When I met with him, Tiant s distinguished career in baseball was winding down in Savannah, Georgia, of all places, where he was head coach at the Savannah College of Art and Design, a Division 3 school better known for churning out historical preservationists and graphic artists. Tiant, nearly sixty, liked the job. He enjoyed teaching baseball, and the weather allowed him to play golf year-round. But the players, with their cars and their inflated egos and their limited work ethic, bewildered him. They think everything is coming from the sky, he said.
Nothing comes from the sky.
Some even complained about him swearing in the dugout. One chilly spring morning Tiant sat by an empty ballfield, puffing on a Dominican cigar the size of a small branch. I m not really a politics person, he said. I don t care about all that bullshit. I never really cared too much about politics at all.