Perez family outtakes
By akraft21
In discussing the family tradition of team roping with Tyson Perez, the Astros relief prospects and parents Frank and Sandy shared much more than could fit in a single story. Here are some of the other tangents they went off on, not least of which was how connections with well-known team ropers indirectly pertain to a former World Series MVP.
Jason Wise/MLB.com
On other professional baseball players who rodeo or team rope:
Tyson: Madison Bumgarner. … He goes to the NFR (National Finals Rodeo) in Vegas and they interview him and stuff. My dad is the one who told me. He knows the guy he gets roping lessons from.
Frank: Yeah, Jake Barnes, he’s a seven-time world champion. [Madison] takes lessons from Jake. I used to live with Allen Bach, he’s a three-time world champion. So I lived with him and I grew up with his wife. The person that taught me how to rope, [Allen] married their daughter. She’s like a sister to me. So she ended up marrying Allen Bach. Then Allen, he took on this young kid from New Mexico to rope in the rodeo circuit, and his name was Jake. Then Jake went on to win seven world titles with Clay O’Brien Cooper. So yeah, I know them real well and I grew up with him.
Jake, he told me one time when we were talking over at Salina’s Rodeo … that Madison called him and wanted to learn how to rope and take lessons. Jake was kind of scared because he didn’t want him to get hurt because of his fault or something. So Madison told him, he said, “Don’t worry about it. I’m left-handed and I want to rope right, so I can’t lose no fingers.”
Sandy: Madison Bumgarner’s wife [Ali], her whole family rodeos. That’s one of the reasons why he wants to learn, because his wife’s family does team rope and rodeo.
On the rest of the Perez family:
Frank: Tyson has a sister, Franki-Jo, 21 going on 22. She ran barrels and stuff when she was a little girl, and then she got playing softball. She went to college and does all that. She still rides [horses] here and there, but doesn’t compete.
Sandy: I raised a niece from the time she was 2 years old, so my children don’t know a life without her. Her name is Summer. She’s 36 years old and she just graduated with her doctorate from San Joaquin Valley College. She is a superintendent there. She was young when she lived with us. She would rope the dummy and she would ride horses to help me because I’ve always worked and roped. So in order to fit it all in, somebody had to help me.
On the roper ranking system:
Tyson: The number scale is based on a value of 1–10. One being the lowest and 10 being the best there is. So all the professionals that compete for a living would be a number 10, and there’s very, very little number 10’s in the world. So all the professionals are number 9 or number 10. My dad is a number 8. He doesn’t compete as much as the professionals. Back when he was my age, he would have been a 9 or a 10, because he is considered a professional roper. My class is called a 6 elite. I’m in between a 6 and a 7. So I’m kind of just a little above-average, which is fine with me. If I was any higher of a number, I don’t think I could compete with the guys that practice all the time because this is just kind of an offseason thing for me.
On the differences in difficulty between being a “header” vs. a “heeler”:
Sandy: I’m the header, and most headers have a lower [handicap] and almost all heelers will have a higher [handicap] in the numbering system. I have to get out of the barrier, so the steer always gets a head start, and that head start depends on wherever you’re at. Whatever they determine. So it could get a 10-foot head start, 12-foot, 15-foot. They get that hard start on me before I can leave the box to rope the steer. So it’s a little faster paced and there’s a few more items that you have to do and think of and keep on your mind. To be a good heeler like Frank is, consistency is a lot harder than it is in heading. Tyson does both quite well, he can run either end.
On being part of the team roping community:
Tyson: It’s kind of one of those things where everybody knows everybody, just like if you go to your local country club. All the golf members, they all know each other. So this is kind of the same thing. Everybody knows who the really good ropers are, everybody knows who goes all the time.
Frank: You know most of the ropers. I know a lot of ropers, you know, because I’ve been around it all my life. I know who’s good and who’s not, and then when I go [to an event], I try to call the guys who are better to rope with and compete. Yeah, it’s a lot like golf. Sandy and I, we know quite a few people in the roping business.
On the best thing about roping and living on a ranch:
Tyson: Everything basically. From the competition to the equipment to the clothes to the atmosphere. Obviously, my family … my parents … being able to just call my dad up and just talk to him about something to get my mind off of baseball.
