The Lost Son of Havana

I was born in the Boston area in 1968. When I was a young kid, Luis Tiant was the single most popular player on the Red Sox. It wasn't Yaz or Fisk, or Lynn or Rice. It was El Tiante.

This documentary does an incredible job of relating Tiant's life history, and the history of his father, Luis (Lefty) Tiant, Sr., who pitched in the Negro League. There are so many aspects of this story that I didn't know, and they make for a compelling story. The film deals with the Cuban embargo, his parents he'd left behind, and his amazing MLB career, which peaked with his two victories over the Big Red Machine in the 1975 World Series. I still remember the Boston Globe Sports page featuring a cartoon of Luis unplugging the machine! Every baseball fan should see this film. It will be particularly meaningful to Red Sox fans of my age, but all baseball fans (which includes of course all Cubans) should give this a watch. I hope ESPN rebroadcasts it. It's really quite special.

I thought that the finished movie was a very moving & personal account of Luis' long-delayed return home, along with an inside look at everyday Cuban life. We played baseball for a week with Luis Tiant and the film crew while making this movie in 2007. Luis Tiant was a blast to hang with. He tells some great baseball stories, and also knows a lot about cigars. The Cuban people were the big surprise (to me) being amazingly warm and welcoming. Quite possibly the most fun week of my life. I highly recommend a trip to Cuba before it loses it's innocence. Some of us players also attended the premier at the Tribeca in NYC. ESPN throws a hell of a party!

I have also been away from the land of my birth for 46 years.

I am about to see Cuba for the first time in just a few weeks.

Looking for anything to help me prepare for my trip I stumbled upon this amazing film, it made me cry and grin from ear to ear.

I was brought to the states when I was just a baby in 1967. His journey was no doubt extremely emotional as will be mine, this film spoke to me deeply and on a very personal level.

It's is full of honest content and at times it was hard for me to watch because it just hit close to home.

As a baseball fan , I encourage all ball fans to watch, but as a human being I recommend this film even more so.

I found this to be a sad movie. I tried watching it a second time but couldn't finish it. Maybe because like Luis, I left my family and friends in my early 20's to seek my future, and like Luis I met my future wife, had three kids, and except for a couple of short visits the first few years, never returned. Also Luis was 67 when he made the documentary, and I was 67 when I saw it.

There are amazing scenes of his days of major league glory and his reunion with his parents who Castro permitted to come see their son play ball. And the one scene of him laughing and happy in Cuba is at the ball game he is there to "coach" as his pretend US team gets trounced by the Cuban team. Otherwise he appears to be a man tiptoeing through a snake pit, on a trip that he feels he must make but which brings him more anguish than pleasure. At one point he says he doesn't know what the reunion will bring, he doesn't know if he should laugh or cry. He seems very uncomfortable with every meeting and conversation. He takes no pleasure in Cuban food or drink or music or scenery. To him it's a graveyard of lost people, family and friends. He had a nice rental van. Why not take his family to the beach for food, and drink and a party. Why not visit some restaurants or even a tobacco plantation. He does none of this. He just sits in the corner and mopes.

Thomas Wolfe said "You can't go home again" and anyone who has tried, knows it is true. You are different and the people and places which have not aged a day in your memory are totally different as well. I would have liked to have seen more of Luis' life here in the states after 1982, when his major league career ended, up to the present day. We are told he has a wife and three children, but the last 25 or so years of his life in the States is never mentioned. Does he now have grand kids, friends and family and a good life in the US? We will never know. It would have presented some (hopefully) happy counterpoints to Luis' mostly anguished reunion with his Cuban family and friends. As it is we are left with a man who "wants to see Cuba before he dies" and does. His family is not told he is coming to Cuba. He tiptoes in and he tiptoes back out. He brings a few modest gifts and gives his family a few dollars and we are left with not much more than his immense sadness.

I grew up a Yankee fan and was glad when Luis joined the team in 1979. I always mimicked Tiant's windup when we played whiffleball.

While this was moving in some parts, one thing was unintentionally amusing: When he returned to his dilapidated neighborhood, he said that "everything has changed." I found that fascinating since people were still driving around in 1950's American cars. For all the Hollywood "stars" who gush about how wonderful socialism is--this film shows just how much socialism/communism sucks. The neighborhood hadn't changed because there is no progress in socialist societies as compared to capitalist societies. I'm sure that the high members of the communist party were living large while the proletariat were living in poverty. As Rush Limbaugh said the other day, "Capitalists get power by becoming wealthy; socialists use power to get wealthy." Totally spot on.