To Absent Friends - Dave Parker

 

One of the Pittsburgh Pirates All-Time Greats, Dave Parker, died this past weekend at the age of 74.  In a sad twist, Parker's death came one month before he was to be officially inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  In poor health for many years, at least Parker knew that he had finally made it to the Hall, even if he never got the chance to see his plaque hang in that Gallery in Cooperstown.

Here are the numbers.  In a 19 year career, Parker was a league MVP, a three time Gold Glove winner, two time batting champion, two time World Series champion, and seven time All-Star.  He hit .290 lifetime, with 2,712 hits, 339 home runs, and 1,493 RBI (.290/22 HR/98 RBI per 162 games).   In his eleven seasons with the Pirates from 1973-83, this numbers were .305, 166 HR and 758 RBI (.305/22 HR/94 RBI per 162 games).  

Those are the numbers, but you would have had to have actually seen Dave Parker when he first arrived in the big leagues to truly understand his impact.  He was big, 6'5", 230 pounds when ballplayers just weren't that big.  He was "Aaron Judge" before Aaron Judge was even born.  He was strong and fast.  A true five tool player.  

He was also brash and colorful, said what was on his mind, and humility was not his strong suit, as exemplified by this famous picture.  Oh, and by the way, this t-shirt can still be purchased at select retailers in the Pittsburgh area.

No one will say it out loud today, but Parker's personality was such that he was not always popular among the Pittsburgh fan base, and said fan base did not take kindly to the fact that Bucco management rewarded Parker with a five year, $5 million contract, making him baseball's first Million Dollar A Year player  (times were different back than).  Undoubtedly, racism played a part in the negative backlash that resulted whenever it was perceived that Parker was slacking or not putting out his best efforts.  No one will admit to that today, but, trust me, that was real.

Dave Parker eventually went the free agent route and signed with his hometown Cincinnati Reds, where he stayed for four years, and then spent five more seasons splitting time among the A's, Angels, Brewers, and Blue Jays.  

Parker also was a central figure in the "Pittsburgh Baseball Drug Trials" of the mid-1980's, and that further eroded his popularity among the Pittsburgh fan base,  However, sometime in the early part of the 21st century, the Pirates welcomed Parker back into the family, and he became a frequent visitor to PNC Park and team reunions and other Pirate Alumni events.  This was also at a time when Parker was diagnosed as having Parkinson's Disease, and his demeanor in the face of the disease as well as his efforts to raise funds for research were seen as heroic.

Dave Parker was the best player in baseball for an extended period of time in the late 1970's and early 1980's, and, all due respect to Willie Stargell, he was the best player on the Pirates World Series Champion team of 1979.  In the two days since his death, I have pondered the question "Have the Pirates had a better player than Dave Parker since he left the team in 1983?"  I suppose that you might be able to make a strong case for Andrew McCutchen, but if you had a choice who would you take for your team: an In-His-Prime-Parker of an In-His-Prime-McCutchen?  I love Cutch, but I'll take Dave Parker.

Dave Parker becomes the twelfth member of the 1979 We Are Fam-a-lee Pirates to die.  Fourteen members of the 1979 World Series roster remain with us.

	1979
Pitchers	Jim Bibby
	Bert Blyleven
	John Candelaria
	Grant Jackson
	Bruce Kison
	Dave Roberts
	Don Robinson
	Enrique Romo
	Jim Rooker
	Kent Tekulve
Catchers	Steve Nicosia
	Ed Ott
	Manny Sanguillen
Infielders	Tim Foli
	Phil Garner
	Bill Madlock
	Willie Stargell
	Rennie Stennett
Outfielders	Matt Alexander
	Omar Moreno
	Mike Easler
	Lee Lacy
	John Milner
	Dave Parker
	Bill Robinson
Manager	Chuck Tanner
	Deceased	12
	Still With Us	14

RIP Dave Parker.

(CORRECTION:  Since I originally posted this, it has been pointed out to me that Lee Lacy is still very much alive.  My apologies to him and all of his loved ones,)

Three Sporting Thoughts

ONE:  Bill Belichick 

Big news on the football coaching front is that Bill Belichick, arguably the greatest coach in NFL history, will be returning to the sidelines in 2025, not in the NFL, but at the University of North Carolina.  "Can you imagine crusty, curmudgeonly  Bill Belichick kissing the asses of  17 year old high school kids on the college recruiting circuit?" seemed to be the most common theme among pundits.  True, although the landscape of college football has changed so drastically in recent years, that it has been speculated that a football "general manager" may be hired at UNC (as has been done at many other schools) to deal with the unseemly details of recruiting, transfer portal issues, and NIL money, and Bill would be left to do what he does best: coach football.  We'll see how it turns out.

A bigger question would be why has no NFL team turned to Belichick to become their HC?  He interviewed in Atlanta last year, and he reportedly wanted that job, but Arthur Blank choice otherwise. There will also be bunch of openings after this season concludes, and don't you think that Coach Bill would be a better option than any of the various OC's, DC'c and others who will be hired to fill those openings?

Belichick is 72 years old, and perhaps no team wants to commit long term to a guy of that age, but North Carolina is willing to go for five years at $10 million per.   It is going to be interesting to follow how things transpire in Chapel Hill over the ext several years.

TWO: Baseball Hall of Fame

Whatever they are calling the "Veterans Committee" in Cooperstown these days righted a couple of wrongs when it was announced this week that it has elected Dave Parker and Richie Allen into the Hall of Fame.

