Eduardo Perez Excited For Turn In Sunday Night Baseball Booth

It seems Eduardo Perez was born to be a baseball player.

The son of Hall of Famer Tony Perez grew up around the game. He then followed in his father’s footsteps and played in the major leagues from 1993-2006.

However, Eduardo Perez might have also been born to be a broadcaster.

While his father played for Cincinnati in the 1970s, Eduardo would listen to the Reds’ legendary radio broadcast team of Marty Brenneman and Joe Nuxhall as a boy on WLW-AM. When the Perez family would return to Puerto Rico in the offseason, Eduardo would tune in to hear the great Felo Ramirez call winter leagues games on the radio.

Eduardo Perez and his brothers would spend as much imitating the broadcasters as he did their father and the rest of the Big Red Machine.

Like many other young baseball fans of his generation, the now 52-year-old Perez would spend his Saturdays watching This Week in Baseball, which was narrated by Mel Allen, then the NBC Game of the Week with Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek at the microphone.

“As a kid I wanted to be play in the big leagues but there was no guarantee I would be able to do that, but I thought broadcasting could also be a possibility,” Perez said. “I was always trying to imitate the broadcasters. I was always pretending to call games.”

Perez has been working for ESPN since his playing career ending during spring training in 2007. Now he gets a chance to be part of the network’s marquee broadcast this season.

Perez will join fellow analyst David Cone and play-to-play man Karl Ravech to form a new broadcasting trio for Sunday Night Baseball.

They replace the duo of Matt Vasgersian and Alex Rodriguez. Much in the manner of the Manningcast that debuted during the 2021 NFL season on ESPN2, Rodriguez will host his own alternate broadcast on that channel during select games.

Perez has worked his way up the ladder at ESPN much like a player climbs the various minor league levels before reaching the major leagues. He started off doing regional Little League tournaments, called college games, and worked as a studio analyst for Baseball Tonight before getting the chance to do MLB games.

“I’ve spent my time doing all the steps, all the levels, just a progression and it’s awesome to have this opportunity on Sunday Night Baseball,” Perez said. “I’m so excited to work with David Cone, to learn from him and get his insights. And Karl Ravech, to me, is the voice of Major League Baseball on ESPN from all his years hosting Baseball Tonight and doing play-by-play.

“And I really respect the job that the people who aren’t on camera, the people who are behind the scenes to the viewers, do. We have a great crew, and they all make us look good.”

While Perez may be a neophyte as far as being on the No. 1 broadcast team, he has plenty of broadcasting experience. In addition to his duties at ESPN, Perez also co-hosts a morning talk show with former New York Mets general manager Steve Phillips on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM.

What stands out about Perez’s broadcasting style is his love for the game. He seems to have boundless enthusiasm for talking baseball.

“I’m having a blast. I really am. My wife says it’s annoying,” Perez said with a laugh. “It’s like I tell the people in my circle, I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.

“It’s like I’ve yet to grow up. I got a chance to play baseball for a living for a long time and even back then I was preparing for a broadcasting career. Aaron Boone and I were teammates in Cleveland (in 2006) and we’d sit in the dugout and call games.”

Boone was the primary analyst on Sunday Night Baseball before becoming the New York Yankees’ manager to begin the 2018 season. Now Perez is in the main ESPN baseball booth.

“I’m so excited about this opportunity and I’m so appreciative to continue to be part of the game,” Perez said. “If it wasn’t for the game, it wouldn’t have taken my dad out of Cuba and to Puerto Rico where he met my mother. The game put a roof over our head, gave me a chance to play in the major leagues and it continues to blossom. Now, it’s as a broadcaster and I’m grateful and thankful to be able to do this.”