Sunday, July 23, 2000
Tony had the numbers and the knack
1,652 RBI show slugger's consistency over 23 seasons
By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Tony Perez's place in baseball history is secure.
He is the first Cuban player elected to the Hall of Fame.
“That is a great honor,” he said, “to be the first.”
He is one of the greatest Latin players of all-time.
With 387 home runs, he is tied for second all-time with Orlando Cepeda among Latin players.
He is among the game's greatest run producers.
His 1,652 RBI put him 18th on the all-time list. He drove in at least 90 runs for 11 straight years, and that was when 90 RBI would put you among the league leaders. He led the majors with 1,028 RBI from 1967-76.
But Tony Perez will be remembered most for the team he was part of: The Big Red Machine. Perez played in the majors for 23 years, but he'll be forever associated with the glory years of the Reds during the 1970s.
The fact that Perez played on a team with so many stars had a lot to do with him not getting into the Hall until his ninth year on the ballot.
But Perez would not trade those years for anything.
“It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said. “To play with so many great players makes you a better player. I was probably the player I was because of the great teams I was on.”
Perez's name is all over the Reds' record book. He ranks second all-time in RBI, third in home runs and total bases and fifth in hits and doubles.
But moments define a player, and Perez had plenty of moments. He won the 1967 All-Star Game with a 15th-inning home run off Catfish Hunter. He hit the first red-seat home run in Riverfront Stadium history two months after it opened in 1970.
But his biggest hit of all came in 1976. The Reds were trailing the Boston Red Sox 3-0 in the sixth inning in Game 7 of World Series. Bill Lee was on the mound and cruising. Then he decided to throw his blooper pitch to Perez.
Bad mistake.
“You have to generate all your own power on that pitch, and he hit it out of sight,” Reds radio play-by-play man Marty Brennaman said.
Without that home run, the Reds might not have won the World Series, and the Big Red Machine would be known as one of the great underachieving teams, not one of great teams. But Perez's home got them started toward a 4-3, comeback win.
“All you see from that World Series is (Carlton) Fisk's home run from Game 6,” Perez said. “But we won the World Series.”
Perez always had a way of delivering the clutch.
“He was just amazing,” Brennaman said.
“The best clutch hitter I ever saw,” Pete Rose said.
Perez came to the United States as skinny 18-year-old who didn't speak a work of English. He developed into a strapping power hitter and a clubhouse presence, a leader who knew how to keep the massive egos of the Big Red Machine in check.
Perez's role on the team was often overshadowed by his better-known teammates. Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan were first-ballot electees to the Hall of Fame. Pete Rose would have been if he had been eligible.
“But Doggie was the quiet leader of the team,” said Ken Griffey Sr., a teammate of Perez's from 1973-76. “The press always went to Pete, Johnny and Joe, but Tony was leader nobody talked about.”
Perez had the ability to relate to everyone.
“He was the consummate teammate, the consummate professional,” said Don Gullett, Perez's teammate for 1970-76. “He is the consummate husband and father. He was one of the guys who made the Big Red Machine what it was.”
That, more than anything, defines Perez's place in baseball history.
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Tony had the numbers and the knack
