Timo Pérez
“An indispensable playoff weapon here on pocket change.”
“I’m still very new at this; I don’t know everything that entails fame. I love the fans. All game long, they’re yelling at me and having fun with me.”
Timoniel “Timo” Pérez was born on April 8, 1975, in Bani in the Dominican Republic, and remained there through his high-school years. Little more is known of his childhood experiences.
Pérez’s first professional playing experience came in Japan. He spent four seasons (1996-1999) with Hiroshima of the Japan Central League. When he asked to be released from his contract with Hiroshima in 1999, he was assigned to the Japan minor league, becoming a free agent under Japanese baseball rules.3
On March 27, 2000, it was announced that the 5-foot-9, 180-pound lefty had signed a minor-league contract with the New York Mets organization. He was first assigned to Class-A St. Lucie (Florida State League), where he played in eight games and batted .355. He was quickly promoted to Triple-A Norfolk of the International League, where he batted .357 in 72 games.
Pérez was called up to the Mets at the end of August, and he made his debut with New York on September 1. In a tight game in St. Louis, he was called upon to pinch-hit with two out in the ninth inning. He singled off Dave Veres, but was thrown out trying to steal second base; the Cardinals scored in the bottom of the ninth and won the game, 6-5.
The Mets, who had entered September leading their division, got off to a horrific start in September. They lost seven of their first eight games, including a game in Cincinnati when Pérez, batting in the first spot in the lineup, had two doubles. But the Mets righted their ship, and Pérez played a significant role down the stretch, batting .286 with six extra-base hits in 24 games as New York tracked down a wild-card berth.
In the first playoff game against San Francisco, on October 4, Mets right fielder Derek Bell was injured in the bottom of the third inning and left the game. Pérez entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning and moved to right field in a double-switch. He was inserted in the lineup the next day as the starting right fielder. Now, there have been other right fielders who took center stage in New York in October, but for the next fortnight Timo Pérez was Señor Octobre.
In nine games against the Giants and Cardinals, Pérez provided a career’s worth of highlights. He went 5-for-15 in the three wins against the Giants and 6-for-19 in the four wins against the Cardinals.
On October 5, in the second game of the Division Series against the Giants at San Francisco, Pérez had his coming-out party. The Mets, who had lost the first game of the series, needed the win to avoid going two games down in the best-of-five series. After striking out to lead off the game, Pérez came to bat in the second inning with the bases loaded. The Mets had loaded the bases without the benefit of a hit, and there were two men out. Pérez singled up the middle off Shawn Estes, and Jay Payton and Mike Bordick scored to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.
The Giants picked up a run in the bottom of the inning, and the Mets clung to a scant one-run lead going into the ninth. Félix Rodríguez was on to pitch for the Giants and registered two quick outs. Pérez came to the plate and singled to left field. Edgardo Alfonzo then homered to give the Mets a 4-1 lead. Three outs away from winning the game, the Mets pitching staff squandered the lead. Barry Bonds doubled, chasing starter Al Leiter from the game. An infield hit by Jeff Kent and a homer by J.T. Snow off Armando Benitez knotted the score and forced extra innings. The Mets pushed across a run in the 10th inning to even the series.
The series resumed at Shea Stadium two days later and once again extra innings were needed. Pérez had only one hit in the game, but it brought in the Mets’ first run. In the bottom of the sixth inning, with the Mets trailing 2-0, Pérez singled home Bordick. The Mets tied the game in the eighth and won, 3-2, on Benny Agbayani’s 13th-inning homer.
The Mets clinched the series the next day and although it was Bobby Jones who deservedly got the headlines, Pérez singled and scored with Jones on a double by Alfonso to extend the Mets’ lead to 4-0 as they advanced to the NLCS for a second consecutive year.
Timo wasted no time against St. Louis. He doubled in the first inning and scored the game’s first run on Mike Piazza’s double. The Mets won the opener, 6-2. Game Two went into the late innings with the score tied 3-3. In the top of the eighth, with two out, Pérez singled and when Alfonso singled to short center field, Pérez, taking off on the 3-and-2 pitch, ran all the way home and the Mets had the lead.4 Although the Cardinals tied the game once again, the Mets scored a run in the ninth to give them a 6-5 win.
In Game Three, at the Mets’ Shea Stadium, Pérez singled and scored in the first, but the Mets were already behind and fell to Andy Benes, 8-2.
In Game Four the Mets were down once again in the first inning, but the results would be far different. Pérez doubled leading off against Darryl Kile to ignite a four-run rally, fueled by five doubles, and the Mets added another three runs in the second to take a commanding lead. During the three-run rally, Pérez singled and stole second base. That commanding lead proved to be not so commanding, and the Cardinals cut the margin to two runs in the fifth inning, knocking out Mets starter Bobby Jones. Pérez reached base on an error by third baseman Fernando Tatis in the sixth and came around to score as the Mets widened the gap to four runs and went on to win, 10-6.