I'm not going to go into a recitation of the stats and numbers that Parker and Allen posted over long careers.  You can look those up.  If you followed baseball during the time that they played, you know just exactly how great they were.  Parker was a driving force  and best player on Pirates teams in the late '70s/early 80s that always competed for division titles and won the World Series in 1979.  He was the National League MVP in 1978.  The Cobra has fallen into ill health in his senior years, and I am glad that he got to know that he is a Hall of Famer while he can still smell the roses.

Not so Richie Allen, who left us in 2020.  A star with the Phillies, Cardinals, and White Sox (Al MVP in1972), Allen is surely one of the greatest players to ever come from Western Pennsylvania (Wampum, Beaver County), and I judge him by one totally subjective metric:  If the Pirates are clinging to a one run lead in the ninth inning and the other team has men on base, who do I LEAST want to see come to the plate in that situation?  Richie Allen was high, very high, on such a lot.

You can read what I wrote about Allen in 2020 when he died HERE, but I would like to add one paragraph from that post for y9our immediate reading:

He had his enemies and his defenders.  

"At two different SABR meetings in Pittsburgh over the years, I heard both sides.  Chuck Tanner, who managed him in Chicago, defended him to the highest, and said he was one of the best players, on and off the field, that he ever managed, a great guy.  On the other hand, Nellie Briles, who played with him on the Cardinals, said he was one of the worst teammates that he ever had, and almost shuddered when he even mentioned his name."

Both Parker and Allen were iconoclasts of sorts and I include these two photos proof:

THREE: The Pirates

Major League Baseball's annual winter meetings concluded this week and, lo and behold, the Pirates made a trade.  They acquired first baseman Spencer Horowitz from the Blue Jays via the Guardians.  Until the day of the trade, I had never heard of Spencer Horowitz.

No offense to Mr. Horowitz who I am sure is a nice guy and a competent baseball player, but the one word that appeared over and over again in news stories about the deal was "affordable".  In other words, he comes cheap, and that is the way our Beloved Buccos do business.  Free agent 1B Pete Alonso would sure have been a better addition for the Pirates, but, alas, he is not "affordable" for Bob Nutting's Pirates.  And when the biggest news was the Mets signing Juan Soto to a fifteen year contract worth $765 million, it becomes more depressing being a Pirates fan.  Oh, and Braves ace pitcher Max Fried signed an eight year, $218 million contract with.....the Yankees.

Other teams over the years have shown that you don't have to spend THAT kind of money to compete and win, but the Pirates won't even do that.  

Anyway, welcome to Pittsburgh, Spencer Horowitz!

It ain't easy being a Pirates fan.

Week 14 GPR and Other Sports Thoughts

The Grandstander Power Rankings for Week 14 of the NFL:

1. Ravens
2. 49'ers
3. Saints
4. Chiefs

Knocking at the door.....Bills, Packers, Patriots, Seahawks, Steelers, Vikings.

No change at the top; Niners jump two slots; Seahawks fall out; Chiefs are back; Steelers now knocking at the door.

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Speaking of the Steelers, we are destined to have nothing but anxiety-ridden experiences watching this team perform this season. No such thing as an "easy win."  I'm not sure what mirrors Duck Hodges is using in piloting this team to where they currently sit: 8-5 and in a playoff position.  The defense being played by this team is reminiscent of great Steelers teams of the past fifty years, and T.J Watt, if not the NFL Defensive Player of the Year, is easily the team's Most Valuable Player.

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The CFP semi-finals will be LSU-Oklahoma and Ohio State-Clemson.  The dual between Joe Burrow and Jalen Hurts will be fun to watch, and I'm not sure how to go in picking that second match-up.  Should be terrific game, and based upon the scare that Wisconsin put into the Buckeyes on Saturday, the smart pick just might be Clemson, but I'll be rooting for Ohio State (and who thought that I would have ever said that about the school the gave us Woody Hayes, Jim Tressel, and Urban Meyer?) for three reasons: (1) My niece Frances and nephew Brian are students at Ohio State, (2) who outside the state of South Carolina isn't getting tired of Clemson in the CFP every year?, and (3) I would love, love, LOVE to see Dabo Swinney get punched in the mouth, figuratively speaking, of course.

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The "Modern Era Committee" elected Marvin Miller and Ted Simmons into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  I have written about how Miller belongs in the HOF so often in the past that I'm not going to restate it all once more other than to say "It's about effin time."  As for Simmons,  he was for sure a good ballplayer, but nothing about him ever screamed "Hall of Fame" as I watched him play over the years, and you know that it wasn't his stint as Pirates GM back in the day that got him into Cooperstown.

Of local interest was the fact that Dave Parker once again fell short of getting elected, and the vote wasn't even close.  Twelve of sixteen were needed, and the Cobra only received seven votes.  Proponents said that Parker is Hall-worthy because for a "period of time", he was the best player in the game. True, but should a four or five season stretch of brilliance (and Parker was undeniably brilliant during that time) over a 19 year career qualify you for the HOF?  It is a point that is fun to debate.  I also remember how Parker acted when his time in Pittsburgh was coming to an end.  He let himself get fat, out of shape, and his recalcitrance with the media and the fan base left a sour taste in the mouths  of most everyone in Pittsburgh, and I remember THAT aspect of Parker every bit as much as I remember his MVP type seasons with the team.

To his credit, Parker has worked to make himself once again a part of the Pirates family and heritage over the years, and that has helped to make the bitter ending here recede quite a bit.  It would have been nice if he had made it, and, face it, there are guys in the HOF who are less deserving than Parker (like, say, Ted Simmons), but c'est la vie.

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The Pitt Panther football team is headed for the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit against Eastern Michigan on December 26.  Good luck to them there.  The big question is, will those  precious fifteen extra practice sessions they get from playing in bowl and that coaches love so much help propel them beyond another seven win season in 2020?

H2P.