Following up on my earlier post Merging Files: A Different Twist...

I have a program which takes a structured format file and reports back data contained in specified fields. 

eg:  exfields.pl file.gz field1,field2,field3

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which produces the following output: 
steve  37    ma    
jeff   35    ca
ben    30    tn

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I am trying to write a program which will merge 2 such files. file_1.gz and file_2.gz each contain different data associated with "steve", "jeff", ben", and I want to merge the output of both files, and display the end result to the user. output of:  exfields.pl file_1.gz field1,field2: 
steve  37    ma
jeff   35    ca
ben    30    tn

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output of: exfields.pl file_2.gz  field1: 
steve  guitar  
jeff   bass
ben    drums

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after both files are merged needs to become: 
steve  37    ma    guitar
jeff   35    ca    bass
ben    30    tn    drums

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The first approach I considered (yes, I'm very new to Perl) with was creating 2 separate arrays and then joining them, only to realize that this would not accomplish my task. Tried all day, until now to: 
merge.pl file1 field,field file2 field

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which extrapolates: 
file1 field,field

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pass it through a subroutine that would produce a hash containing: 
%hash_1 =    steve => '37' AND 'ma'
             jeff =>  '35' AND 'ca'
             ben  =>  '30' AND 'tn'

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then extrapolates: 
file2 field

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pass it through the same subroutine, which would produce a hash containing: 
%hash_2 =  steve => 'guitar'
           jeff =>  'bass'
           ben  =>  'drums'

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oh yeah, I am NOT trying to code this program as it appears; rather I am only trying to demonstrate what I am tring to do. I have the extrapolations that I referred to already coded. I also know how to produce %hash_2. My question is how could I code the subroutine to do what I am trying to do? Before that consideration, am I correct in thinking that the above examples of hashes will produce my desired result? I have read several references to "hashes with keys that contain multiple values", and "references to arrays", but I can't seem to use the examples effectively. Please help, while I still have hair on my head. .

In reply to Merging 2 Formatted Files by Limo

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