Perez and the Brass

Closer Chris Perez meets with Cleveland Indians brass, sticks to comments

Published: Sunday, May 20, 2012, 6:19 PM Updated: Sunday, May 20, 2012, 6:27 PM

Indians closer Chris Perez was called into the principal's office Sunday morning to explain himself after comments Saturday night that were critical of the fan base.

Perez told reporters later Sunday morning that he met with Indians General Manager Chris Antonetti. Indians President Mark Shapiro said the meeting also included him.

"I didn't get reprimanded or anything," Perez said. "I'm not suspended or fined or anything. It was a good talk, but I don't really want to get into what we talked about."

Saturday night, long after Perez struck out the side to earn the save in the Tribe's 2-0 victory against Miami, he criticized the fans who booed him Thursday during an appearance in which he didn't allow a run. But he saved his biggest blasts for those who haven't been attending games.
The Indians entered Sunday ranked last among the 30 big-league teams in attendance, with an average of 15,518 fans for 22 dates. No. 29 Oakland was at 19,573.

Perez continued to express his frustration in the dugout Sunday. Because so few reporters had been present for his comments Saturday night, he made himself available to everyone in order to "keep it out of the locker room and do it all at once."

Perez said he wasn't instructed to talk. If he had been, he probably would have apologized to some degree, or backed off his assertions. Instead, he held his line.
"The fans are going to come, I know that," he said. "It's just a slap in the face when you're in first place and last in attendance. Last. It's not like we're 25th, 26th -- we're last. Oakland is outdrawing us. That's embarrassing.

"In 2010, I wouldn't have made those comments [the Indians went 69-93 that season]. We deserved to get booed. We deserved to have nobody here. But we've been building up for this season. We're good. We have a good team. We haven't even played our best ball and we're in first."
Perez said some of his teammates feel the same way about the low attendance, but "they just won't say it."

"I'm not doing anything to bring extra attention to myself or distract from what the team's doing," he said. "I don't have an ulterior motive. I'm here to win. I want to win here. I care. We all care. We want to win. But right now, we're winning for ourselves, basically."

Within five minutes of Perez wrapping his session, Shapiro sat in the same spot and responded to Saturday's flare-up. Because Perez's comments Sunday were similar to those he made Saturday, Shapiro could have been responding to them as well.

"I, myself, and we, as an organization, have a lot of respect and appreciation for Chris," Shapiro said. "He's been one of the more dominant closers in major league baseball this year. What drives him to succeed in that role are emotion and competitiveness and passion, and I think a lot of that was behind what he said.

"In talking with him, and talking with him and Chris Antonetti, it's clear that what's behind the emotion is how great he feels our situation is -- how incredible he feels the team is, the ballpark is, and his desire for more people to experience it. [But] I can tell you that we, as an organization, clearly disagree with him about our fans. We appreciate our fans, we respect our fans."

Shapiro mentioned the word respect several times, including when asked if he worried that Perez's comments might alienate the fan base even more.

"No, I don't," he said. "I really feel like it's a moment in time, a story for right now. The reason I feel like that is, if you polled our players, by and large, and if you talk to our fans, by and large, and if you talk to every single person in this organization, what you'd see is a largely universal appreciation for our fans, a largely universal respect for our fans."

Shapiro was asked if he thought Perez was disrespectful of Tribe fans.

"I don't, but I'm not going to speak for Chris," he said. "He probably spoke to you in pretty clear terms. I'm guessing he was pretty crystal clear in how he felt. Obviously, he's a guy with strong opinions and a smart guy. He had thought out what he said and had reasons behind what he said. We agree on a lot of fronts and disagree on a few."

Perez, as one of the Indians' most accessible players, has been asked numerous times this year about the attendance issues. He has been adamant that he isn't disrespecting fans in any way -- he's just hoping that more come to watch a first-place club.

The reason these particular comments got so much play is because he was still running hot after being booed in the 10th inning Thursday against Seattle. Having entered a tie game with one out, Perez gave up a single and issued a walk on four pitches. When each of the next two pitches were balls, he was lustily booed. After rallying to get a pop-up to right, Perez was greeted with a Bronx cheer.
Perez struck out the next batter to escape unscathed. The Indians won, 6-5, in 11.

