Here's some suggestions, which utilize CGI and HTML::Table for clarity. Some simplification was possible since leading/trailing whitespace won't matter in an HTML document anyway:

  use strict;

  use CGI ':standard';
  use HTML::Table;  # I like this module for simple tables

  open(INPUT,"stats.txt") or die "Can't open file";

  print start_html('Box Score');

  $/ = "";                # Read data a paragraph at a time

  while (my $players = <INPUT>) {
    WritePlayers($players);
                          # Grab all chunks of data in a loop!
    my $totals = <INPUT>;
    WriteTotals($totals);
  }
    
  close INPUT;

  sub WritePlayers {  # Renamed for clarity
     my $table = HTML::Table->new;

     my $old_id = '';

     # Split the chunk into lines and loop
     foreach my $player (split(/\n/,$_[0])) {
       # Split the line into fields  
       my ($id, undef, $name, $pos, @others) = split(/\|/, $player);
 
       # Add the data to my HTML table
       my $prefix = ($id eq $old_id) ? '_' : '';
       $table->addRow("$prefix$name, $pos", @others);
       $old_id = $id;
     }
     # Table formatting
     $table->setColWidth(1, 150);
     $table->setColWidth($_, 20) foreach (2..11);
     $table->print;
     print p;
  }

  sub WriteTotals {  # Renamed for clarity
    my $table = HTML::Table->new;

    # Just split this small chunk into fields
    my @fields = split(/\|/, $_[0]);

    # Add the fields to my HTML table
    $table->addRow(@fields);

    # Table formatting
    $table->setColAlign($_, 'CENTER') foreach (1..3);
    $table->print;
    print p;
  }
[download]

Note that you can easily turn this into a CGI program by adding print header; before the print start_html(); line.

buckaduck