Editing Tony Pérez (section)

===Big Red Machine===
{{main article|Big Red Machine}}
After platooning and playing [[first baseman|first base]] in the early part of his career (1964–66) with the [[Cincinnati Reds]], he became a perennial all-star starting at [[third baseman|third base]] from 1967 to 1971. From 1972 onward he starred at first base. Pérez was one of the premier RBI men of his generation, driving in 100 or more runs seven times in his 23-year-long career. In an 11-year stretch from 1967 to 1977, Pérez drove in 90 or more runs each year, with a high of 129 RBIs in 1970. During the decade of the 1970s, Pérez was second among all major-leaguers in RBI, with 954, behind only his teammate Johnny Bench.

Beginning in {{mlby|1970}}, the Reds went to the World Series four times in seven years, winning back-to-back world championships in {{mlby|1975}} and {{mlby|1976}}, with Pérez starting at first base. Following the Reds sweep of the Phillies in the {{mlby|1976}} League Championship Series and [[New York Yankees]] in the [[1976 World Series]] (the only time a team has ever swept the postseason since the League Championship Series was introduced in 1969), Pérez was traded to the Montreal Expos with [[Will McEnaney]] for [[Woodie Fryman]] and [[Dale Murray]].<ref name="baseball-reference2">{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/perezto01.shtml |title=Tony Perez Statistics and History |publisher=Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=March 31, 2013}}</ref> After his trade, the "Big Red Machine"—considered one of baseball's all-time greatest teams—sputtered and never again got into the Series, reaching the playoffs but one more time in {{mlby|1979}}. [[Sparky Anderson]], the Reds manager during the championships of the 1970s, has stated in many interviews since that Pérez was the leader, and heart and soul of those teams.

After three seasons in [[Montreal]] (in which he hit 46 home runs with 242 RBIs and a .281 batting average), for the {{mlby|1980}} season, Pérez signed as a free agent with the Boston Red Sox. In his first season with the Red Sox, he finished in the top 10 in the [[American League]] in home runs (25), RBIs (105) and [[intentional walk]]s (11), and won the [[Lou Gehrig Memorial Award]].<ref name="baseball-reference2"/>