PITTSBURGH — Hall of Famer and former Reds manager Tony Perez is back in the dugout — for now.

Tony Perez was back in charge of a big-league team Sunday night. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        Perez, fired as Reds manager after 44 games in 1993, was named interim manager of the Florida Marlins on Sunday, replacing John Boles, who was fired.         Perez has been on general manager Dave Dombrowski's staff as a special assistant. Dombrowski said Perez turned down a chance to manage for the rest of the season. Perez's tenure as manager could be only a couple of weeks.

        “I have a lot of commitments,” Perez said. “If you are going to be the manager, you have to be able to do that full-time.”

        Perez's debut did not go well. Three Marlins pitchers were pounded in a seven-run eighth inning, and Florida lost to Pittsburgh 8-5.

        “We didn't make plays and after that they hit,” Perez said. “They hit everybody I put out there.”

        One of the pounded pitchers was reliever Dan Miceli, whose comments critical of Boles were a factor in his firing.

        “You think about it,” Miceli said. “It was kind of a shock to the team. You put it in the back of your mind.”

        Perez started the day in Portland, Maine, where he was trying to help one of the Marlins' top prospects work through some difficulties. He was on the field when he got the call from Dombrowski about 11 a.m.

        “I looked like O.J. Simpson running through the airport,” said Perez.

        He was booked on a 1:42 p.m. flight to Pittsburgh. First, he had to get his wife, Pituka, who was shopping at the nearby Maine Mall.

        “I walk into the mall and she happens to be coming out of a store. I grabbed her and said, "Let's go.' ”

        Six hours after Dombrowski phoned, he introduced Perez to reporters and camera crews at a hastily called news conference at Pittsburgh's PNC Park, 2 1/2 hours before game time.

        Perez is in his ninth season as a special assistant to Dombrowski, a job he took two months after he was fired as Reds manager.

        Perez wasted no time making changes and promising others. He shuffled coaching assignments, moving Lynn Jones from first to third base Tony Taylor from bullpen to first base Joe Breeden from bench to bullpen and Fredi Gonzalez from third base to bench.

        He talked to many of the players, all of whom know Perez well from his duties as a special assistant to Dombrowski, which have included everything from on-field instruction before games to player evaluations.

        “I know what I have to do to make them play, make them do their best,” he said. “This team hasn't been playing together. They have to get together. If they don't feel like they're a team yet, they need to get together. That's what wins ballgames. The feeling you have to have in the clubhouse is you can beat anybody.

        “I don't like one-run ballgames. I like to beat up on people. Just beat them, win it by three, four, five runs, finish the opposition. When you get them down, finish them. This year we never could seem to do that. Teams have been able to come back and beat us. I don't think that's right.”

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