Being the son of a Hall of Fame baseball player is pressure enough. Then there’s the pressure of being part of a national broadcast of baseball every Sunday night. Eduardo Perez is the son of former Cincinnati Reds first baseman Tony Perez. Eduardo enjoyed a nice major league career playing for 6 different teams, including the Reds. Only a few players have been able to experience life as a baseball player, where his dad once starred. Perez has parlayed that experience into a second career as a baseball analyst on ESPN, now as the top analyst.
Perez was a player first. He was drafted in the first round by the Angels in 1991 after leading the Florida State University Seminoles to the College World Series that same season. Perez played his first major league game on July 27, 1993, as the Angels beat the A’s 15–8. He was the starting third baseman. Perez went 2-for-3 with a walk and 3 runs batted in.
Perez spent 13 seasons in the Major Leagues, playing for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, Tampa Bay Rays, Cleveland Indians, and Seattle Mariners. His best season was in 1997 while with Cincinnati, reaching career highs in home runs (16), RBI (52), and games played (106). He also spent some time in the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan.
ROAD TO SUNDAY NIGHT BASEBALL
Perez joined ESPN’s Baseball Tonight for the network’s postseason coverage in 2006. He worked as an analyst for ESPN’s signature show through the 2011 season. As a bi-lingual person, Perez also lent his talents to ESPN Deportes’ “Béisbol Esta Noche” during that time.
In 2007, he provided commentary for the NCAA baseball regionals, the Triple-A All-Star Game, and the Little League World Series regionals. It was also later that year that he started a program in Puerto Rico. Just three months after the winter baseball league was canceled Perez announced the founding of the “Winter Training Program” for both professional and amateur players to return pro baseball to the island.
Baseball occupied most of Perez’s time from there on. He didn’t do much for ESPN, since he was managing in the Puerto Rican league, guiding Leones de Ponce in 2008 and 2009. Perez was named 2008 Manager of the Year for leading his team to the league title.
Perez got back involved in Major League Baseball, serving as a special assistant in the then Cleveland Indians front office. He went back to the field in 2011 when he was named the Marlins hitting coach under manager Ozzie Guillen. That lasted until after the 2012 season.
He managed the team representing Colombia in the World Baseball Classic Qualifying Round in 2013, finishing with a 1–2 record. Perez then served as the Astros bench coach during the 2013 season. For the following season, he was named as the team’s first base coach, but resigned in early January to spend more time with his family. The following month he rejoined ESPN as a studio host and game analyst.
In 2022, Perez was named to ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball team. He serves as an analyst on the Major League Baseball game of the week alongside five-time World Series Champion David Cone and play-by-play man Karl Ravech. Perez paid his dues along the way, before being elevated to the main role at ESPN.
WHAT MAKES HIM SO GOOD
There’s an easygoingness to Perez’s style of analysis. He’s not in your face or loading you up with a bunch of numbers. Perez instead likes to talk baseball and he has some pretty good knowledge to back it up. Credentials as a former player and as a kid growing up around the “Big Red Machine” teams in the 1970s.
Perez loves to talk about hitting and strategy, and how they work together. He shares with his audience his thoughts on what he thinks players at the plate should be doing in certain situations. He has definite opinions on that aspect of the game and isn’t afraid to express those beliefs.
I know some question his voice. It is different, but it’s not a deal breaker to me. I appreciate the information and he explains things in a very clear manner. I hear the information more than his voice because the nuggets really stand out to me. His unique vocal presence in a sense helps him, because, you definitely know when Perez is doing a game on ESPN.
There is one thing that clearly stands out to me when hearing Perez on air. He loves the game of baseball. The energy he has when doing a game is unparalleled. Baseball is a fun game and Perez lives up to the old adage “You can’t beat fun at the ole ballpark.” It’s not surprising since he’s said in the past that if it weren’t for baseball, his dad would never have left Cuba and he may not be here.
“I’m having a blast. I really am. My wife says it’s annoying,” Perez told Forbes before last season. “It’s like I tell the people in my circle, I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. I got a chance to play baseball for a living for a long time and even back then I was preparing for a broadcasting career. Aaron Boone and I were teammates in Cleveland (in 2006) and we’d sit in the dugout and call games.”
The preparation is evident. He does his homework and is ready for each game he calls. The refreshing thing is that he and Cone both never opine about “the good old days” of the sport. Both are up on the analytics and the current players. Perez talks intelligently about today’s players and the newer numbers and strategies.
Cone, a former Cy Young Award winner, thinks that aspect of their analysis is really important.
“You’re going to see us genuinely get excited about today’s game at a time when that’s really needed, I think, on a national broadcast,” Cone told the Cincinnati Enquirer last year.
Perez understands the dynamic of the three-man booth too. It’s not easy to thrive in that setting for everyone. You very rarely hear Perez talking over Cone or Ravech. The former hitter and pitcher dynamic plays and usually spurs on some interesting conversation. ESPN has a great analyst pairing here, with the steadiness of Ravech leading the way.
Even better, his booth mates, enjoy working with him. Before last season Ravech told The Cincinnati Enquirer about life with Perez. “Science was not my strength, but if there’s a compound that mixes with everything, Eddie is that compound,” Ravech said. “You walk through airports, restaurants, getting into cars, Eduardo knows everybody, and they like him.”
DID YOU KNOW
I already told you that Eduardo’s dad is Hall of Famer Tony Perez. Did you know, his godfather is also a Hall of Famer? The great Orlando Cepeda.
Perez hit 79 career home runs and four of them came against Hall of Famer Randy Johnson. On April 19, 2005, Perez hit two home runs and knocked in three runs against Johnson in that game. He was 8-for-27 lifetime against “The Big Unit”, with seven runs batted in and two doubles.
In 2006, Perez’s last season, Johnson was ejected and suspended five games for a brushback pitch against Perez a half-inning after Johnson’s teammate, Jorge Posada, had been hit by a pitch. Perez’s four home runs against Johnson were the most against one pitcher in Perez’s career. He hit three each off Al Leiter and Sterling Hitchcock.
Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.
