Posted on 06/28/2025 1:46:58 PM PDT by DFG
His skill was as supreme as his style and swagger. His exploits on the field were the stuff of legend, like the Minor League home run he hit in West Virginia that landed in a coal car and wound up in Columbus, Ohio, or the time he literally knocked the cover off a baseball. His words were often boastful and always unforgettable.
“When the leaves turn brown, I’ll be wearing the batting crown.”
Few players have ever been as talented or entertaining as Dave Parker, the Hall of Fame outfielder nicknamed “The Cobra,” who spent 19 seasons in the big leagues and ranked among the game’s best at his peak with the Pirates in the late 1970s. Parker passed away on Saturday after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 74.
Parker’s decorated career included the 1978 National League MVP Award, two World Series championships a decade apart, back-to-back NL batting titles, three Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards, seven All-Star nods, the ’79 All-Star Game MVP Award and MLB’s first Home Run Derby title in ‘85. The intimidating outfielder racked up 2,712 career hits with a .290 batting average, launched 339 homers and drove in 1,493 runs from 1973-91.
Parker was a trailblazer for his peers who drew the ire -- as well as the frequent insults, assaults and threats -- of some fans. Before the 1979 season, he signed a five-year, $5 million contract that made him the first professional baseball player to earn $1 million per season. He was one of the first pro athletes to wear an earring. His poetic, bombastic quotes led teammates to call him the Muhammad Ali of baseball.
“The sun is going to shine, the wind is going to blow, and Dave is going to go 4-for-4.”
His legacy was complicated by his cocaine use and involvement in the Pittsburgh drug trials of 1985, however, with some believing that was what ultimately kept him from being elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. He spent the then-maximum 15 years on the ballot, but only topped out at 24.5 percent, then fell short on the Modern Baseball Era ballot of 2019.
“He should be in Cooperstown,” former Reds teammate Eric Davis said in MLB Network’s 2019 documentary “The Cobra at Twilight.” “And not as a visitor, either.”
He was finally elected in late 2024, joining late slugger Dick Allen in the Class of 2025 through a vote from the Classic Baseball Era Committee. Parker needed at least 12 of 16 votes and got 14. When word came down, he told MLB Network, “I’ve been holding this speech in for 15 years.”
He will be posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, July 27, in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Born on June 9, 1951, in Grenada, Miss., Parker was one of six children of Richard and Dannie Mae Parker. The family moved to Cincinnati five years later, and Parker became a three-sport athlete at Courter Tech High School. He was a star running back, but doctors told him his football career was over when he injured his knee after being hit during his senior season. That moment, Parker would say, changed his life.
In the 14th round of the 1970 Draft, the Pirates took a chance on Parker, a high school catcher with a bad knee. By 1972, he was the best prospect in the defending World Series champions’ system. He debuted in San Diego on July 12, 1973, the summer following the tragic death of Pittsburgh legend Roberto Clemente.
As a five-tool right fielder for the Pirates, Parker drew early comparisons to Clemente. For as brash as he could be, Parker wasn’t having it.
“Everybody was talking about me being the next Roberto Clemente. That wasn’t what I was trying to achieve,” he later told MLB Network. “I was trying to make my mark as the first Dave Parker.”
Parker established himself as a regular in 1975, beginning a six-year run during which he batted .317 with an .891 OPS. The 6-foot-5, 230-pound slugger was one of the game’s most feared hitters -- the Steelers’ “Mean” Joe Greene once claimed he initially mistook Parker was a football player -- and most confidently quotable players.
Parker once wore a Star of David necklace. Why? “Well, I’m a David,” he told The Washington Post, “and I’m a star.” There is an iconic photograph of him wearing a T-shirt that reads, “If you hear any noise, it’s just me and the boys boppin.” After fracturing his cheekbone during a collision at home plate in June 1978, Parker missed a handful of games then came back wearing a black-and-yellow hockey goalie’s mask at the plate.
As former Pirates teammate Kent Tekulve once said, Parker was such a spectacle on the field that you didn’t stop to admire what he did. You kept looking to see what he was going to do next.
The reigning NL MVP lived up to his landmark contract in 1979. He was the MVP of the Midsummer Classic in Seattle after unleashing a pair of outfield assists -- one to third base, the other to home plate – that looked like they were shot out of a cannon. And he was the best player for that championship Pirates club remembered for their “We Are Family” theme song at Three Rivers Stadium.
