One of the National Pastime’s great run producers, Atanacio “Tony” Pérez Rigal was among the best when it came to driving in big runs for Cincinnati’s “Big Red Machine” of the 1970s.
“Pete (Rose) would get his 200 hits, and (Johnny) Bench would do his thing,” said former Pérez teammate Pat Corrales. “And Tony would get shoved in the background, driving in his 100 runs every year. You’d see it in the notes at the end of the stories in the paper – ‘Oh, by the way, Pérez hit a three-run homer to win the game.’”
