Tomás Pérez

When asked in 2015 about his earliest baseball memory, Tomás Pérez replied, “Caimaneras,” referring to Venezuela’s “improvised baseball game, without referees, in which players are chosen spontaneously, which usually takes place in the streets, in the schoolyards or in some field…”1 He recalled that his parents were angry that baseball, a game, interfered with his education; but he commented, simply, that “I didn’t like studying.”2 Indeed, baseball was his calling, and in time, with reluctant support from his parents, he played in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League and in the US major leagues, and for all baseball fans in Venezuela, Pérez is known simply as “Tomasito” (Little Tomás).

Tomás Orlando Pérez Garcia was born on December 29, 1973, in Barquisimeto, the fourth largest city in Venezuela. His father, Tomás Pérez Duarte was his baseball coach at Escuela Barquisimeto, his high school, and a longtime amateur player in local leagues. His mother, Adde Garcia Pérez, faithfully followed Pérez’s amateur and professional career as a homemaker.

After years of caimanera, and after causing “astonishment by his catches in shorts when he was 18 years old,”3 he joined the expansion Petroleros de Cabimas team of the Venezuelan league for the 1991-1992 season. With that team, he appeared in one game, had three at-bats, and had one hit. Also in 1991, on July 11, the National League’s Montreal Expos signed the 5-foot-11, 185-pound Tomás as an amateur free agent. First steps for further development were playing with the Dominican Summer League Expos in 1992. Tomás, a switch-hitting infielder, appeared in 44 of the season’s 71 games and batted .305. For the next 23 years, Pérez played baseball for minor-league teams, major-league teams, and Venezuelan Professional Baseball League teams.

Pérez had established himself as a dependable infielder in the Venezuelan league and in the same seasons worked to improve his game through more Rookie baseball with the Gulf Coast League Expos, based in West Palm Beach, Florida, in 1993. After playing in 52 games, at shortstop, of a 58-game season, he returned to the Venezuelan league’s Petroleros de Cabimas team. He remained with that team until 1997; in latter years, the team’s name changed to Pastora de Occidente. In the meantime, his major-league career began to take hold. For the 1994 season, with the Burlington (Iowa) Bees, Class-A affiliate of the Expos, he played second base and shortstop in 119 games of a 137-game season, batted .262 with 8 home runs and 47 RBIs, and was selected as a league All-Star. Rather than make the expected leap to the Expos’ Triple-A affiliate Ottawa Lynx, however, he was selected in the Rule 5 draft on December 5, 1994, by the California Angels.4 In turn, the Angels sold Pérez’s contract to the Toronto Blue Jays for cash considerations.

Added to the Blue Jays’ roster, Pérez made his major-league debut on May 3, 1995. In the bottom of the 10th inning, in a tie game with the Chicago White Sox, he had his first major-league at-bat, his first major-league hit, and his first major-league RBI, driving in Ed Sprague with the game-winning run.5 He went on to appear in 40 more games that season, alternating between second base, third base, and shortstop.

The next season, 1996, became Pérez’s official rookie season. When he was called up to the Blue Jays from the Triple-A Syracuse Sky Chiefs at the end of May, the Windsor (Ontario) Star noted that Pérez “was back to his usual self: strutting around the dugout and clubhouse displaying a cocky confidence that spoke – I’m a major leaguer.”6 As in the previous season, the switch-hitting Pérez alternated infield positions – this time with most playing time at second base. He completed the 1996 season with a .251 batting average, 19 RBIs, and 15 errors – 11 at second base and 2 each at third base and shortstop. In 1997, still with the Blue Jays, he appeared in 40 games, with most of his time spent at shortstop – he committed only three errors, between shortstop and second base. For the 1996, 1997, and 1998 seasons, Pérez split playing time between the Blue Jays and Syracuse. This back-and-forth from major-league team to minor-league team became a pattern throughout his career.

Pérez married his girlfriend, Andrea Carolina, in 1998. They welcomed their first daughter, Paola Valentina, in 2002. He had been living in the United States since 1993 and said that he wanted his daughter to attend “high school and college” in the states. His parents and sister visited for one month each year.7

In early March 1999, the Toronto Blue Jays removed Pérez from the major-league roster and sent him outright to Syracuse.8 On March 30 they traded Pérez to the Anaheim Angels for switch-hitting infielder-designated hitter Dave Hollins and cash. The Angels sent Pérez to their Triple-A affiliate, the Edmonton Trappers of the Pacific Coast League. There, he played in 83 games.