With one more win, the Mets would be on their way to the World Series. Pérez, for the fourth time in five games, led things off with a base hit. He stole second and scored on Alfonso’s single, giving the Mets the lead. It was the only run they would need as they won 7-0 to advance to New York’s first Subway Series since 1956. But the Pérez magic did not continue. He had only two base hits in the World Series and the Yankees won in five games.
Game One was scoreless as the Mets came to bat in the sixth inning at Yankee Stadium. Pérez, leading off, singled. With the single, he had hit safely in nine consecutive postseason games. Two outs later, he was still at first base. Todd Zeile doubled to left, high off the wall, and Pérez tried to score from first base, only to be gunned down at home. He had not been hustling on the play, thinking that the ball could be a home run. By the time he got things in gear, David Justice had flawlessly grabbed the ball off the wall and unleashed a throw that was relayed by shortstop Derek Jeter to catcher Jorge Posada.5 The game remained scoreless, and the Yankees won in 12 innings.
“I was confused by the ball. I saw the fans put their hands up, and I thought it was a home run. I slowed up a little. If I would’ve run all the way through, I would’ve scored. I have no excuses about it.”
Pérez returned to the Mets in 2001 and could not replicate his 2000 playoff heroics. A trip to the disabled list in April with a pulled groin did not help matters and Pérez’s productivity was not as expected. On July 17 he was sent back to the minors and spent 48 games with the Norfolk Tides, regaining his hitting eye. He batted .359 at Triple A and rejoined the Mets in September. His last 18 games with the Mets in 2001 were essentially a mirror of his first 67. He batted .244 down the stretch to bring his season’s average to .247. The Mets finished two games over .500.
After the season, Pérez played for Licey in the Dominican Winter League and suffered a broken hand. He had surgery on the hamate bone in his right wrist and was a bit late reporting in the spring as it was discovered that he had shaved a couple of years off his age when completing a form to play in Japan back in 1996. Once everything was sorted out, Pérez returned to the field.
Pérez posted the best numbers of his career in 2002. His batting average was over .300 for most of the season. Playing in a career-high 136 games (starting 107), he finished at .295, the highest in his career. In August, the Mets had seen any chance for a postseason berth vanish when they lost 12 straight games to slip to 58-69, putting them in fifth place, 23 games behind the division leaders.
On August 24 Pérez entered the game at Colorado in the fifth inning and regained some of the magic from 2000. In the ninth inning, with two outs and the Mets trailing the Rockies 2-1, Mets shortstop Joe McEwing prolonged the inning with a single, bringing Pérez to the plate. Pérez homered off Jose Jimenez to give the Mets a 3-2 lead, and they tacked on a pair of insurance runs for a 5-2 win. It was Pérez’s seventh home run of the season. The following night proved interesting. Pérez’s exuberance in celebrating his homer had not been well received by the Rockies, and Timo’s head was targeted not once, but twice in the next game. Denny Neagle threw behind him in the first inning. In the ninth inning, Kent Mercker threw above Pérez’s head and was ejected along with manager Clint Hurdle.7
Pérez was in a Mets uniform for the fourth consecutive year in 2003 and batted .269 in 127 games. The Mets were in decline and finished the season with a 66-95 record, in last place in the NL East Division. As the season advanced to September, the Mets were reduced to a spoiler role. They hosted Atlanta for three games and swept the front-runners. In the third game of the series, on September 3, Pérez, hitting in the number three slot, contributed to a 9-3 win with two RBIs. In the first inning, his sacrifice fly brought in Roger Cedeño with the game’s first run. In the bottom of the fifth, Pérez stretched the Mets’ advantage to 6-1 with a home run off the right-field scoreboard. It was his fourth homer of the season and his last as a Met.
On March 27, 2004, as spring training wound down, Pérez was traded to the Chicago White Sox for relief pitcher Matt Ginter. The White Sox opened the season in New York against the Yankees and Pérez showed some of his old flair in his second game of the season. It was his first start for his new team and, with Chicago trailing 1-0 he singled leading off the top of the fifth. He stole second base, took third on a wild pitch, and scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly by Willie Harris. An inning later, Pérez walked and scored as the White Sox tallied five times and assumed a 9-1 lead. The Yankees scored two late runs to make the final score 9-3. Pérez finished the season with a .246 batting average and 5 homers in 103 games (70 starts) as the White Sox finished with an 83-79 record and a second-place finish in the AL Central Division.
