Cooperstown 2011: Dave Parker

DAVE PARKER
Fifteenth Year on Ballot  (15.2%)

PLAYING CAREER: Pittsburgh Pirates (1973–1983), Cincinnati Reds (1984–1987), Oakland Athletics (1988–1989), Milwaukee Brewers (1990), California Angels (1991) and Toronto Blue Jays (1991)

ACHIEVEMENTS:  Career batting average of .290 with 2712 hits, 339 home runs and 1493 RBI.  1978 National League Most Valuable Player.  Six seasons (five consecutive) with a .300 or higher batting average.  Back-to-back batting titles in 1977 (.338) and 1978 (.334).  Four seasons with 100-plus RBI.  Two-time World Series champion (1979 and 1989), seven-time All-Star (1977, 1979-1981, 1985-1986 and 1990) and three-time Gold Glove Award winner (1977-1979).

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING ON TWITTER:

@MLBreports:  Dave Parker’s last year on the ballot. Hope you get in cobra.

@JeffFletcherAOL: Dave Parker doesn’t get enough talk for his HOF credentials.

@DaneFletcher:  Dave Parker deserves spot in Hall

HOVG THOUGHTS:  If there was a “Badass Hall of Fame”, Dave Parker would have made it in long ago.  First ballot.  His toothy grin would surely be up on that stage praising Willie Stargell and condemning Marge Schott. Sitting behind him in whatever the “Badass Hall of Fame” requires inductees to wear (I imagine a blazer and a fedora…perhaps accented with a cane) would be such luminaries as Dick Allen and Albert Belle. 

As it stands, there are only seven Hall eligible players with more hits that Parker’s 2712…and three of them (Rafael Palmeiro, Harold Baines and Roberto Alomar) are on this year’s ballot. A seven-time All-Star, Parker hit 339 home runs and knocked in 1493 runs. Only Baines, Palmeiro and another member of this year’s ballot, Fred McGriff, have more and are Hall eligible.  Unfortunately, this is Parker’s last time that he’s appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot and he’s never even approached a third of the votes needed for induction.  So, until that “Badass Hall of Fame” gets built…we’ll have to just wonder what the career .290 hitter would have had in store for us when he gave his speech.