After years of ready, years of being handed over for different gamers, years of questioning if it might ever be his time, Dave Parker obtained the decision of a lifetime.
A knock on the door is legendary within the NFL world; a ceremonial name does the trick in baseball.
On Sunday evening, over 25 years of ready got here to an finish for a former baseball icon. Dave Parker is a Corridor of Famer and is on his approach to Cooperstown.
The previous Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder was voted into the Baseball Corridor of Fame by the Traditional Period Baseball Committee because the MLB Winter Conferences started in Dallas. Seven former gamers and one supervisor comprised an eight-man committee to vote on gamers whose main contributions to the sport got here earlier than 1980. Eight candidates, together with Parker, Tommy John, Dick Allan, and Luis Tiant, wanted 12 of 16 votes to have their names ceaselessly enshrined in baseball’s hallowed halls.
Parker earned a ballot-high 14 votes and Allen obtained 13. The journey took 33 years since Parker retired in 1991.
A Pirates legend who additionally made waves on the Cincinnati Reds and received a World Collection with the 1989 Oakland A’s, Parker was elected to the Pirates Corridor of Fame in 2023 as a part of the second-ever class. Throughout his induction, members of the Pirates pleaded and proceed to plead for Parker to someday have his identify etched in bronze on the Corridor of Fame. Goals actually do come true.
“The Cobra” mashed 339 dwelling runs, drove in 1,493 runs, slashed .290/.339/.371, and earned a 40.1 WAR in 19 MLB seasons.
Parker performed 11 seasons in Pittsburgh spanning 1973-1983 and took on the daunting job of taking part in proper subject components of the yr after essentially the most beloved Pirate in franchise historical past, Roberto Clemente, handed away in a aircraft crash.
The 1978 NL MVP hit 20 doubles, 12 triples, 30 dwelling runs, 117 RBIs, stole 20 bases, and earned 194 hits in solely 148 video games. He received back-to-back batting titles in 1978 with an MLB-best .334 common after a .338 mark the yr earlier than. Parker led the game in common (.334), OPS (.979), OPS+ (166), and intentional walks (23) throughout the ‘78 season however oddly sufficient didn’t make the All-Star Sport, one thing unfathomable to consider at present. He additionally paced the NL in slugging (.585) and complete bases (340), a stat he led the game in each throughout the 1985 and 1986 campaigns in Cincinnati.
“It was a very long time ready,” Parker informed MLB Community following phrase of the announcement.
An adored lefty hitter standing at 6-foot-5, 230 kilos, Parker earned seven All-Star appearances three Gold Gloves, three Silver Sluggers, two batting titles, and two World Collection crowns, together with the 1979 “We Are Household” Pirates.
Parker hit .345 because of 10 hits (three doubles) and drove in 4 throughout the seven-game collection victory in opposition to the Baltimore Orioles.
A Cincinnati native who spent 4 years in his hometown, Parker is probably going to enter Cooperstown with a Pirates hat on and would grow to be the primary participant to take action since Invoice Mazeroski in 2001.
Parker ended his Pirates profession with 166 homers, 758 RBIs, 123 steals, and a .305 batting common. He completed within the prime three of MVP voting 3 times (1975, 77, 78) and received all three of his Gold Gloves from 1977-79.
Parker received baseball’s first-ever Dwelling Run Derby in 1985. The Cobra wanted solely six homers in a 10-out format to win the derby and set a convention on the All-Star Sport occurring 40 years.
The ‘70s Pirates earned their nickname “The Lumber Firm” for persistently driving in runs and changing into “Lumber and Lighting” hitting for energy and stealing bases. Parker purchased into the montra and debuted a shirt nonetheless worn by baseball followers, myself included, over 45 years later. “When you hear any noise, it’s simply me and the boys boppin.”
First eligible for the corridor in 1997, Parker by no means obtained greater than 24.5% of the vote on the BWAA writers poll. Parker remained on the poll from 1997-2011 throughout a 15-year cycle earlier than MLB shrunk eligibility to 10 years in 2014.
When candidates fall off the poll, their candidacy strikes to veterans committees for the rest of their baseball lives. Put in place to elect missed gamers who the writers might have wrongly ignored of the Corridor of Fame, gamers like Mazeroski and Parker earned their rightful spot with baseball’s greatest.
“I’ve been holding this speech in for 15 years,” Parker joked.
It was in all probability longer than that and never Parker’s first rodeo on the committee’s poll.
Parker was identified with Parkinson’s illness in 2012 and first began as a hand tremor. He made his prognosis public in 2013 and has handled ailment ever since. Now 73, it’s a blessing Parker will take the stage in Cooperstown to handle Pirates followers and the opposite 5 fan bases he performed for throughout his 19-year profession.
Parker’s cannon arm created spotlight reels yr after yr, together with throwing Brian Downing out on the plate throughout the 1979 All-Star Sport, in the end successful All-Star Sport and NL MVP in the identical season.
Parker will take the stage on Sunday, July 27 together with Allen posthumously being inducted and the participant or gamers voted in by the writers in mid-January.
Dave Parker’s 39 continues to be worn round PNC Park many years after guiding the Pirates to their fifth and final World Collection title. He deserves a spot within the Corridor of Fame and took too lengthy, however it was well worth the wait. Main League Baseball lastly obtained it proper, Dave Parker is a Corridor of Famer.
