Late Red Sox legend Luis Tiant snubbed by Baseball Hall of Fame committee again

DALLAS – The Classic Baseball Era committee elected Dave Parker and the late Dick Allen to the Hall of Fame on Sunday, but snubbed late Red Sox pitching legend Luis Tiant yet again.

Candidates needed a minimum of 12 votes from the 16-member committee, comprised of Hall of Famers (Paul Molitor, Eddie Murray, Tony Pérez, Lee Smith, Ozzie Smith and Joe Torre), major league executives (Sandy Alderson, Terry McGuirk, Dayton Moore, Arte Moreno and Brian Sabean), and veteran media members/historians (Bob Elliott, Leslie Heaphy, Steve Hirdt, Dick Kaegel and Larry Lester). Parker was on 14 of 16 ballots, Allen on 13. Tommy John was the only other candidate who came close, receiving seven votes. None of the other hopefuls – Ken Boyer, John Donaldson, Steve Garvey, Vic Harris, and Tiant – received more than four votes.

Tiant, who passed away at 83 on Oct. 8, had openly criticized voters for not electing worthy candidates until after they’d passed away.

“They waited until after he died,” Tiant told USA Today in 2021, referring to Chicago Cubs infielder Ron Santo, who lived with diabetes from age 18 until his passing in 2010, two years before he was finally elected to the Hall. “That’s a lack of respect. That’s heartless.”

Parker is 73 and has been battling Parkinson’s disease. In 19 MLB seasons, he was a seven-time All-Star (and ’79 All-Star Game MVP), three-time Gold Glover in right-field, and won back-to-back batting titles in ’77 and ’78. He was named NL MVP in ’78, and led the Pittsburgh Pirates to championship in the ’79 World Series. A decade later, he won his second and final ring with the Oakland A’s.

Allen passed away from cancer in 2020. His 15-year career began in Philadelphia, where the Phillies were the last NL team to integrate; he was their first Black player. Allen then played for the Cardinals, Dodgers, White Sox, and Athletics. He was named National League Rookie of the Year in 1964, and the American League MVP when he played for Chicago in 1972. Allen was also a seven-time All-Star and two-time home run champion.

Allen’s trade to the Cardinals turned out to be a watershed moment for baseball, when his counterpart, Curt Flood, refused to report to the Phillies. Backed by the MLB Players Association, Flood sued Major League Baseball over the reserve clause, sacrificing his own career so that all players could have free agency.

This is the seventh time an Era committee has failed to elect Tiant. And unlike the annual BBWAA ballot for recently retired players, the various era committees vote on a three-year cycle. Tiant’s family will have to wait until 2027 to find out if he’s on the ballot again.

“I’d love to be in the Hall of Fame someday,” Tiant told the Herald when his name was on the ballot in 2018. “I just hope they do it before I die, so I can drive out to Cooperstown with my family.”