Tony Perez doesn't like to talk much about May 24, 1993 - the day he was fired as Reds manager.

Tony Perez waves to cheering fans. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        “I've had a lot of great times here,” he said Friday night when he returned to Cincinnati as manager of the Florida Marlins. “The bad ones, I don't think about.”

        Still, as he looked through the clearing in the left-field stands at Cinergy Field, Perez could see One Lytle Place, the tall, gray apartment building where he lived when he managed the Reds in 1993.

        He was in that building, asleep after a late return from a West Coast trip, when he got the phone call from General Manager Jim Bowden. Only 44 games into his rookie season as manager, he was fired by the rookie general manager — not in a face-to-face meeting, but by phone.

        “The only thing I didn't like was the phone call,” Perez said. “But when you're a manager, they're going to do what they're going to do.”

        Sitting in the visiting manager's office before Friday's game, Perez said the manner in which he was fired is the only thing that still grates on him. Time and intervening honors have eased the sting.

        The Reds have retired his number, which now hangs along with seven others inside the left-field foul pole. He has been inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame. He's gotten a chance to manage again, something he never expected.

        “I feel good about it,” Perez said. “I never thought I'd manage again, but it happens.”

        When Perez wandered onto the field for batting practice, Reds chief operating officer John Allen made sure to walk over, shake his hand and welcome him back. Allen made the push to retire Perez's No. 24.

        Perez doesn't have much contact with Bowden, who has changed his opinion over the years and now regrets the way he handled matters in 1993. Perez has visited Cincinnati several times since his firing.

        “We haven't talked much,” Perez said.

        Nor does Perez care to talk much about that day. He has moved on.

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