Tiante' Won his Cy Young, Another 20-Plus Win Season (by far), And Batted .300 with a GRAND SLAM in this Lovely Autobiography!

I cannot sing Mr. Tiant's praises enough, and I am a 61-year-old Big Red Machine Fan who just turned 12 - Oct 7, 1975 - as Pete Rose hit a 3-run HR off John Candelaria of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Cincinnati Reds came back late in the 3rd game and won the that game, sweeping the Pirates in 3 games, to propel them to the 1975 World Series.

Rick Wise led the Boston Red Sox in a sweep over the Oakland A's on that same night, with a 5-3 victory over the defending, yet, defenseless World Champions of the past 3 seasons.

Just like that, the 1975 World Series was Set!!!

The great El Tiante' worried Reds fans - and many of their players - greatly, with his incredible pitching and hitting in Game one, his gutsy Game 4 performance with over 160 pitches thrown, and a Game 6 that will always be remembered as one of the greatest ever played that ended with Carlton Fisk's dramatic 12th HR to LF over Fenway Park's Green Monster that hit the foul ball pole, just going fair! Whattagame! ⚾️

As a Reds fan, I'm most thankful for the results of Game 7, where Sparky's Big Red Machine came back to win, 4-3, and take the '75 Championship, 4 games to 3.

As a Reds fan, after 1976, and the team's stupid decision of trading Tony Perez, and it taking 14 more years and an all-new Reds team to surprise MLB with another World's Championship in 1990, they haven't nearly done anything since, except lose.

That said, over the years I have became an admirer - a Fan - of several of these Red Sox players - from Baseball Hall of Famers Yastremski to Fisk to Jim Rice, to Dwight Evans to Rick Burleson to Denny Doyle to Bill Lee to, Yes, the Great Louis Tiant, who overcame Communist Cuba and Castro.

TIANT endured great homesickness and the sad indignity of losing his home and 15 YEARS with his PARENTS. El Tiante' endured racism and being second-guessed and underpaid by MLB Teams and Minor League Teams alike.

El Tiante' endured success, victory, great injury, failure, Teams giving up on him, and practically starting over. Yet, HE. NEVER. GAVE. UP.

Louis Tiant's story is not just a story of endurance - It is a story of Perseverance. El Tiante' OVERCAME the tall, overwhelming odds against him and WON.

MLB should be singing El Tiante's praus today, but I sing them sadly. This great book should have ended with a call from Cooperstown, welcoming him into Baseball's Hall Of Fame. There are several pitchers with LESSER STATS (Wins, ERA, Complete Games, Huge Games, Etc).

Sadly, the HOF's Stuck-Up Baseball Writers didn't find his incredible story and stats worthy of induction, and the Veterans Committee hasn't been any wiser. No carpet was laid or made easier for Tiant to get a shot at winning more games early in his career.

Sadly, El Tiante, if finally inducted into Cooperstown as a member, will be unable to enjoy the fruits of his labor: Luis Tiant died on October 8, 2024 - 49 years after my Reds and His Red Sox were set to do battle in that historic World Series of 1975!

Sadly, Pete Rose, AKA Charlie Hustle and the MLB Hit King (4,256 Hits), my Baseball Hero, made a fatal error, thus resulting in being banished from MLB for Life back in August 1989. The Cooperstown HOF Board also met several months before ballots would go out in 1991 with Rose's name on it. That board created a rule in order to keep Rose out of the HOF, by keeping anyone "permanently ineligible to be in MLB" from being considered to be voted in as a member of the Baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown," invented The Pete Rose Rule.

Pete Rose, Team Captain and Third Baseman of the Cincinnati Reds/ Big Red Machine, Died on September 31, 2024, at age 83 - Just 8 days before Luis Tiant.

I miss them BOTH.

FOR: LUIS TIANT (1940-2024)
FOR: PETE ROSE (1941-2024)

INCREDIBLE BOOK/ NARRATION.
GRADE: A+!

Son of Havana - Enlightening, Educational, and Entertaining!

I enjoyed the book Son of Havana very much and I and learned so much more about Luis Tiant’s life both in Cuba and in the major leagues. Admiring him as a young boy this book brought so much more into the picture and enlightened me even more on what men of color had to go through to achieve their dreams in the major leagues. I would recommend this book to everybody not just baseball fans.