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Glove size matters to Rays' Perez

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By ROGER MOONEY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 16, 2010

PORT CHARLOTTE - This is a glove story. The story of the baseball glove Fernando Perez wore when he dislocated his left wrist last spring, the story of the glove Perez wished he used when he dived for a sinking line drive that afternoon.

The difference between the two gloves was half an inch. But that half-inch cost Perez most of the 2009 season, interrupted his development as both a hitter and a fielder, led to offseason shoulder surgery and kept him out of the mix of outfielders vying for a spot on the Opening Day roster.

"When he's well we know what he can do for us here," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "Man, I love having him here, and I know he can be a big contributor for us here. But for right now, he's getting back in the groove."

Perez, one of the unexpected heroes of the 2008 championship run who quickly became a fan favorite at Tropicana Field, is still working his left shoulder into shape after having surgery to repair a torn labrum in October.

That injury, Perez said, was a result of the dislocated wrist he suffered March 10 while diving to catch a ball at Charlotte Sports Park.

That injury, Perez said, was the result of wearing the wrong glove.

Why? Because a glove manufacturer (he declined to name which) paid him to wear a new model, one that was 13 inches and less firm than the 12 1/2-inch model he normally used.

"It's as simple as that," he said.

The new glove was, as Perez described, a "floppy, floppy, floppy glove. One of those pancake gloves that I've always hated."

Perez prefers the leather of his glove to be stiff, so he doesn't run the risk of the web or fingertips bending if they brush the outfield grass when he dives for a baseball.

"I never, ever qualm over equipment," Perez said. "I always felt, honestly, we were lucky to have it. A glove's a glove a glove. A bat's a bat. And that's so true. It's really all in your head. I was trying this glove out, I didn't like it and I was waiting for another one to come, the one that I was going to use."

In the meantime, there was this sinking line drive that needed to be caught.

"That's a play I always make," he said. "I always dive and make the catch like that. I dive and stick my glove out, always expecting the integrity of the glove will hold as I dive along the grass. This one was a little bit longer and didn't have as much structural integrity. It caught (on the grass) and I wasn't expecting that at all. As soon as it caught, it was like a domino effect, first my wrist went, then my shoulder, then my season."

Perez didn't discover the tear in his labrum until his first rehab assignment in August. By then, he was too focused on getting back to the majors to worry about the pain.

"Maybe it was a lesson, because I always played recklessly with my body and trusted my instincts and it's always worked out fine," he said. "That was one where it didn't quite work out."

Almost as soon as he injured his wrist, Perez said he thought back to a game he played the previous August for the Durham Bulls. After putting down what he called a horrible bunt, Perez dived to avoid a tag by the first baseman and clipped his left thumb on the bag. The pain was so intense his first thought was his 2008 season was over.

"The way I hit the bag, it was inches from breaking my hand, my wrist, and that means no call-up, no postseason, no nothing," he said. "That's the way the game works. If (dislocating his wrist last March) was what I had to do to have that (2008 postseason) experience, it was well worth it. I was just paying back the baseball gods."

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