Does Chris Perez want to be Kenny Powers or just out of Cleveland?

Mullet-wearing, mouth-shooting, save-scrounging, former-razor-abandoning closer Chris Perez of our very own Cleveland Indians can be quite a character. If it's not his look on the mound (I personally loved the firebreathing, hair waiving, crazy persona he brings to the mound), it's his fired up personality after getting a save, the same on-field antics that certainly can bring rage to opponents eyes.

Pure Rage, one might say.

But other parts of Mr. Perez' character might need a little polishing. Sure, the faux-Kenny-Powers act he has going on is absolutely hilarious, for fans of the team at least. His brutal honesty can, in some ways, be refreshing to one fan while infuriating another. When he called out Indians fans for not supporting the team when the team was actually playing like a major league club, it stung....but as criticism that educated fans knew they deserved. Nobody expects 455 more sellouts in a row, but attendance at the bottom of the league for a team in first place was just embarassing. And he doesn't just sit back and let fans abuse him on Twitter, he fights back. Unfortunately, one might say.

But Saturday night, when Perez took it upon himself to curse out an Oakland A's fan who had been heckling him, it was over the line. Sure, the loutish fans that the NFL is trying to control show up at baseball games too, and this dick was one of them. But Perez went above and beyond with the sometimes incomprehensible, completely shameful profanity-filled dressing down that he gave this guy.

The fact that Perez was doing all this clearly in view of at least one cell phone camera, and basically told the heckler "I don't care" that the team stinks, I get my saves, makes me truly curious about his intentions. (Note: Perez claims he didn't see the cell phone camera. Take that with a giant grain of salt.)

Does he just want to be seen as the bad boy pitcher who still is loveable and relatable? (Which is probably the role he was fitting well until Saturday night?) Or is he really going out of his way to force the Indians to consider trading him? Because this many attention grabbing outbursts in one season seems to be a well coordinated campaign. And there's no way the social media savvy Perez didn't know this would end up online in about 5 minutes.

Is he crazy? Or crazy like a fox? If Chris shows up in a Ben Roethlisberger jersey next week, I guess we'll know the answer to that.

The video link is below, although the standard warnings against naughty words and the easily offended apply here as well.



In case YouTube takes the video down agaain, I'm sure Deadspin will still have the awesome embrarrassing video right here for your viewing pleasure.

To paraphrase the A's fan, it's safe to say they were both acting like a couple of "f___ c___".