The next season, 2005, the White Sox climbed to the top of baseball. Pérez got into only 70 games and batted .218. There were some highlights. On April 9 at Minnesota, with the score tied, 3-3, Pérez led off the seventh inning with a home run, giving the White Sox a lead they would not relinquish. Chicago scored four runs in the inning and prevailed, 8-5. Pérez’s next big game came on May 1 against the Tigers at Chicago’s US Cellular Field (previously Comiskey Park). In the bottom of the third, he batted with the bases loaded and two out. His bunt single gave the White Sox a 2-0 lead. The lead was 6-0 when Pérez came to bat in the seventh inning with a runner on base. His two-run homer ended the scoring in the 8-0 Chicago win, which took their record to 18-7.
The White Sox won the AL Central Division by six games. In the Division Series against the Boston Red Sox. Pérez made only one appearance, flying out as a pinch-hitter in the first game, as the White Sox swept Boston in three games. He did not play in the ALCS as Chicago defeated the Angels in five games. In the World Series against the Astros, Timo was sent up as a pinch-hitter in the 11th inning of Game Three with two outs and runners on first and second. He grounded out to end the threat. The White Sox won the series in four games.
Pérez became a free agent after the season and signed with the Cincinnati Reds in February 2006. The Reds, in turn, sold Pérez to the St. Louis Cardinals, for whom he played in 2006. He played in only 23 games (four starts) and batted .194. (He spent much of the season at Triple-A Memphis.)
Pérez signed with Detroit for the 2007 season and spent most of the season with Toledo of the International League. He was batting .314 through his first 77 games with Toledo. He was called up to the Tigers in July when Marcus Thames went on the disabled list.8 Pérez’s stay with the Tigers was brief. After appearing in three games, he was optioned back to Toledo, where he spent the rest of the minor-league season, batting .309 with 13 homers and 69 RBIs for the year in 122 games. At the end of August, he rejoined the Tigers when Gary Sheffield was placed on the disabled list.
Pérez started paying dividends early with the Tigers this time around. On August 30 against the Kansas City Royals, he went 2-for-4 with a fifth-inning RBI double as the Tigers won 6-1. On September 1 he had three hits in a 6-1 win over Oakland. On September 5 he broke up a tie game in the 11th inning with a run-scoring single off the right-field wall. But the Tigers remained seven games out of first place.9 In 26 games during August and September, Pérez had 11 multihit games, and he batted .410. But the team was unable to move up in the standings and settled for second place in the AL Central with an 88-74 record.
Pérez did not figure in the Tigers’ plans, and on September 29, he played his last major-league game. He was designated for assignment after the season. In parts of eight big-league seasons, Pérez had batted .269, with 26 home runs and 185 RBIs.
But Pérez was ever the optimist. He went to spring training with the Tigers in 2008 as a nonroster player and batted .400 in 17 games. He spent the 2008 season with Toledo, batting .302, but there would be no late season call-up. Pérez was not ready to give up and spent the next three years playing in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Triple A. He was back in Toledo in 2011 and batted .304.
After the 2011 season, Pérez was given a 50-game suspension for testing positive for Ritalinic Acid and Methylphenidate. At that point, he left Organized Baseball. He played a season with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League and finished his career with two seasons with Licey in the Dominican Winter League.
At that point, there were the memories, the greatest being of three short weeks in 2000 when Timo Pérez made a big difference for the New York Mets.
Sources
In addition to the sources shown in the Notes, the author used Retrosheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com, and the following:
Amore, Dom. “Wild Ride! Vizcaino’s Single Wins It in 12th,” Hartford Courant, October 22, 2000: E1, E14.
Notes
1 Mike Lopresti, “Mets Enjoy a Revelation,” Binghamton (New York) Press and Sun Bulletin, October 17, 2000: 1C.
2 Lopresti.
3 T.J. Quinn, “World of Difference,” New York Daily News, October 7, 2000: 31.
4 David Heuschkel, “Payton Drives in Winner in Ninth,” Hartford Courant, October 13, 2000: C-4.
5 Greg Gutes, “Mets Hurt Themselves on Bases,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), October 22, 2000: 3.
6 Peter Botte, “Mets Blunder on Basepaths,” New York Daily News, October 22, 2000: 21.
7 Quinn, “Timo a Target Once Too Often,” New York Daily News, August 26, 2002: 72.
8 John Lowe, “With Thames Out, Pérez Summoned,” Detroit Free Press, July 20, 2007: 6D.
9 John Lowe, “Timo-Ment,” Detroit Free Press, September 6, 2007: C1.
Full Name
Timoniel Perez
Born
April 8, 1975 at Bani, Peravia (D.R.)
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