May 12 — Nestor Perez

Columbus Clingstones broadcaster Jack Johnson visited with manager Nestor Perez at Synovus Park in Columbus, Georgia.

Perez recapped a road trip in which the Clingstones took three of five games from Biloxi, discussed Owen Hackman’s strong start on Mother’s Day, and highlighted the club’s ability to put the ball in play as one of its offensive strengths. He also reflected on his connection to the Tenerife Marlins, one of the most successful professional baseball clubs in Spain.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the Columbus Klingstones pregame show. We're inside the manager's office, alongside my friend, the manager Nestor Perez. Nestor coming off a series that was only five games against the Biloxi Shuckers because of so many rainouts last week. But you told me at the very beginning of last week, you said this is going to tell us what kind of team we have with the Columbus Klingstones this season. And the team went out and took three games out of five, including another big offensive performance in game two of a doubleheader on Sunday. What did you take away from last series in terms of what this team's performance told you about what we have? Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

You have a great memory. So we were going to uh play with um relievers starting the game. And that was that was go that was going to be tough. Um good series, took three out of five. Boopen did the job. Uh the guys that started the game, uh Hackman did a good job, uh throwing three innings. Um there was one game where uh Dash Wolly could get two outs, yeah, and then the booping threw a and one third. So it was it was a very very important week for us because we'd have starting pitchers, and we took three out of five, so it was it was a good week.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

You mentioned Owen Hackman. He came up on short notice, made his double-A debut two weeks ago here at this ballpark. It was a short outing. He showed some good stuff, also struggled a little bit against Montgomery. He was awesome against Biloxi. Three innings, multiple strikeouts, only one hit allowed, didn't allow a run. What did you see from him that was so impressive?

SPEAKER_00 1:52

He did what we asked him to do. Uh reliever, starting a game. Uh, we asked him to give us three innings, and that's what he did. He threw very, very well. He gave us three innings, and and and it was a good good chance for us to to compete on that game, and he gave us a chance uh on that game.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

He gave you a chance. Klingstones ended up winning that game. One thing that has given Columbus a great chance to win every game this year has been the fact that this team really doesn't strike out. Entering this series, it's May 12th right now against Knoxville. The Klingstones have the second lowest strikeout percentage in all of AA. I know that's something you have to take a lot of pride in as a manager. We talk a lot about the Homers, Nestor, but striking out is something that hurts an offense. This team really doesn't do it. That's something that you really got to take a lot of pride in.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Uh the credit is for the players and also for the for our hitting coach. Uh, I think they all together are doing a great job, um, getting ready every day, like you said, uh home ramps uh and not striking out. You're gonna win games with homers, but you're gonna win games also putting the ball in play. So you put the ball in play, you have chances uh to win. So so it's good to know that we we're doing really well uh not striking out and putting the ball in play a lot.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Certainly are, certainly did against Beluxi last week. I want to go back to one game specifically. You mentioned that game where Jack Dashwood got the start, he only won two-thirds of an inning, then the bullpen goes eight and one-third and gives the team a chance to win, down six-nothing early, come back and win it. That's the largest comeback victory of the season. We talk about it almost every week, Nestor, but this team really fights, especially when the game seems like it's out of reach. That must be one of the best wins you've seen this year as a manager.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

It was a good fight. It was a good fight. Uh this team competes until last out. We showed a home here the the series before when we lost to to Montgomery in a game to 18 to 10. And after the cycle on third inning, we were supposed to put our our hands down, but we didn't. We come we keep competing and and we hit a lot of homers that that day. We end up losing 18 to 10, but we compete until last out. So we went now to Biloxi and we show again that we we don't matter how to score, uh, the boys go there and play hard until last hour of the game.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Lastly, Nestro, I want to ask you about your club in Tenerife, the Tenerife Marlins. We talked about it a few weeks ago in Birmingham. They're the dinastia, they're a dynasty, they continue to win championships. Can you tell me a little bit more about that team and how you got involved with it?

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Um 1997, uh 1997, uh, we moved to Spain. Um my father um he he created this uh he created uh he um we start with this club. Uh we tried to find a way to to live in Spain and he started uh with the with the club. We named the club the Tenerife Martins. Um right now like 20-something years later, we we won 15 of the last 20 championships in Spain. So you said you said it's like a dynasty, but that's a lot of hard work we we had to put together before that. Right now we are number one team in Spain. Also, you didn't mention this, we are uh champions of of Europe. Uh we also played the champion of Spain, played the champion for from Germany, played the champion from France, from Italy. We won last three tournaments in Europe. Uh this uh in two weeks we're gonna play the Champions League again in uh Netherlands. And and let's see. Uh like I said, this is my hobby. It's uh it's a family my dad and me, we this is our hobby. Um and and we are very proud of our our team in the in the Canary Islands.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

I wish the Tenerife Marlins the best of luck trying to win four straight European tournaments. And Nestra, I wish you and the team the best of luck this week.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Let's do it.