After the season the Angels released Pérez, and he signed a Triple-A contract with the Philadelphia Phillies with an invitation to spring training. Phillies general manager Ed Wade said, “Everybody I’ve talked to has raved about what we’ve seen from Tomás and [middle infielder Félix Martínez].”9 Wade had not at first agreed with assistant GM Rubén Amaro about signing Pérez. Wade had heard that Pérez might be a problem, “…selfish and a bit of a hot dog.”10 However, Wade admitted in the spring of 2002 that he had been incorrect. He was now “pretty high on Tomás Pérez” and acknowledged that he “brings a lot of life to the game and a lot of life to the clubhouse. … The utility infielder has exceeded all expectations, providing clutch hitting and fielding. He has even pitched.”11

Phillies bullpen coach Ramon Henderson said of Pérez’s defense, “He was young and immature. … He was pushed to the big leagues early [with Toronto in 1995]. He didn’t have people tell him the truth and say, ‘Cut out the [junk] and play baseball. Perhaps age, marriage and fatherhood” helped him mature. His second daughter, Alejandra Cristina, was born in August 2005; on the night of her birth, he “left the ballpark during batting practice … to be with his wife.”12 Indeed, soon after joining the Phillies in 2000, through the 2005 season, Pérez became – despite an earlier reputation as having “an attitude problem” – a favorite of Phillies teammates and fans as a clutch hitter and prankster [aka the Pie Man.13 Pérez became the official shaving cream or whipped cream pie-to-the-face-guy with the Phillies early in his career there. “Although he has no exact criteria, Pérez usually saves that honor for the teammate who gets the game-winning hit or comes up with a game-saving defensive play or pitch.”14

Pérez began the 2000 season with the Triple-A affiliate Scranton-Wilkes Barre Red Barons. An impressive stretch of hitting led the Red Barons to a winning streak. After a sixth straight multihit game, he said, “It’s the first time I’ve had a stretch like this.”15 In August his contributions in Triple A were rewarded as the Phillies, under manager Terry Francona, called him up.16 He saw minor-league baseball only once more during his time with the Phillies – this a two-game rehab stint with Double-A Reading after sustaining an injury in a March 2002 exhibition game against the New York Yankees that sidelined him for several weeks.17

Pérez’s 12-year major-league career did not interfere with his career in Venezuela. Manager Larry Bowa observed: “Pérez is known for playing an entire winter ball season in his native Venezuela. Not all big-league bench players are willing to do that.”18 The Allentown Morning Call in December of 2002 termed Pérez the most productive Phil playing winter ball, noting that his .326 batting average ranked him eighth in the league.19 From 1997 through 2002 Pérez played with the Caribes de Anzoátegui club, based in Puerto Cruz, Venezuela. He did not know at this time that this same team would become a storied part of his baseball career.

Pérez’s major-league career included numerous season highlights. On July 24, 2001, he became the second Phillies player (the first was Steve Jeltz, in 1989) to hit a home run from each side of the plate in a game. Of his feat, Pérez said, “It feels great, one for my mom (Adde) and one for my wife (Andrea). My mother has seen me play a lot in Venezuela, but this was only the second time in the big leagues.”20 On December 20, 2001, Pérez signed a contract with the Phillies for $475,000, plus performance bonuses.21 

The next season, 2003, may be regarded as Pérez’s best year in baseball. He played in 125 games, had 79 hits for a .265 average, 5 home runs, and 33 RBIs; and he played each infield position. On September 9 he and Jason Michaels each hit a grand slam in an 18-5 win over the Atlanta Braves.22

One of Pérez’s more notable games came on May 28, 2004, at home against the Atlanta Braves, when he hit a game-tying double in the eighth, and then a walk-off homer in the 10th.

In the first World Baseball Classic, from March 3 to March 20, 2006, Pérez was on the Venezuela team. Soon after Venezuela had been eliminated from the tournament, he returned to the Phillies and by mid-March he realized that only one bench position remained open, and his job was in jeopardy. When the Phillies made a late-night trade for David Dellucci, and with Alex Gonzalez and Abraham Núñez having already made the team, Pérez became the man to be released. In his six seasons with the Phillies, he played in 504 games, batted .249, with 20 home runs and 128 RBIs, and committed only 24 errors.23

Fans and teammates alike were unhappy to see Pérez, the prototypical Phillies “Bench Dog,”24 leave. The Pie Man was gone. “Tomás Pérez was just one of those guys who gave you a lot more than what you saw on the stats page,” a sportswriter commented.25 Teammate Ryan Howard said, “I will miss the pies in the face.”26 And catcher Mike Lieberthal, another frequent pie victim, added, “He is one of my favorite players I ever played with. He was not only a good player, but he kept everybody loose and is one of the best personalities I have ever been around.”27 Broadcaster Harry Kalas said he regarded Pérez as “the Phillies’ secret weapon.”28

