Dave Parker Leaves Us

Passes a Month Before His Hall-of-Fame Induction

I have a very early memory of Dave Parker, who died today and will be honored as a Hall-of-Famer posthumously next month in Cooperstown. As the Mets started their miracle, last-to-first run to the East Division flag in 1973 on August 31, I feared this was the guy that would prevent it. He was much heralded in the Pirates farm system and got called up on July 12. Pittsburgh had won the last three N.L. East titles and now they were adding this guy? He did his part for the Bucs, hitting .288 in 139 ABs. But they couldn't overcome the mysterious collapse of their ace starter Steve Blass, who was given start-after-start to correct his mental malady -- whatever it was. Blass started 18 games in 1973 and finished with an unimaginable 9.85 ERA for the season. Too much for Parker to overcome. But not the Mets.

The Museum doesn’t have a strong holding of Parker wire photos, as most of his career took place when the quality of these antiquities had deteriorated. But I’d like to share some of the best I have. I’ll let the captions do the talking, as many are more workaday than we like to showcase here, but I feel it important to pay homage to this great of the 70s and 80s.

With Eric Davis after his career moved to Cincinnati

In his 18th year, with the Brewers in 1990, and still a tough out at the plate

As voluble as he was valuable to the Pirates of the ‘70s

Spring training wheels in Bradenton in 1982

The rookie, six weeks into his career