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Oh Chris Perez...Ugh Photo from Wikimedia Commons |
Usually when I say that, it's about something stupid Perez has said. Strangely enough, today it's the opposite.
It's not that the Indians need to trade him, or now that he's blown another save on August 5 he's the worst closer ever, and I'm certainly not going to go the way of too many Tribe fans on Twitter and suggest that Perez kill himself—a ludicrous notion, to be sure. He's a closer, and even the great, revered Mariano Rivera blows a save sometimes.
My problem with Perez today stems from the fact that he was too much of a coward to own up to his mistakes and left his teammates to speak for him.
True, Perez has not spoken to the media since May, and perhaps that means the closer not speaking after Monday's 4-2 loss to the first-place Tigers shouldn't be a story. But it just seems to me that if ever there was a time to break the silence, it was after a game to begin one of the biggest series' of the season where Perez gave up four runs without recording an out in the 9th.
Maybe I'm being unreasonable about this, but I think that when someone screws the pooch as badly as Perez did last night, he should be the one to speak about it. Michael Bourn shouldn't have to say, "The only thing you can do is go to sleep, wake up and it's a new day... But this one was a tough one. I think it's one of the toughest ones of the year." Jason Kipnis shouldn't have to say, "There's no way to sugar coat it, it sucked. We thought we had this one, and we let it get away in the end."
Why is it so difficult for Perez to just come out and say, "This one's on me. I'm the closer, and I have to get the job done," and have that be the end of it? Isn't that something people teach their children—if they make a mistake, stand up, own it, and apologize for it?
But this is a trend with him. After he and his wife were arrested for marijuana possession in May, Perez never released a statement of his own words—or hell, even someone else's words. Only his attorney released a statement on his and his wife's behalf. And while this does make sense, as a public figure, I'd like to think it's not too much to ask that he apologize for embarrassing the Indians organization, even if he didn't specify exactly what he was apologizing for. People do that kind of thing all the time (ahem, Ryan Bruan), and it would've been appropriate in that instance.
But that's just not who Perez is—at least not anymore. We used to always see him front and center when he blew a big save, which is one of the things I respected about the man. And we have continued to see this type of owning up to one's mistake from other relievers like Joe Smith and the recently demoted Vinnie Pestano.
As the Indians' 28-year-old closer, Perez should be a leader for this team. Running away and making your teammates speak for you is about as far from a leader as one can be.
But who knows, maybe he'll realize his mistake and speak up for himself today.
The way this season's gone, I wouldn't count on it.