PITTSBURGH — One of many higher compliments you may give when describing a participant is that they’re better than the sum of their components. That was the case for Dave Parker, spectacular since these particular person components have been a number of the better of his period.
A cannon for an arm. A eager batting eye. Lightning-fast fingers. And maybe his best reward: his silver tongue, one which produced hits nearly as shortly as his bat.
“When the leaves flip brown, I’ll be sporting the batting crown.”
“In the event you hear any noise, it’s simply me and the boys boppin.”
“Three issues are gonna occur as we speak. Solar’s gonna shine, wind’s gonna blow, and massive Dave goes 4-for-4.”
That final one was his closing comment to PNC Park trustworthy that September 2022 day the place he was inducted into the inaugural Pirates Corridor of Fame class. This July 27, he’ll lastly be inducted into the Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame, however the speech he had been holding onto for 15 years should be delivered by his son, David, after Parker handed away on June 28 after a prolonged battle with Parkinson’s illness.
A lot of the dialogue across the man often known as “The Cobra” the previous decade centered round his battle together with his illness and the way so a lot of his friends believed he belonged in Cooperstown.
His checklist of accomplishments is actually strong. 2,712 hits. 339 residence runs. 1,493 RBIs. Seven All-Star nods. A trio of Silver Sluggers and Gold Gloves. Again-to-back Nationwide League batting championships in 1977 and 1978, together with an NL MVP within the latter yr. In Pittsburgh, he was the 1979 Fam-A-Lee’s older brother, serving as an vital participant for the World Sequence champs.
These stats don’t even convey the recollections which have bridged generations. His throws within the 1979 All-Star Sport to get Jim Rice at third base and Brian Downing at residence. Residence runs towards the Blue Jays in 1989 to assist propel the Athletics to the pennant. The hometown child who returned to Cincinnati and was a Reds Corridor of Famer.
“He was most likely Superman to lots of people when he performed,” fellow Pirates MVP outfielder Andrew McCutchen mentioned.
That goes for his teammates, too. Throughout a celebration of that 1979 workforce final yr at PNC Park, the main focus was nearly as a lot on Parker because it was remembering the workforce as a complete.
There have been tales of Parker shopping for a seafood unfold for the workforce forward of a World Sequence recreation (“It needed to have been two, three thousand {dollars} of crab,” Mike Easler mentioned), and an off-handed comment he made to rookie Steve Nicosia midseason that he was going to the World Sequence in his first yr (Parker was proper).
He wasn’t afraid to proclaim that he was going to put on the batting crown or go 4-for-4 that evening, so what’s a World Sequence prediction amongst associates? These daring claims began early, and he had a knack for backing up his speak.
“I informed my mom at eight years outdated that I might be a baseball star and in the future purchase a home,” Parker mentioned in his Corridor of Fame Zoom name final December. “Properly, I did that in ’78.”
Confidence was a necessity, particularly since he was following Roberto Clemente because the Pirates’ proper fielder. As Steve Blass mentioned to Parker throughout their induction into the Pirates Corridor of Fame, “all they did was ask you to interchange Roberto Clemente. All you probably did was take possession of proper subject.”
It was a frightening problem. Parker didn’t let it outline him.
“Everyone was speaking about me being the subsequent Roberto Clemente. That wasn’t what I used to be making an attempt to realize,” Parker as soon as informed MLB Community. “I used to be making an attempt to make my mark as the primary Dave Parker.”
There was just one Dave Parker, which is a part of the disgrace that he gained’t be there to see it.
“I do know he was sick. All of us did,” Reds supervisor and former teammate Terry Francona mentioned. “I want he may have been in Cooperstown this summer season to get his Corridor of Fame plaque. I understand how I felt about it. I can’t think about how he would have.”
Nonetheless, the ceremony will nonetheless occur. Parker knew his speech was going to be delivered at Cooperstown, and he was lastly acknowledged as a part of baseball immortality.
“I used to be lastly glad that justice was finished,” longtime teammate John Candelaria informed MLB.com the day after the announcement was made. “I wasn’t positive [it would happen], however I hoped.”