Pérez wasn’t without a job long. Shortly after his release, he signed with the the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In 99 games he split time between each infield position, and left and right fields committing, in total, only eight errors. In this, his only season with the Rays, he hit .212. On July 29 he tied the major-league record with four doubles in a 5-for-5 game, leading Tampa Bay to a 19-6 rout of the New York Yankees.29

The following seasons were chaotic for Pérez. In October 2006 the Devil Rays released him. He signed with the Chicago Cubs on January 24, 2007. Soon after, the Cubs sent him to the Los Angeles Dodgers for future considerations. He played 36 games with the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate, the Las Vegas 51s of the Pacific Coast League. On May 26, 2007, the Dodgers traded him to the Chicago White Sox for minor-league pitcher Dwayne Pollok. He finished the season, appearing in 88 games, with the Charlotte Knights of the Triple-A International League. Released at the end of the season, Pérez signed with the Houston Astros in November. In 2008 he played in 79 games for Round Rock Express of the PCL and eight games for the Astros; his final game with the Astros and, as it happened, in major-league baseball, was April 21, 2008. He was designated for assignment a few days later.30 On March 13, 2009, he signed with the Colorado Rockies for what turned out to be an 18-day stint; he was released on April 1.31

His major-league career ended, in 2011 Pérez signed a one-year contract with the Italian Bbc Grosseto team. However, due to an elbow injury, the Grosseto team waived him on March 6, 2011. His attentions, which he had split between major-league baseball, the minor leagues, and the Liga Venezolana de Béisbol Profesional, could now focus on longtime goals – namely, reaching more than 1,000 hits in the Venezuelan league, playing all nine positions in one nine-inning game, and coaching and managing.

Pérez played 24 seasons in the Venezuelan Winter League and became one of nine players in the league to reach the 1,000-hit milestone. From the 1991-1992 season to the 2014-2015 season, he played for five teams in the Venezuelan league: Petroleros de Cabimas, later Pastora de Occidente; Caribes de Oriente (later Anzoátegui); Leones del Caracas; Navegantes del Magallanes; and Cardenales de Lara, and with Team Venezuela in the 2014-2015 Caribbean Series.32 He retired after the 2014-2015 season.

In his 12-year major-league career, Pérez had only one season in which he played more than 100 games (2003 with the Phillies). He played with four major-league teams – the Blue Jays, the Phillies, the Devil Rays, and the Astros; and many more minor-league teams – two Rookie, one Class A, one Double-A, and six Triple-A. He appeared in one World Baseball Classic on the Venezuelan national team. During major-league and minor-league offseasons, he played 24 seasons in Venezuela. His 1,010 hits are sixth all-time in the Venezuelan league (inspired by his longtime idol and “father in baseball,”33 Luis Sojo, who had 1,007 hits); He played all nine positions in a single game with Caribes de Anzoátegui. During his career, Pérez and other Venezuelan ballplayers, faced the reality that because of political unrest their home cities and home nation had become unsafe for themselves and for their families and friends. Pérez hired bodyguards for himself and his family. He said. “It’s a big problem. … You have to worry about two things … playing baseball and protecting your family.”34 Pérez’s wife , was “victimized when her SUV was vandalized when she took the couple’s newborn baby to the doctor,” another article reported.35

Pérez has said he would like to become a manager. Having “flipped the switch”36 from player to coach, he wants to learn, he wants to share his knowledge, and he wants to give back to his teachers, including Venezuelan-born Alfredo Pedrique and Omar López. “If at any time a team gives me the chance and confidence to transmit all my knowledge in a position of such responsibility as that, it will be well received. … This is not new to me. In the United States with the Atlanta organization, I had already been a coach, but in Venezuela I am making my debut in these struggles and the experience is definitely different. You really have to know how to be a coach in this league.”37

Pérez has worked with the Atlanta Braves since 2015 and in 2024 is a batting practice pitcher with the Braves. Of note, he pitched to Freddie Freeman in the 2018 All-Star Game Home Run Derby; and, when, on November 2, 2021,  the Braves won their first Word Series in 26 years, Pérez was one of three Venezuelan-born coaches on the team – the other two being Eddie Pérez and José Yépez.

Notes

1 “Origins of the Word ‘Caimanera.’” Posted August 21, 2020. http://blog.com/banesco-origenes-la-palabra-caimanera.

2 Ignacio Serrano, “Me fue bien como pitcher, nunca me hacieron carreras” (I did well as a pitcher, they never gave me races). El Emergente, https://www.elemergente.com/2015/02/me-fue-bien-como-pitcher-nunca-me.html.

