The Extraordinary Career of Oliver Perez 

Before I watch the video, I just gotta say, he’s still going strong in 2026 in my MLB The Show franchise. Couple bad seasons, a few good ones. Unironically, he had a resurgence in 2025 with the Dodgers, sub-2.50 ERA in like 40 games and was an all-star. I actually just signed him to a minor league deal just to add lefty depth (MLB The Show logic).

Ollie went from: Promising rookie, to slumping sophomore, to elite starting lefty, to good starting lefty, to average starting lefty, to an absolutely terrible starting lefty, to disgraced from baseball, to somehow revitalize his career in seattle as a lefty relief pitcher, to good lefty relief pitcher, to terrible lefty relief pitcher, to good lefty relief pitcher again, to relegated to mexican league, to one last hurrah, to finishing strong in mexican league. This story has so many incredible twists and turns.

He told the Pirates' broadcast team during a game this season that it took him an entire day to film the "Cooking with Perez" commercial in the mid-2000's because it actually took him that long to learn how to crack an egg with one hand. What a legend

Dude was cracked in MVP Baseball 2004. How about and Edwin Jackson video? That dude's career was so perplexing.

Oliver Perez is the last active pitcher to have had a decision against Roger Clemens, and is the second to last active pitcher to have lost to Randy Johnson (behind Max Scherzer). It was a heck of a career.

As a fellow Mets fan who's first season watching was 2006, I'm fully tearing up watching the 06 nlcs section. I HATED Oli but that game 7 performance earned my respect the rest of his career. I'll never forget what he meant to the earliest memories of my baseball fandom. No matter how bad he was for the Mets, he will always be a personal favorite of mine. I would even mimick his short hop over the baseline chalk when I would come off the mound in little league

As a 22 year old Mets fan, I despised Ollie, but knew there was a reason I kept seeing him throughout the years. This video perfectly explains why, and I admire the guy a whole lot now. Hats off to an amazing career, I'll be rooting for you in the 2023 WBC.

Back when Ollie was on the Mets I thought he was legit and everyone else I knew thought he was terrible. I’m glad he carved out a long career. I see a lot of him in David Peterson now.

As a Cleveland fan, it was awesome having Oliver in the pen and he literally was untouchable for that time

Dude is a legend in Mexico. He played a long time in the LMP during the off-season. (Liga Mexicana del Pacifico).

He went the whole nine yards, from phenom to good to average, to LH specialist out of the pen... he was a lefty with a good to great fastball, that fastball kept him employed that long

Mike, you are my favorite RU-vidr. Thank you and keep doing what you are doing.

Im from his hometown, I used to play fastpitch softball in college, his brother was our manager, we made it to the final at the time Oliver was playing with the nats, he sent us a video of Harper wishing us good luck hahaha.

Yes! You don't know how long I've been waiting for this video. This is the one. I've been looking forward to it since you mentioned you were going to make one. I thought you forgot. Thanks!

thank you so much for making this video man, as a mexican it's really nice to see oliver's story being told. he's kinda like our jamie moyer, very under the radar lefty with an incredibly long career (obv not a 1 to 1 comparison, but still)

Ollie Perez was the bane of my existence as a young Mets fan. Thought the guy couldn’t pitch at all. But I’m glad he carved himself out such a successful career

I grew up watching Oliver Perez on the Mets and I was always excited to watch him pitch

Is that MLB Power Pros music? OMFG I ADORE THAT GAME

Older Padres fan here. I remember all the hype about him when he stared with us. He was electric (but wild).

9:43 ahhhhh that song....a man of culture I see

Excellent video! Truthfully, I can't believe he lasted that long in MLB. He had his ups and downs with some good seasons sprinkled in. If anything, Perez might be the most resilient player the last 20 years. His career could have been over multiple times but somehow he found his way back each time.

Great video. Thank you for posting.

Only a couple minutes in and already know its a banger! Keep it up!!! Love the vids!!!!

Beautiful video man, it’s great to learn these feel good stories

as a Mexican American Fan of baseball my friends and I were huge fans and supporters of Perez even despite his limitations. Thanks for the great bio

I love these Long stay work horse players, Hopefully you do more videos on them, awesome work

Loved your story of KB . Great stuff

awesome video saw him with the bucs doing training down in fl nice stuff

At it again with another one of my favorite players. First Manny now Ollie Perez. He also debuted on my 9th birthday which is cool

When the Mets traded for him I studied him in High School and I saw he had great stuff with 96MpH fastballs and nasty sliders but he struggled with his Pitching wind up. I’m happy he succeeded I was always a fan of his especially after his game 7 start Some people just take longer than others to get their stuff together.

I loved him during his stint in Cleveland, truly a wild career arc. He’s also an absolute monster in MVP Baseball 2005.

I’m so happy to see a video about Oliver Perez

"Death, taxes, and Oliver Perez" - Abraham Einstein

Bro. You are awesome. I love your stuff.

I literally stopped in my tracks and said “….no way” when I heard you use the MLB Power Pros soundtrack at 9:44. That made my day.

