Sad News About Pascual Perez

I was 11 years old, sitting in my grandpa's living room watching the Braves – it was probably on a Sunday – and hearing WTBS broadcasters say Pascual Perez, who was supposed to start the matinee, was driving around Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium, unable to find his way to the ballpark. It's not like Perez, who throughout his career was one of baseball's most colorful characters, had never been to the Atlanta ballpark. He apparently was having a bad driving day. No GPS back then, ya know.

Now, 30 years later, comes news that Perez was murdered by someone attempting to burglarize his home in the Dominican Republic this morning. Two Spanish language newspapers, "Hoy" and "Diaro Libre" are reporting the incident.

I don't consider this a breaking-news blog, but I just read the news about a ballplayer I loved watching as a kid and teenager and thought I'd pass the word along.