3 Serrano.

4 Jeff Blair, “Expos Axe Benavides; Pick One, Lose Four in Draft,” Montreal Gazette, December 6, 1994.

5 “Blue Jays 8, White Sox 7,” Baltimore Sun, May 4, 1995,

6 “Baseball on the Wire,” Windsor (Ontario) Star, May 31, 1996.

7 Mandy Housenick, “Phillies Pieman Perez Is More Than a Clown,” Allentown (Pennsylvania) Morning Call, July 18, 2004. https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-2004-07-18-3560505-story.html.

8 “Transactions,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 5, 1999.

9 “Phils’ Anderson Knows His Job’s in Jeopardy” Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Intelligencer Journal, March 2, 2000.

10 Bob Brookover, “Pérez Gives Off Sparks,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 31, 2002.

11 “Pérez Gives Off Sparks.”

12 Dana Pennett O’Neill, “Bell Hears It from Fans, but Declines to Give It Back,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 8, 2005.

13 Jim Salisbury, “Prankster and Player, Pérez a Phils Favorite,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 1, 2004.

14 Housenick, “Phillies Pieman Perez Is More Than a Clown.”

15 Randy Showmanski, “Barons Keep Rolling,” Scranton (Pennsylvania) Tribune. May 29, 2000.

16 Bob Brookover, “Retooled Lineup Delivers More Punch,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 12, 2000.

17 He was injured by “a hard takeout slide by Shane Spencer.” Rob Maadi, “Pérez Hurt; Punto Gets Call,” Scranton Times-Tribune, March 26, 2002.

18 Salisbury, “Prankster and Player, Pérez a Phils Favorite.”

19 “Winter League Update,” Allentown Morning Call, December 3, 2002.

20 Paul Hagen, “Phillies Use a Full Nelson to Slice Braves’ Lead to 1,” Lancaster New Era, July 25, 2001.

21 “MLB Transactions,” http://mlb.com/mlb/transactions/?c_id=phi&year=2001&month=12.

22 “Phillies Pound Braves with Two Slams,” Sunbury (Pennsylvania) Daily Item, September 10, 2003.

23 Matt Rappa, “Former Phillie Still Swinging Away Down in Venezuela,” Baseball Talk Philadelphia, December 30, 2014. https://www.philliedelphia.com/2014/12/former-phillie-tomas-perez-still-swinging-away-down-in-venezuela.html.

24 Robert Gordon and Tom Burgoyne, Movin On Up: Baseball and Philadelphia Then, Now, and Always (Mooretown, New Jersey: Middle Atlantic Press, 2004), 237.

25 Kevin Lagowski, “The 2000 Philadelphia Phillies: A Crash Course in Tomas Pérez,” Section215. https://section215.com/2020/05/30/2000-philadelphia-phillies-tomas-perez/.

26 Jenn Zambri, “Phillies History: Shaving Cream Pies,” Phillies Phollowers, July 12, 2010, https://mlblogsphilliesphollowers.wordpress.com/?s=tomas+perez.

27 Zambri.

28 Jim Reeser, “‘Hard to Believe’ Beloved Harry Kalas Is Gone,” Wilkes-Barre (Pennsylvania) Citizens Voice, April 14, 2009.

29 Associated Press, “This Date in Baseball,” https://apnews.com/article/12b: Shaving72ae2c35ac82596795b843777c950.

30 “Transactions, Baseball, American League.” Port Huron (Michigan) Times Herald, April 25, 2008.

31 “Tomás Pérez, Career Transactions.” Baseball America. https://www.baseballamerica.com/players/23556/tomas-perez/.

32 Pelota Binaria. Tomas Perez. https://pelotabinaria.com.ve/beisbol/mostrar.php?ID=peretom001.

33 “Tomasito in the History of the LVBP,” ElImpulso.com. Regions of Lara and Barquisimeto, Venezuela, October 23, 2014. https://www.elimpulso.com/2014/10/23/tomasito-en-la-historia-de-la-lvbp/.

34 Bart Jones, “Unsafe at Home,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), February 5, 2005. https://www.newsday.com/sports/unsafe-at-home-1.548975.

35 Kevin Baxter, “Foreign Baseball Players’ Family Face Threat of Kidnapping,” Tiger Boards Archive, January 24, 2005. https://www.tigernet.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=71456.

36 “Tomás Pérez Continues to Learn as a Coach,” LVBP.com. https://www.lvbp.com/3905_tomas-perez-sigue-aprendiendo-como-coach.

37Atlanta Braves Official Website. https://www.mlb.com/braves/roster/coaches. Accessed December 16, 2021.