Great video!!! ❤

Am I the only one who heard the greatest game music from a baseball game ever? 9:48 bro that PowerPros music nostalgia hits different.

“you’re 36” caught me off guard and make me choke lmao

Love the sick remix of the Saved By the Bell theme over the 2006 playoff highlight! I imagine it’s copyright related and it’s great 😂

I remember him the most with the Mets starting G7 vs the Cards in the NLCS. With how streaky he was I thought he’d blow it but he pitched incredibly. Love that he’s got a long ass career

I had World Series Baseball 2k3 for the PS2 (The Sega Sports one with Jason Giambi on the cover), and every time I would start a franchise, I would trade for Ollie. He was always cheap to get, but he always put up good numbers.

Excellent video! We need a video on Scott Kazmir

After watching the video and hearing the (much appreciated) MLB Power Pros 2008 music, it got me thinking: Can a team of MLB Power Pros non-MLB players between the 2 games win a World Series? New MLB expansion team (limited only to people who were your teammate at one point in the 2 games) C: Tom 1B: Terry (kind of cheating here since he "technically" played in the MLB according to lore) 2B: Peter 3B: Rex SS: Joey LF: Frank CF: Marvin RF: Your Character (I mean, he did wear 61 as an homage to Ichiro) DH: Brad (since Rex is at 3B because his defense is better) Bench: Milton, Mark, Oakley (who said we're only doing Success mode characters? Gotta have a super utility) Pitching staff: Rotation - Your Character (although technically not the same person, we're Ohtani-ing this baby), Alvin, Robin, Sittch (but not the bad guy version), Robbie, Toby (since we gotta have a 5th) Bullpen - 7-8 random name generated NPCs depending on 25 or 26 man rosters (shoutout my boys Bumatay & Sedlacek) Manager is Stone of course. GM is your Season mode fresh out of college grad (God, I wish that actually happened, sign me up). Rudy Fox is head of scouting. Can you tell I still keep my Wii in good shape so I can play the game every now and then?

Growing up as a Padres fan, we haven't had a ton to cheer for up until recently. That said, I vividly remember a young Oliver Perez and he was definitely my favorite player for the couple of years that he was here.

Ohhh man. I was at the "Endy Catch" game. That was the craziest game I've ever seen.

Had Ollie been a Red Sox or Yankee in 2004, he probally wouldve been the Cy Young runner up.

No one was a bigger Enigma than Oliver Perez. He was topping out in the low 80s in his last start as a Pirate and than was hitting 97 in his first or second start as a Met. The season before the Mets gave him a 3 year deal, he had been the most DOMINANT thing against the Phillies maybe ever. He had pitched 36 inning against them and gave up 1 run. A solo shot I believe. Then he signed and was terrible. Left the Mets and pitched forever more.

9:50 don’t think you’re sneaky, slipping the Sittch game theme in there 😂

Mets fan here, Ollie was the biggest enigma in baseball. You just never knew if good Ollie or bad Ollie was going to show up

I always liked him when he was in Washington. He was solid enough and was a little goofy. Never once thought about him before then, but I really wish I had noticed what an interesting story he had. Good job

At the end of game 7 in 2006, I recall turning off the tv, standing up, walking out of the house and into town to go to the bar…. Blackout. No further memory until the next day. I woke up with my clothes on. That’s always a troubling way to wake.

He's still in the league? Holy smokes! Thanks SRS!

5:51 Yep, us Pirates fans have been saying that for a LONG time.

I always loved him as a Dbacks fan. That’s why I was excited for his return this season to help aid our dumpster fire of a bullpen. Sadly it just wasn’t meant to be, but I was glad to see Oli given one more shot.

Loving the mlb powerpros music

Im a Mets fan, so when Ollie was with the Mets, its like two phases of Ollie that ill always remember, the 2006-2008 phase and the 2009-2010 (till the Mets released him after the 2010 season) From 2006-2008, Ollie was a hard throwing left hand pitcher who could get his fastball 93-97 MPH. I really liked his pitching repertoire, but I can understand why the Padres and Pirates got rid of a young-hard-throwing left-hand-starting-pitcher, and it was because of the inconsistencies of his pitching location. Ill also remember how Ollie pitched well in that game 7 against the Cards in the 2006 NLCS on 3-days-rest, and how he pitched well in that game 162 in the 2008 season. Mets lost both games in heartbreaking fashion though. I really thought that Oliver Perez, Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese, and John Maine were gonna carry the Mets staff into the future, along with Johan Santana. But after the 2008 season, Ollie became a free agent, and then the Mets signed him to a 3 year deal. And then here is when the disaster happened for Ollie = his fastball starting in 2009 was now 84-88 MPH. He NEVER recovered his fastball during the second phase with the Mets starting in 2009, that the Mets would MRI him just to hopefully find an injury so that they could DL him and send him to the minor leagues, or they would just use Ollie when the Mets were getting blown out in a game or meaningless September games. It was unreal how Ollie lost that fastball out of nowhere. And then, since he made his comeback in 2012 as a bullpen pitcher, Ollie recovered his fastball, and he had success as a bullpen pitcher

Also. Could you do a Rick Ankiel video ? He’s one of the best mlb comebacks ever and he has an absolute cannon for an arm.

