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Posted By: Anonymous

Todd:

I understand that Perez' numbers aren't overwhelming... just very good.

But outside of maybe Geoge Brett, he was the best clutch hitter I've ever seen (and any player on those Reds' championship teams will state he was the real key to all of those pennants). Sparky Anderson has said the same- often. And look at what happened to the Big Red Machine the year after he was traded... they were done.

Perez never failed to get that key 2-out base hit. He was 15th all-time on the RBI list when he retired. I understand that many or most people here will claim he's undeserving of the HOF because of the "milestone" thing. He fell short of 3,000 hits and 500 HRs, but so did most other HOFers (including all of those listed above).

Unfortunately, I do not know of a good measure for clutch hitting. Though a crucial element to a player's worth, it just doesn't show up in the stats.

Puckett was a great clutch hitter as well.. But I think many have singled him out because of the short career, and the "sympathy factor" that may have helped him get in on the first ballot.