Perrotto: Despite Complicated Career, Dave Parker Deserves More Than Pirates’ HOF (+)
The Pittsburgh Pirates will hold their inaugural team Hall of Fame induction ceremony Saturday night and it should be fun.
I’ve been advocating for a Pirates Hall of Fame ever since I started covering baseball in 1988. I’m glad the idea has finally come to fruition.
Though younger fans probably won’t believe it, the 140-year-old franchise also has a rich history. The Pirates haven’t always been baseball’s punching bag. Seriously.
Sadly, just three of the 19 inductees are still living — Steve Blass, Bill Mazeroski and Dave Parker.
Blass and Mazeroski, of course, are beloved by all Pirates’ fans.
Mazeroski for his game-ending home run in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series to slay the mighty New York Yankees. Blass was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the 1971 Fall Classic, pitching a four-hitter on the road to beat the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles.
Parker played a major role in the Pirates defeating the Orioles in the 1979 World Series. However, his relationship with the fans was much more complicated.
Parker finished third in the National League MVP voting in 1975 and 1977 then won the award in 1978. After leading the Pirates to what remains their last championship in 1979, his play began to suffer, and he quickly started falling from the ranks of one of the best players in baseball.
His weight went up while his batting average and home run totals went down. The Pirates grew so tired of Parker that they made no attempt to re-sign him following the 1983 season.
Parker later admitted to being a regular user of cocaine during the baseball drugs trials in 1985 in federal court in Pittsburgh. The Pirates also sued him to recoup some of the money from his last contract with them.
His decline on the field wasn’t the only reason fans turned on Parker and, in at least one case, threw batteries at him from the right-field stands at Three Rivers Stadium.
Parker was a loud and outspoken Black man. That was at a time when many people in the Tri-State area were not as accepting of someone fitting that description.
Few fans were sad to see him leave Pittsburgh and sign with his hometown Cincinnati Reds.
However, Parker’s current relationship with the Pirates and their fans is a true example of how time heals all wounds is not just a cliché.
Then-Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon invited Parker to serve as a guest instructor during spring training in 2001. It was a clear sign the Pirates and Parker were ready to rebuild their relationship.
Since then, Parker has been a regular at reunions of the 1979 Pirates at PNC Park. Nobody gets a bigger ovation than The Cobra, the fans remembering how the 6-foot-6 Parker could take over a game offensively and defensively like few others in club history.
Pirates rookie shortstop Oneil Cruz is the current King of Statcast with his exit velocities, speed of his throws across the infield and sprint speeds. If the technology was available to measure such things in Parker’s days, he, too, would have been the King of Statcast.
The difference, though, is Parker knew how to play baseball. But we’re not here to pile on Cruz.
Now that Parker and the Pirates have mended their fences, there is one piece of the puzzle missing for the 71-year-old who is battling Parkinson’s.
That is induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Parker was on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot for 15 years but never gained the necessary 75% of the vote needed for election. His top percentage was just 24.5%.
Following his drug years, Parker got his career back on track. He wound up playing for 19 seasons and hitting .290/.339/.471 with 339 home runs and 154 stolen bases.
For the advanced math crowd, Parker contributed 40.1 WAR in BaseballReference.com’s version of the metric.
Since his time on the BBWAA ballot ended, Parker has had chances to reach Cooperstown through the Hall of Fame’s various veterans’ committees. Yet he has also failed to gain election.
I voted for Parker in each of his 15 years on the writers’ ballot.
I was in my formative years when he was at his best with the Pirates. There was no better player in the game in the late 1970s. None.
The chances of Parker getting into the Hall of Fame seem slim and that’s sad.
Instead, Parker will likely have to settle for being a charter member of the Pirates’ Hall of Fame. A very good consolation prize, for sure, but he deserves more.