Pérez: What it was like to play with three 2025 HOFers
Growing up as the son of a Hall of Famer, I was raised with a deep respect for the game of baseball — not just the numbers on the back of the card, but the soul behind the uniform. My father, Hall of Famer Tony Pérez, showed me that greatness is not just measured in stats. It is found in the character, heart and the unrelenting love for the game in any player. I was lucky — not only did I learn that lesson early, I lived it alongside three men now being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame: Billy Wagner, CC Sabathia and Ichiro Suzuki.
In 1996, long before the lights of Cooperstown were even a thought for Billy Wagner, we played together in winter ball for the Cangrejeros de Santurce in my native Puerto Rico. That league is not just a proving ground — it was and still is a crucible. Billy showed up as a young fireballer — at the time, a starter with a left arm that snapped like a whip and a heart full of quiet intensity. What struck me was not just his velocity. It was his humility. He did not come to dominate. He came to learn, to grow, to honor the game. And he did it all with a work ethic that made him feel more like a native than a visitor.
A decade later, in 2006, I joined CC Sabathia in Cleveland. At that point, he was already a force. Towering presence, electric stuff, and the kind of leadership you can’t teach. But what stood out most to me was how deeply he cared: about the clubhouse, about the guys grinding beside him, and about the responsibility of carrying a franchise. CC pitched like he was protecting something sacred. He reminded me of my father in that way. He knew it wasn’t just about how you play the game, but how you carry yourself in the spaces in between.
That was embodied in something personal, something small but unforgettable. Every game that I was not in the starting lineup and he was not pitching — which, let’s face it, was often — I would jump on the stationary bike in the fifth inning. Without fail, CC would join me. That became our time. Sometimes for 10 minutes; if the inning went long, sometimes for 30 minutes (which we were never happy about). Just two teammates, side by side, pedaling through the middle innings, talking life and baseball. That was CC. Present, supportive and always a teammate first.
That same year, I was traded to Seattle and found myself sharing a dugout with Ichiro Suzuki. If Billy brought heat and CC brought heart, Ichiro brought harmony. A perfect blend of precision, preparation and pride. Every move he made was intentional. Every at-bat felt like performance art. But Ichiro was not aloof. He was engaged, thoughtful and deeply respectful of the game’s history. His discipline was on another level. He stretched long before most guys were even dressed. He closely studied the craft of right field. And behind the scenes, he lived by the clock; everything he did was to minute. The work never stopped.
There was one moment I will never forget. We were playing the Tampa Bay Rays, and I had been struggling at the plate. I figured I needed a little luck and a change. Ichiro never kept his bats in the rack. He always sat in the same exact spot in the dugout, and his bats were always lined up neatly right next to him. So, midgame, I made a bold move. I quietly took one of Ichiro’s bats from beside his seat and walked to the on-deck circle. As I stepped into the batter’s box, I could feel it. Ichiro, the entire team, everyone realized what I had done. I was using his bat. I ended up getting a hit up the middle, and when I came back to the dugout, Ichiro retrieved the bat. During the game, he wrote something on the knob and reluctantly gave it back to me. To be clear, he was not happy — that was the kind of competitor he was. His bats were not just tools, they were extensions of his craft. But even in that quiet frustration, there was a layer of respect. That was Ichiro — wrapped in a bat that, thankfully, worked for one swing that day.
These three men, Billy, CC and Ichiro, are now forever etched in baseball immortality. But the reason I am proudest to have played beside them has nothing to do with Cooperstown. It is because they showed up with authenticity. They gave the game everything they had. They respected the journey and the people around them. They played not for glory, but because they loved it.
And for me, someone who grew up in the clubhouse of the Big Red Machine and whose father taught him to honor this game with every swing and every breath, that is the highest tribute there is.
To Billy, CC and Ichiro, thank you for letting me share a small piece of your remarkable journey. Baseball is better because of you. And I am better for having played beside you.
PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia slugger Kyle Schwarber hit four home runs Thursday night against Atlanta to become the 21st major leaguer and fourth Phillies player to accomplish the feat.
Schwarber was 4-for-6 with a Phillies-record nine RBI in the 19-4 victory. He took the outright National League homer lead with a career-high 49 and moved within one of Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the major league lead. Schwarber leads the majors with a career-high 119 RBIs.
“It’s pretty cool,” Schwarber said. “It was a fun night, great atmosphere. Wouldn’t want to do it with a better group of guys than we have here.”