"Thursday was the last straw for me, and Saturday night was the first time I'd spoken [to reporters] since then," he said. "I just didn't understand the booing when I hadn't even given up a run. I don't understand the negativity, in general. Why? We have a first-place team. How many teams in the country would want that right now?

"You think the Tigers are happy? The Tigers are in third place. We're in first place. Enjoy it. We could be in last place. We could be the Royals, we could be the Pirates, who haven't won anything in 20 years."

To the surprise of no one, Perez's comments have touched more than a few nerves. Perez has received plenty of support, but the blowback has been intense.

"I expected it, but I really don't care anymore," Perez said. "I'm here to do my job and play for this team. If the fans come, they'll come. If they don't, it will be just like it was in April, so who cares?"
Perez said the perception exists that playing in Cleveland isn't fun, that the atmosphere isn't good. He said it keeps select players from signing -- or re-signing -- with the Indians.

Shapiro respectfully disagrees.

"My experience has been that guys want to be here," he said. "I'm sure there are some who don't, but I think a lot do. You've got two recent examples in Asdrubal Cabrera and Carlos Santana, who signed extensions."

Shapiro doesn't think Perez will be adversely affected going forward.

"He's certainly not one to shrink from responsibility," Shapiro said. "He can handle the heat."

Chris Perez is a good closer, good teammate without much perspective, Terry Pluto writes

Published: Sunday, May 20, 2012, 5:47 PM Updated: Sunday, May 20, 2012, 6:52 PM

By Terry Pluto, The Plain DealerThe Plain Dealer
My brother Tom Pluto coached Chris Perez for a few summers at the IMG Baseball Academy in Florida.

It was when the Tribe's reliever was in his early teens. Back then, Perez was mostly a catcher. A former baseball coach at Cleveland Central Catholic, my brother moved to Florida in 1973 and coached summer teams for decades.

Several times, my brother has said how amazed and impressed he's been by Perez, because the young Chris Perez was a volcano of emotions. His nickname is "Pure Rage," and he earned it with his words, actions and eruptions.

As a closer, Perez is operating in baseball's most pressurized job, one that St. Louis wondered if he had the self control to handle. That's part of the reason Perez was traded by the Cardinals to the Tribe for Mark DeRosa in 2010.

Perez likes to say what he feels, as many people do.

Problem is that what we feel doesn't always match reality, as was clear by the words of Perez the past few days about the fans and the franchise.

Let's start with what Perez had right.

Some fans have been too tough on Perez, as they were on Bob Wickman before him. Those fans believe every ninth inning should be three-up, three-down. They don't like base-runners, they don't want drama. They tend to forget every save and remember every failure.

Perez trashed a 4-1 lead on Opening Day, then saved the next 12 games before he allowed a couple of runners and heard some boos on Thursday.

That really upset Perez, who believes he's earned more good will from the fans.
Since he's 49-of-54 in saves since the 2011 opener. . . .

And 24-of-27 in one-run saves. . . .

And his 90-percent save conversion rate was even higher than Mariano Rivera in 2010. . . .

A GOOD JOB

The guy deserves some grace and patience.

It's understandable when Perez said: "They booed me against the Mariners when I had two guys on. . . . It feels like I can't even give up a base-runner without people booing me. It's even worse when there's only 5,000 in the stands, because then you can hear it. . . . They haven't even scored yet and you're booing me? You're saying, 'Get this bum out of there.' "

I was at that 6-5 win over Seattle on Thursday. Most of the fans were not booing him. The problem is when the crowd is small (12,894) you hear those who scream the loudest -- and some guys were bellowing at Perez.

Was he too sensitive? Perhaps.

But was he wrong? Not really.

Closers are blowing up all over baseball. It's a job that tends to attract strange and outrageous personalities.

No matter what the stats geeks insist, racking up the final three outs of a close game is different than a pitcher trying to get any other three outs in any other inning.

Almost every time manager Manny Acta hands the ball to Perez, the game is in his hands.

