Angels Find Carbon Copy : Eduardo Perez Seems Destined to Be Even Better Than His Dad

Slouched in front of his locker, Eduardo Perez stared at the flurry of activity in the middle of the Angel clubhouse.

What had caught his eye were the clubhouse attendants. They were picking up dirty socks and uniforms and putting them in one laundry cart; sorting out the clean ones in another. And making sure all of the contents were properly marked.

“Hey, if you guys need a hand, let me know,” Perez blurted. “I’m pretty good, you know?”

The three attendants stopped, looked at Perez, but saw no hint of sarcasm. He actually looked serious. Come on, what was the punch line?

“I’m serious,” Perez said. “I’m a veteran at this. You can ask me any number, and I’ll tell you whose uniform it is.”

They began testing him in rapid-fire. . OK, who’s number 66? Bob Gamez. Who’s 65? Mark Sweeney. Who’s 54? Hmm, Simmons, Nelson Simmons. Who’s 72? Andrew Lorraine.

The attendants looked at one another in disbelief. This was amazing. Most major league players couldn’t tell you the uniform number of their closest teammates, and this kid was rattling off numbers of non-roster players he had barely met.

“Hey, tell them Eduardo could do that since he could talk,” said Bernie Stowe, the Cincinnati Reds’ clubhouse attendant. “I put him to work early. He was stealing bubble gum out of the back room, so I made him work for it.

“It looks like he’s done all right for himself. People around here tell me he’s going to be a good one.

“Too bad, he could have been a great clubbie.”

Eduardo Antanacio Perez, who has been hanging around major league clubhouses since the day he could walk, instead will be attempting an altogether different task.

He might not be able to sway any voters to get his dad into the Hall of Fame, and he certainly won’t be able to persuade Cincinnati Red owner Marge Schott to rehire him as manager, but he can pay tribute in his special way.

Perez will wear No. 24 this season in honor of his father, Tony.

“I can never expect to have the career like my father,” he said, “but maybe I can revive some of those memories. Maybe people will then remember what kind of player he was. How he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. How he deserves to get another shot at managing.

“Now, that would be sweet, wouldn’t it?”

It’s unfair really, maybe even cruel, but Perez, 24, is prepared for the inevitable. He is going to be compared to his father as long as he plays the game.

“I don’t mind it,” he said. “It’s a compliment. He was my idol. Really, I like hearing that.

“The way he drove in runs, the way he acted in the clubhouse, who wouldn’t want to be compared to him?”

Tony Perez was considered one of the finest clutch hitters in the game, batting .279 with 379 homers and 1,652 runs batted in during a 23-year career. There are those who insist he was as responsible as anyone for the success of the Big Red Machine.

There also are those who insist Eduardo Perez can be every bit as good.

“This kid is stronger than his father,” said Angel executive Preston Gomez, who has known Eduardo since he was born. “This kid is faster than his father. This kid is just as aggressive as his father.

“And there’s no question in my mind he can be just as good as his father.”

Tony boasted to his friends when Eduardo was in Little League that he would make it to the big leagues. There really was no basis for his prophecy, but there was just that feeling.

“I just knew he wanted it,” Tony said. “There was no question in his own mind that this is what he wanted to do. I’d send him to school, but he didn’t want to go. He just wanted to play baseball.

“I told him, you have to go to school to read and write. Well, a few months later he comes up to me and says, ‘I ain’t going to school no more. That’s it.’

“I say, ‘Why Eduardo?’

“He tells me, ‘Because I already learned how to write my name for autographs.’ ”

It seemed only natural for Perez and his friends to play major league baseball. He grew up hanging around the clubhouse with Ken Griffey Jr., Brian McRae, Pete Rose Jr., and Ed Sprague. They watched their fathers win World Series after World Series, dreaming one day of doing the same.

“I remember we’d run behind the home-plate area at the stadium and yell, ‘Umpire needs glasses, umpire needs glasses,’ Eduardo said.

“Even when our fathers swung and missed, and struck out, we’d yell it. We were crazy.”

It’s difficult to believe that Griffey Jr. and McRae already are established stars in the American League, that Sprague is a World Series hero, and that Perez’s turn may be next. It seems like only yesterday that their fathers retired, and now the kids are taking over.

Perhaps this is why Jose Martinez, Chicago Cub first base coach, could not resist the urge to tease Perez last week when he reached first base.

“Hey, if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t be standing here,” Martinez said. “I was the guy who introduced your parents.”

Said Perez: “Uh, thanks, I appreciate it. Anything I can do for you?”

It’s this affable personality that reminds so many people of his father. They each are so gracious and easygoing that it seems impossible they would find enemies, or that anyone would want to harm them.

Eduardo certainly realized his father’s popularity last season when Tony was fired as manager of the Cincinnati Reds after only 44 games. The baseball world was infuriated, and everywhere Eduardo traveled, strangers would come up and offer their condolences.

“It just seemed so planned out,” Eduardo said. “It’s not the kind of move a rookie general manager (Jim Bowden) decides. I mean, he didn’t even have the courtesy to bring him into his office. He told him on the phone.

“If there was one person I would hate to be used it would be my dad. And to me, my dad was used.”

If there was anything remotely gratifying about the ordeal, Tony said, it was being able to see his son play for the first time in the major leagues. Eduardo made his major league debut July 27, hitting a double in his first at-bat and a homer in his last. He finished the season batting .250 with four homers and 30 RBIs in 52 games.

Perez underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow in the off-season, prompting the Angels to move him from third base to left field. There will be less stress on his elbow in the outfield, they said, and he also will be used at first base.

Certainly, any questions about the elbow impairing his offensive skills have vanished. Perez is hitting .412 this spring with one home run and a team-leading eight RBIs.

“This kid is going to be something,” said Max Oliveras, Perez’s manager last season at triple-A Vancouver. “It’s unbelievable the way he reminds me of his father. He’s got the same mannerisms at the plate, everything. The only thing different is that he’s got a little longer swing, and holds the bat higher.”

Perez, who is appearing in his first major league camp as a player, still makes sure that he’s treated no differently than any other young guy trying to make the club. He hangs with the rookies, talks with the clubbies, and asks questions of the veterans.

“I know spring training should be kind of old to me,” he said, “but this is totally different. I’m not just some kid running around getting in his dad’s way. I’m a major leaguer now.

“Who knows, maybe some day they’ll look at my dad and say, ‘Hey, aren’t you Eddie’s father?’

“Now that would be something.”