Tony Pérez

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Atanasio Pérez Rigal, better known as Tony Pérez (born May 14, 1942 in Ciego de Ávila, Cuba), is a former player in Major League Baseball.

After playing third base in the early part of his career with the Cincinnati Reds, from 1972 onward he starred at first base. In the early part of the 1970s he was a key member of Cincinnati's "Big Red Machine". Apart from his years with the Reds (1964-76, '84-86), he also played for the Montreal Expos (1977-79), Boston Red Sox (1980-82) and Philadelphia Phillies (1983). After retiring, Pérez went on the manage with the Reds and Florida Marlins. He currently holds the title of Special Assistant to the General Manager with the Marlins.

Tony Pérez is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame

In 2000, Pérez was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He had the honor of being elected by the Baseball Writers rather than the Old Timers Committee, garnering 385 votes on 499 ballots for a total of 77.15%, just over the three-quarters minimum required for induction.

Tony Pérez's induction was controversial as some people felt he is not a deserving Hall of Famer and got in due to the fact he played on one of the most famous teams in history. The rap on Pérez was that his outstanding cumulative statistics were the result of his longevity, and but for a brief period in the early 1970s, he was not the outstanding player at his position. However, it should be noted that Pèrez was one of the premier R.B.I. men of his generation, batting in 100 or more runs seven times in his 23-year long career. In an eleven-year stretch from 1967 to 1977, Pérez drove in 90 or more runs each year, with a high of 129 RBIs in 1970. During the decade of the 1970s, Pérez was second among all major-leaguers in RBI, with 954, behind only his teammate Johnny Bench.

The 1970 campaign was his finest year, statisically: in addition to his 129 RBIs, Pérez hit .317, slugged 40 home runs and scored 107 runs. He came in third in the Most Valuable Player voting behind Willie McCovey and winner Johnny Bench, his Cincinnati Reds teammate who had one of the best offensive seasons in the history of catchers that year (.293/45/148), in addition to winning a Gold Glove.

Beginning with 1970, the Reds went to the World Series four times in seven years with Pérez as a starting player. He departed after the 1976 season (which was capped by the team's sweep of the Yankees in the World Series) for Montreal, and the Big Red Machine -- considered one of baseball's all-time great teams -- sputtered and never again got into the Series, reaching the playoffs but one more time in 1979. (Tony Pérez was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1998.) At the age of 38 in 1980, he had a very good first season with the Red Sox in which he finished in the top 10 in the American League in intentional walks (11), home runs (25) and RBIs (105), and won the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award. Unfortunately, in the same season he also ranked among the top 10 in strikeouts and led all American League batters by grounding into 25 double plays, with the latter statistic illustrating his declining abilities to drive in runs. Still a feared hitter based on his reputation, Pérez also was a reserve player on the 1983 National League Champion Phillies, and batted .242 in his five World Series appearances.

Tony Pérez was a seven time All-Star who was voted the Most Valuable Player of the 1967 All-Star Game. The game, played on July 11, 1967, went into 15 innings and ranks as the longest All-Star Game in history. It was Pérez's home run off future fellow Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter that propelled the National League to victory.

He finished his career with a .279 batting average, 379 home runs, 1652 RBI and 1272 runs scored.

[edit] See also

• Top 500 home run hitters of all time

[edit] External links

• Baseball Hall of Fame
• Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis

Preceded by: Brooks Robinson	Major League Baseball All-Star Game Most Valuable Player 1967	Succeeded by: Willie Mays
Preceded by: Dave Kingman	National League Player of the Month August, 1975	Succeeded by: Andre Thornton
Preceded by: Phil Niekro	Lou Gehrig Memorial Award 1980	Succeeded by: Tommy John
Preceded by: Lou Piniella	Cincinnati Reds Manager 1993	Succeeded by: Davey Johnson
Preceded by: John Boles	Florida Marlins Manager 2001	Succeeded by: Jeff Torborg