"Dave belongs in the Hall,” Mike Easler told MLB.com after Parker was elected to the Hall of Fame. “He was one of the best players of his era. Those four, five, six, seven years, he was one of the best players in his era.”
After another All-Star season in Pittsburgh, Parker began to put on weight and got injured in the early 1980s. After the ’83 campaign, he signed with his hometown Reds and began the second act of his career as more of a leadership figure. He was rejuvenated on the field, too, despite the drama around the Pittsburgh drug trials, finishing second in the NL MVP voting in 1985 and fifth in ’86.
Traded to the A’s at the 1987 Winter Meetings, Parker continued to be a leadership figure and veteran hitter for Oakland clubs that won the American League pennant in ’88 and the World Series in ’89. He spent 1990 with the Brewers, earning his final All-Star nod and Silver Slugger Award while batting .289 and mentoring a young Gary Sheffield. His playing career ended in 1991, his age-40 season, as his numbers dropped off with the Angels and Blue Jays.
Parker’s life changed again during a routine checkup in 2012, when a doctor noticed his hand trembling on his leg. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, the same condition that afflicted Ali. It was stunning news to everyone who knew him. As Tekulve wondered, “How can this happen to him? He’s invincible.”
Parker’s wife, Kellye, cared for him throughout his fight with Parkinson’s -- the treatment, exercise and frequent trips to the doctor. She was also by his side when Parker returned to Pittsburgh for the 40-year reunion of the 1979 champions, beaming as he received a standing ovation from the crowd at PNC Park.
“I almost cried,” Parker said in 2019. “That’s something I try not to do, but that brought tears to my eyes.”
An absolute cannon.
That guy should have been in years ago.
If he wasn't so testy with the press, I'm sure he would have been.
Parker’s last great season was with the Milwaukee Brewers. His introduction music when he approached the batter’s box was Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer.”
I also remember Parker’s unorthodox fielding technique on fly balls. He would simply swipe and the ball and snatch it. This made me shake my head. Later, he misplayed a ball with this method and the wound up hurling the ball away when the baseball wound up as a snow cone and flew away from him.
So many times I saw Buhner gun somebody down at 3rd or home.
A true cannon for an arm. The perfect right fielder.
Borderline at best HoFer, never got more than 25% of the vote in 15 years on the ballot. Elected on his 4th try through the Veterans Committee.
Ken Caminiti is unavailable to answer that question.
They mentioned his passing at the Padres/Reds game this afternoon in Cincinnati. Before the game they had a ceremony featuring dozens of veterans of the 1975 and 1976 Reds teams which won the World Series (the Big Red Machine). Many of them are largely forgotten players now but when they introduced each player they made it sound like he had been a great player. They saved the best for last--Johnny Bench.
Joe Morgan and Pete Rose were part of that but have passed away. They would have been happy to have Joe Morgan there. Not sure about Pete Rose.
I was a Pirate fan and never had any love for the Reds but I really did like watching Morgan and Bench play the game. Those guys were really good and classy characters to boot.
Seriously.
What a great moment in that game! Just look at who was on the field, besides Parker and Carter. Pete Rose playing 1st, Reggie Jackson on 2nd base, and Bruce Sutter backing up home plate. One of the great eras of baseball!
Like a lot of the 70’s and 80’s players.
Parker, Vida Blue, Keith Hernandez, they’d probably be in Hall of Fame if it weren’t for the nose candy.
“Keith Hernandez”
Nice game, pretty boy.
Vida Blue was the last switch hitter to win the AL MVP, and only the second after Mickey Mantle. It’s a great trivia question!
Yeah, incredible throw. I appreciate it as I played right field and Catcher and was considered as having a very good arm and Glove. Unfortunately my barely above Mendoza line batting average wasn’t going to make it at the College level so I gave it up after High School / American Legion.
The fact that the ball Parker threw was on the fly was crazy. Carter made a good play, all made possible by Parker.
That’s a great trivia question.
That is a great question. Not only a pitcher, but an AL pitcher before things were messed up. We no longer even KNOW which pitchers are switch-hitters.
My favorite baseball trivia question is:
Who has the most UNASSISTED double plays as an OUTFIELDER? He is in the Hall of Fame. How many did he have?
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