Por Alberto Vasallo, III
Profound sadness across New England and beyond with the loss of our beloved Red Sox legend and family man Luis Tiant. One of the five men in my life that taught me the most about life and the responsibilities of being a good man. Luis has been part of my life since I was 5 years old and, undoubtedly, the biggest reason I am the baseball and Red Sox fan that I am.
My first visit to Fenway with a family friend (René Peréz), was through tickets given to us by Luis, who was a friend of my father from Cuba. I watched the 1978 Superbowl at this home in Milton as a 10-year-old and he was my biggest advocate over the years at Fenway Park, being my very first one-one interview back in 1981.
Over more than four decades, he taught me lessons like if I was his son. His family is one that I love dearly and have consistently stayed in contact with through-out my entire adulthood. My deepest condolences go out to his loving and faithful wife Maria, his children Luis Jr, Danny and Isabel.
For New England, he was a legend on and off the baseball field, and for those of us that knew him, he was an upstanding, humble, caring and considerate family man. He was also an extraordinary father who taught his kids the right way, as all of these children have grown with the same unwavering values and morals as “el viejo” (as his kids would lovingly call him).
Luis Jr, Danny, Maria (al centro), Isabel y Luis.
I will not lie or hide the fact that today I have cried. I am crying as I write this, as I honestly loved this man. Danny and Luis Jr knows it, Maria knows it and Isa knows it.
I know my dad is taking it hard, probably harder than I am as they are not only contemporaries (exactly the same age), but they each would joke about how they were the last of a dying breed. RIP Luis – you were one of a kind and we will remember you that way forever. God Bless.