Mike Schmidt was the last Philadelphia player to hit four homers in a game, doing so at the Chicago Cubs in April 1976. Schwarber had the third four-homer game of the season, following Eugenio Suárez and Nick Kurtz.
Schwarber’s 49 homers passed Ryan Howard (2008) and Schmidt (1980) for the second most in a season in Phillies history, trailing only Ryan Howard’s 58 in 2006.
“It just cooperated,” said Schwarber, who had entered the game hitless in his last 20 at-bats, by far the longest such streak entering a four-home run game since 1900. “You can do everything right and get out, and you can do everything wrong and get a hit. Got some pitches and put some good swings on it.”
Schwarber started the power surge with a solo shot in the first inning off Cal Quantrill, sending a 2-1 curveball into the right-field seats. Schwarber hit a flyout to center in the second.
After Quantrill was lifted with one out and two runners on base in the fourth, Schwarber greeted lefty Austin Cox by sending a 3-2 curveball over the wall in right for his fourth multihomer game of the season.
With “M-V-P! M-V-P!” chants ringing down from Phillies fans in the fifth, Schwarber launched a three-run drive to left off Cox to put Philadelphia ahead 15-3. In the seventh, Schwarber hit a three-run shot to right off Wander Suero to make it 18-4.
Schwarber popped out in the eighth against Braves third baseman Vidal Brujan.
“I stink against position players,” Schwarber said jokingly. “All you’re trying to do is get a good pitch. I got the pitch. Just popped it up.”
Schwarber, 32, has 333 homers in 11 seasons in the majors primarily with the Cubs and Phillies. He had a previous career high of 47 home runs in 2023 for Philadelphia.
The Associated Press and ESPN Research contributed to this report.
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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — In his latest setback, Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez was diagnosed with a fracture in the pinkie finger in his left hand, manager Carlos Mendoza said Thursday.
Alvarez, 23, sustained the injury when he was hit by a pitch on his left hand during a game for Triple-A Syracuse on Wednesday. Mendoza said Alvarez will wait until the inflammation in the finger diminishes — he estimated two or three days — before resuming baseball activities. The third-year catcher was already on the injured list and on rehab assignment because of an ulnar collateral ligament sprain in his right thumb.
“This should be relatively short,” Mendoza said. “But, again, it’s a little bit of a setback compared to what the original plan was. But when you’re talking about you get the news, ‘Oh, he’s got a fracture,’ you’re thinking about the worst-case scenario, but apparently, that’s not the case here. So we just got to wait and see.”
This is Alvarez’s fourth hand injury in the past two years. Last season, he underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb and missed nearly two months. This spring, he fractured his left hamate bone and missed the first month of the regular season.
His recent UCL sprain happened while sliding headfirst into second base Aug. 17. It’s the same thumb that he hurt last year. The UCL sprain will require surgery to heal, but the Mets are hopeful he can postpone the procedure until the offseason to avoid missing the remainder of the season. The surgery requires an eight-week recovery timetable. Instead, doctors cleared him to play as long as he can tolerate the pain in his throwing hand. Tearing it completely, however, would require surgery sooner and end his season. Now, he’s dealing with a fracture in his receiving hand.
“We’re not going to put him in a position where he’s very uncomfortable,” Mendoza said. “As tough as he is, he’s human. So, I think we got to get him to a point where it’s manageable because now we’re talking about the receiving hand, too. But, again, it’s a small fracture and we just got to wait. But it comes down to making sure we’re not putting the player in a position where he’s in danger.”
Alvarez played in his first rehab game for the UCL sprain Wednesday. He went 1-for-2 with a walk and was behind the plate for five innings. His right thumb was not tested by baserunners.
“The ball was coming out fine,” Mendoza said. “Good intensity, good carry. But, again, we got to wait and see when it happens in real action. When he’s got to do the transfer and get the ball in the air as quick as possible and put something on the throw. But, so far, in between innings yesterday, the five innings that he caught, he was fine.”
The UCL sprain interrupted Alvarez’s best stretch of the season, which began with him struggling so badly that the Mets optioned him to Syracuse in late June. Alvarez was batting .236 with three home runs and a .652 OPS in 35 games when he was sent down. He returned a month later to hit .323 with four home runs and a 1.054 OPS in 21 games until his thumb injury.
Without him, the Mets will continue rotating veteran Luis Torrens and rookie Hayden Senger behind the plate.
“It’s been hard for him,” Mendoza said.
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