DALLAS — Dave Parker isn’t one to cry, so it took a few minutes for the “Cobra” to turn on the waterworks.
Once reality set in, the 73-year-old could fully embrace the end of a three-decade long holding pattern. Parker’s moment in the sun had finally come.
The former Pirates outfielder will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, as announced at MLB’s annual winter meetings in Dallas on Sunday evening. Parker was one of eight individuals who were part of this year’s Classic Baseball Era Committee ballot.
"I'm just glad it's over,” Parker told reporters over Zoom, “and I'm back doing what I do best."
Joining Parker in making it into the Hall of Fame is Dick Allen, a Wampum native who played 15 seasons for the Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers, White Sox and Athletics, totaling 351 home runs and 1,119 RBIs. Allen won the 1964 National League Rookie of the Year Award with the Phillies and was named the 1972 American League Most Valuable Player with the White Sox.
Both of them will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., with the induction ceremony slated for Sunday, July 27, 2025. In order to be inducted, candidates needed to receive a vote from at least 12 of the 16 committee members who convened in Dallas on Sunday. Parker received 14 votes, or 87.5%, while Allen received 13 votes (81.3%).
Parker, who was born in Grenada, Miss., but grew up in Cincinnati, has long had a case for the Hall of Fame but never was able to secure induction. In 2019, Parker was one of 12 candidates on the Modern Baseball Hall of Fame ballot yet came in fourth place amongst the group with only seven votes.
When Parker was in his prime, though, there was never a doubt in his mind he’d one day wind up in the Hall of Fame.
“When the leaves turn brown, I'll be wearing the batting crown. That was one of my sayings,” Parker said. “I always thought that I was going to be a major leaguer. I told my mother at eight years old that I would be a baseball star and one day buy a house.”
No doubt the slugging Parker became a star, and compiled an extensive resume that speaks for itself. Parker was a career .290 hitter over 19 MLB seasons, 11 of them with the Pirates. A seven-time All-Star, Parker amassed 2,712 hits, 339 home runs and 1,493 RBIs while also having stints with the Reds, Athletics, Brewers, Angels and Blue Jays.
From 1975 to 1979, Parker was unquestionably among the game’s best players and collected back-to-back batting titles in the 1977 and 1978 campaigns, posting averages over .330 in each. Parker over that five-year period was second in the league in batting average (.321) and third in slugging (.532) and OPS (.909) — as well as led MLB with 72 outfield assists.
“I enjoyed throwing out players,” Parker said. “And if they kept running, I’d hit them in the back of the head with the ball.”
The 6-foot-5, 230-pound Parker was a standout defender, thrice winning Gold Glove awards in right field. Perhaps Parker’s most memorable defensive play came in the 1979 All-Star Game, when he threw out both Jim Rice and Brian Downing en route to earning MVP honors in the midsummer classic.
During that same 1979 campaign, Parker helped the Pirates to their fifth and most recent World Series championship. For all the memories that Parker racked up that year, it was an interaction with Hall of Famer Willie Stargell that resonates most with him half-a-century later.
“I look at the ‘79 series as a series that brought Stargell back to the family, because he was losing ground with some of the Pirate players,” Parker said. “I didn’t like seeing that. So, we played, won, and I went to a function that we [were] having and told him that I wanted him to be a part of the Pirates forever. And, we gave each other hugs. That love thing.”
That 1979 campaign was the final of Parker’s peak years, though he finished top-five in MVP voting in five other seasons. Parker was also honored as the National League’s MVP for the 1978 campaign.
In addition to winning a World Series with the Pirates in 1979, Parker was on the Oakland Athletics’ championship-winning team in 1989. Parker only spent two seasons playing for the A’s, but confidently lays claim to propelling a club with Rickey Henderson, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco and others to a title.
“They had all that thunder and didn’t know how to win,” Parker said. “I was glad to get there because they were too nice of guys and too good of players not to be able to win, and I taught them how to win.”
But it was in Pittsburgh where Parker spent the vast majority of his career. He was inducted into the Pirates’ inaugural team Hall of Fame class in 2022, thanks in part to his extended run of success in Pittsburgh. Parker, despite living with Parkinson’s disease for the last decade and change, has visited PNC Park as recently as last season.
In the immediate aftermath of being elected to the Hall of Fame, Parker was undecided as to whether he’ll enter baseball’s most revered shrine with a Pirates hat for his plaque. He commended Pirates fans, and the city of Pittsburgh at large for its continuous support for his candidacy the last handful of years.
Now, the ever-confident Parker can finally relish the latest, and perhaps greatest, accomplishment of his baseball life.
First Published: December 9, 2024, 12:42 a.m.
Updated: December 9, 2024, 2:49 a.m.
