An interesting life. A stint with the Yankees. That hair.
I can say that I was very aware of what a Jheri curl was when I was young, even if I didn't always know the name for it. I don't think anyone boring has ever rocked a Jheri curl. Pascual Perez certainly led an interesting life before his passing a few years ago. Of course, he didn't die in a boring way: he was the victim of a grisly murder during a robbery.
Perez couldn't have been older than 33 at the time at the time the photo was taken, unless he was among the Latin America imports who were rumored to be part of widespread age falsification. He looks like he had lived a million interesting years already. He missed time during his career for all manner of reasons, both on field and off field. He's famous for getting lost on the way to his own team's ballpark and being forced to miss a start. He had good numbers when he was on the field. He had the mound mannerisms and quirks of an '80s Al Hrabosky. He finished his career, sadly, as a Yankee in some down years.
Leaf manages to squeeze in Pascual's full stats, both minor and major, on the back of the card. He gets the ignominious "OUT OF ORGANIZED BASEBALL" line for 1986, a feat usually reserved for catastrophic injuries or major position/life changes. Who knows what Pascual was up to in '86? Maybe he was just lost.
I wonder how the equipment manager would get the grease stains our of the shoulder of his uniforms.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I once read an article that Von Hayes of the Phillies complained that Perez kept his jheri-curl going because it provided him with plenty of "juice" to doctor up the ball. The stuff was called "World of Curls" and it apparently didn't do him any good in 1985 as he went 1-13 that season.
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