Chris Perez Talks Twitter

Cleveland Indians closer Chris Perez is on the way to establishing himself as one of the top ninth-inning men in baseball. This season, Perez ranks among American League leaders with 15 saves and has posted a stellar 2.70 ERA in 23.1 innings pitched. In addition to his excellence on the mound, @ChrisPerez54 is also one of the most entertaining players to follow on Twitter, constantly interacting with fans. Perez recently discussed his fast start and notable Twitter experiences during an interview at the MLB Fan Cave.

MLB Fan Cave: Having come up in the St. Louis Cardinals’ farm system, what’s your favorite thing about playing with the Tribe?
Perez: It’s so loose, and we’re a younger team. When I played for St. Louis, we were more of a veteran team, so it’s a different atmosphere here. You don’t really have to follow a lot of rules and do some of the old-school baseball rookie stuff. It’s a good atmosphere to come to the ballpark every day and just worry about baseball. I’m not worrying about other stuff.

MLB Fan Cave: So, you’re famous on Twitter for selecting a “Song of the Day.” How did you come up with the “Song of the Day?”
Perez: I actually stole it from Manny Acta (Indians manager). He does a song of the day, too, but his selections are terrible. So I try to help out some of the Tribe fans by giving them some better music selections. He listens to like Miley Cyrus. It’s one thing to listen to Miley, but it’s another thing to actually admit it. So, around spring training, it started from there.

MLB Fan Cave: How do you pick the songs each day?
Perez: I really don’t have a way of picking songs, actually. I just wake up in the morning and just scroll through my library. Whatever jumps out at me is what I will go with.

MLB Fan Cave: You have a pretty large Twitter following. How did it grow so fast?
Perez: I don’t know the exact date, but I started on Twitter in ’09, during the second half of the season. It was really fun doing it, but I couldn’t get any followers. Then, last April, this guy in Cleveland set up a fake Twitter account for me, and he started getting a lot of followers. The account was really funny, and he started really interacting with the people. I saw it and decided to get back on it, and I began interacting with him. It just went from there.

MLB Fan Cave: Your teammates told us that you’re the reason they’re so active on Twitter. Is that true?
Perez: Probably. I mean, it’s obviously getting more main stream and everybody is on it. Then they started seeing how many people that are following me and people I get to meet because they follow me on Twitter—just random people at the stadiums. They started to want to be a part of it, too, and now we are a mafia on there.

MLB Fan Cave: Final question here. We saw that you interviewed Jerry "The King" Lawler last week. How did that go?
Perez: That was awesome. That was probably one of the funniest interviews I have ever done. I used to be a big WWF follower. I grew up listening to The King Lawler on Monday Night Raw. And he’s a Tribe fan, which I didn’t even know. But he was there and it was awesome; he’s just a great guy and he had some really funny stories. He’s not as tall as I thought he would be, but for being 50-plus, he’s still jacked.

MLB Fan Cave: Did you body slam him?
Perez: No, it was right before the game.

MLB Fan Cave: Chris, thanks for taking the time. Good luck the rest of the way.


(mlb.com)