luis tiant is in my hall of famer collection

luis tiant may forever be relegated to the "hall of very good", but i've decided to put him in my hall of famer collection anyway. his membership is represented by this card:

that's a 2018 topps archives signature series 1979 topps buyback autograph numbered 31/80. here's the back:

i never saw tiant pitch in person, but i saw plenty of his outings on the nbc game of the week and "this week in baseball". when he pitched for the angels at the end of his career, he showed up on a few local telecasts as well. my friends and i were all familiar with his wind up and would mimic it during wiffle ball games in the front yard. good times.

so yeah, nostalgia has played a part in me picking up this card and putting it in this specific collection, but tiant has a case for enshrinement in cooperstown. over the course of his career, tiant collected 229 wins, 2,416 strikeouts, and two era titles. his hall of fame metrics have him in gaylord perry/bob feller territory in terms of adjusted seven year war, and he has a higher war overall, and better counting stats, than juan marichal. i think there is definitely a case to be made for tiant, especially as other pitchers from his career span such as jim kaat are inducted.

tiant peaked in his first year of eligibility with the writers, garnering over 30% of the vote. after running through his eligibility with the bbwa, he's fallen short on six different veteran committee votes. maybe the next time will be the charm.

remember, you can find my hall of famer collection in its entirety here at my want list site.