1973 Topps #270 Luis Tiant
About Luis Tiant
Tiant regained his old form in 1972, going 15-6 for the Red Sox and leading the American League with a 1.91 ERA. He threw six shutouts in 19 starts and added three saves out of the bullpen. The ERA title put him on #65, a first-series League Leaders card shared with Steve Carlton of the Phillies. His own Boston card, #270, comes from the third series.
Luis Clemente Tiant Vega, born November 23, 1940 in Marianao, Cuba, was a right-handed pitcher whose 19 big-league seasons ran from 1964 to 1982, most of them with the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox. The son of Negro leagues star Luis Tiant Sr., he was pitching in Mexico and Cuba when Cleveland bought his contract in 1961 on the recommendation of former Indians All-Star Bobby Avila. With Fidel Castro's Cuba closed to him, he did not see his parents for 14 years. He debuted on July 19, 1964 with an 11-strikeout, 3-0 shutout of the defending American League champion New York Yankees, beating Whitey Ford. A fractured right shoulder blade and a release by Minnesota nearly finished him in 1971, but he rebuilt his delivery in the minors into the twisting, turn-your-back windup that made El Tiante a Fenway Park institution, winning 20 or more games four times and beating Cincinnati twice in the 1975 World Series. He finished 229-172 with a 3.30 ERA over 3,486 1/3 innings. He struck out 2,416 batters, completed 187 games and threw 49 shutouts. He was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009. He died October 8, 2024.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 370 | 8 | 105 | 186 | 39 | 15 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
| SGC | 23 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-10-19. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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Related cards
More Luis Tiant in this set: #65 League Leaders
Team card: #596 Boston Red Sox
More Boston Red Sox cards:
- #14 Sonny Siebert
- #40 Reggie Smith
- #65 1972 Earned Run Average Leaders
- #69 Phil Gagliano
- #96 Doug Griffin
- #114 Lynn McGlothen
- #131 Red Sox Field Leaders
- #143 John Curtis
- #165 Luis Aparicio
- #193 Carlton Fisk
- #224 Bill Lee
- #245 Carl Yastrzemski
- #291 Rogelio Moret
- #317 Danny Cater
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1973 Topps #270 card?
It is card #270 of the 660-card 1973 Topps Baseball set, picturing Luis Tiant of the Boston Red Sox.
How many cards are in the 1973 Topps Baseball set?
660 cards, tracked as 679 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 660 with none skipped, in five series of 132 - #1-132, #133-264, #265-396, #397-528 and the high numbers, #529-660, printed in lower quantities; 19 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - fifteen Field Leaders cards, the #20 Stan Bahnsen, #31 Buddy Bell and #504 Earl Williams border-gap pairs and the two #280 Al Kaline printings.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, BaseballCardPedia, Cardboard Connection, Baseball Almanac, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-25.