He was a beast in the 2005-6 MLB The Show game. I had about 400 strike outs with him.

07:13 Back in the winter of 2005 Oliver Perez came to mty mex to sign autographs in a mall, me and my family as big baseball fans went there to get an autograph from Oliver and I remember my dad told him, "hey man just chill out everybody can have a bad start" and Oliver was very kind and told my dad "I know sir, I learned my lesson" obviously the whole interaction was in spanish

I watched the last game of the year in 2010. I couldn't believe my eyes when Ollie was coming into that game.

Beautiful

Well done brother

2:36 it’s 94 K’s, not 41

He is still pitching with Tomateros de Culiacán and still going strong!

The day he was cut in 2011 was a day I celebrated as a Mets fan. I never imaged he would pitch against us in 2022

He’s still going n the Mexican winter league in 2023 and might play in the Carribean series and maybe WBC

I am a huge Pittsburgh pirate fan don’t ask me why but I definitely remember Oliver Perez 04 season Arguably The most Dominance season from a pirate starter Since PNC park opened

9:03 “he was healthy and he existed” this sums up why I was hired for a job I was quite under qualified to do effectively. Did not work out.

I loved him on the nats

Do a video about Jerry hairston hitting better at Petco park than he did at rangers park

You should’ve mentioned the Shea Stadium crowd chanting MVP sarcastically at Ollie’s last Mets appearance!

I literally died whenever he said “walk the plank”

Oliver Perez was a really good pitcher. He wasn't perfect all the time but he still had a lot of BMF moments. I always wished he could pitch for my Texas Rangers but I made it my duty to watch him pitch every time I could.

I remember Perez as that nasty lefty starter with the funky delivery for the Pirates

Also, he had the dopest Jordan PE’s. I fuckin love this dude man thanks for this video.

Sweet shirt

It’s a blessing that Oliver Perez baseball career is long , not many pitcher last long in the major, due to arm injury, Bartolo Colon is another guy

Fun fact Oliver Perez was trade by the Padres because they wouldn’t let him play in the Mexican Winter league but he continued to do it anyway

Man its crazy to say that people just glace over oli like that. Being mexican, we always root for those players that have gotten out of mexico and made a name for themselves in the united states. I remember as a kid always rooting for oliver perez. I was a little mexican kid with a dream and although that dream will never be fulfilled for me, i know that a ton of kids back home look at stars like oli, luis urias, Julio urias, etc as a model for what we can achieve. Hearing this story made me proud to be mexicano. Its honestly insane how many mexicanos are breaking through to the majors. i cant wait to see who will be able to match the prowess of the legendary Fernando Valenzuela. Maybe make a video on him? i dont hear much about el toro on this platform!

When I would play against the pirates on 2k5, not only would I light up their pitching any game, but Oliver Perez would be good for giving up 5 runs minimum in less than 5 innings

Ollie was kinda like Jonathan Sanchez on the Giants, gets a lot of strikeouts but walked so many guys too.

Did i man really use mlb power pros music in this LOVE IT

Guy has an incredible K/rate even back in the mid 2000s when baseball was still cool and not every pitcher threw 100 mph. But he walked 5 guys per 9.

This is an amazing video, pun intended.

That Omar shirt 👌

I was playing the show and saw his name and figured it must be someone else but nope was pleasantly surprised it was him. Thought he was out of the league for years now 😂

April 23, 2016: Nats are down by a run in the 15th and Perez pitches the inning. Runner on 2nd, two outs, instead of pinch hitting they have Perez hit instead. He bunts with two outs and causes a throwing error which ties the game. Nats would win the game in the 16th on a walk off homer.

Fun fact Ollie Perez started game 7 of an NLCS GAME

That opening clip I was at that game

the wbc graphic got better every time tbh. go fills!

He was insane in mvp baseball following his 04 season. His career kind of mirrors liriano but liriano never made the move to the bullpen

I got 20 bucks says he pitches for Mexico in the WBC. I got 1 $ that says he gets a call from a major league team in the off season…

I doubt you can jog 450' lol. Good video.

Please do a video on Tommy Hunter

Spencer strider just getting unlucky man…he’ll bounce back. Also, who knew that mustache was hiding a giant P word…

That Ron Artest Jason Bay connection was unexpected

as an indians fan I loved watching him pitch and it was so sad when we dfa'd him

I remember in 05 as a 16 year old saying Oliver Perez sucks why does he have a spot in the rotation not even a meta fan lol. Then didn't have cable for a long while 2015 he was on the astros surprised me he was still hanging on but good for him not giving up and making a 20 year career.

Wow he’s like the Patrick Corbin of his era, a lights out left hander who had 3 strong seasons but then just imploded…

He's like the internet explorer of baseball