And more than 90 percent of the time since Opening Day 2011, he has delivered. In that span, he ranked No. 3 in the American League in save conversions.

WANTING SUPPORT

Perez then talked about the lack of attendance, how the team deserves better support. But he said it after Saturday's 2-0 victory, and two consecutive games where the Tribe had nearly 30,000 fans.

Just as the fans were grabbing on to the team, Perez was angry about them staying away. He sounded a bit like some pastors that I've heard over the years when they finally have a full church for a holiday service -- and they spend part of their sermon complaining how no one comes to church.

I've been told that Perez realizes that his timing was not the best. But he does believe it's
embarrassing the team is last in attendance while being in first place in the Central Division.
And he's right when saying other players agree with him, they just don't say it.

And there is a case to be made for Perez's plea for support.

The problem is the Indians came off seasons of 93 and 97 losses in 2009 and 2010, and they never had back-to-back losing seasons of 90 games before. And there was the trauma of losing Cliff Lee, C.C. Sabathia and Victor Martinez to trades in those seasons.

No team had ever traded back-to-back Cy Young winners before.

The Indians have not had back-to-back winning seasons since 2000-01, and ownership has a major public relations problems in terms of trust with the fan base.

But from the view of Perez, the team was exciting for most of last season (finishing 80-82), and it's been fun this year. So where are the fans?

The trouble is rather than turn it into a plea for more support, it came off like a whine of feeling underappreciated by a guy making $4.5 million who was given a chance to establish himself as a closer in Cleveland. No matter how Perez sees it today, the view of most fans is Cleveland has been the land of opportunity for this young man from Bradenton, Fla.

GOING WRONG

Perez also talked about how players don't want to come here -- and he said it was because of the fans.
He then mentioned Carlos Beltran.

Let's see, Beltran was offered $26 million for two years from the St. Louis Cardinals.
And $24 million for two years from the Tribe.

So he took the offer of more money to play for the World Series champions.
You can't blame the fans for that.

Yes, St. Louis has outstanding fans. And Albert Pujols owned the city and married a woman from St. Louis. The Cardinals did everything possible to make Pujols happy, and he apeared to be happy.
But then Pujols signed for more money with the Angels.

When Sabathia became a free agent, he said he preferred to play in the National League because he also wanted to bat. He was leaning toward the West Coast.

But he signed with the Yankees, an American League team in New York.
Why? Money. Lots of money.

If the Indians had offered Beltran $30 million instead of $24 million, and the Cardinals offered him $26 million, a safe guess is that he'd be in Cleveland today.

Is Cleveland one of the top destinations for players who mostly grow up in the south, the West Coast or Latin countries? You know the answer to that. But when the check is big enough, they will come to the Midwest. Just look at Detroit's payroll.

NOT A BAD GUY

Perez is 26 and a ballplayer, not a 56-year-old statesman who graduated from the Harvard school of diplomacy.

He doesn't look at the world through the eyes of fans who grew up with the Tribe, nor does he understand the different hot spots that some of his remarks have touched.

He's in his middle 20s, and not all of us can say everything we did at that point in our lives was wise and well-spoken.

I know that Perez doesn't run from the media or fans. He is buying tickets to give away. He signed autographs for kids before Sunday's game. He shakes hands and has generally been a good ambassador for the team.

He's not acted as if he can't wait to leave town.

Tribe President Mark Shapiro was correct when said Perez "is driven by emotions, passions and a drive to succeed."

It also can led to frustration and words uttered in anger. He also is active on Twitter. Like other forms of media, it's the most extreme voices that seems to receive the most attention.

I know from my brother the progress made by Perez. And I look at a man as more than what he might say in a weekend of anger, even if all the rage isn't justified.

One day, ballplayers may learn never to complain about the fans -- you always end up doing it in the wrong way at the wrong time.

Keep in mind that what a ballplayers says really doesn't amount to much in the big picture of the team, much less life. What counts is how he pitches and acts with his coaches and teammates.

So far, Perez has done very well in those areas. I disagree with some of his points, but I still like and appreciate guy and pitcher.