Yeah, he battled a cocaine addiction during his playing career, but fuck look at his stats. He did all that in the dead ball era and before steroids. What a player. RIP old friend.
Yeah, he battled a cocaine addiction during his playing career, but fuck look at his stats. He did all that in the dead ball era and before steroids. What a player. RIP old friend.
Yeah and he just missed a second MVP at age 34, in 1985.
He .312, 34 HR, 125 RBI, and had a .916 OPS (though nobody paid attention to OPS back then).
He finished second to Willie McGee, who won the batting title, with a .353 BA, 10 HR, and 56 SB.
Pete Rose, then manager of the Reds, was pissed off about this and said that Parker got cheated. The Reds finished second to the Dodgers in the NL West that year (remember when an Ohio team was in the west? lol), and Rose claimed that was the reason Parker got screwed. The Cardinals won the NL East that year, and the NLCS featured the infamous Jack Clark HR against Tom Niedenfeur, which literally destroyed Niedenfeur's career.
Truthfully McGee probably deserved the award, but it was close. Parker did have a better OPS, but that stat ignores McGee's 56 SB.
I will say that him being in the HOF is questionable, though. He had a number of excellent years, but it was mostly in the mid-late 70s. Before and after that, he was just good, aside from a brief resurgence in 1985-86.
The basic standard is "10 year dominance", and he didn't meet that.
He also didn't finish with eye-popping career numbers, hitting .290 with 338 HR. He played through age 40, so you can't say he was cut off early, either.
On the plus side, most of his seasons he hit .280 or higher, so it's not like he was alternating between being great and sucking. He was more alternating between being great and being good. It's also notable that his "great" years were never record-setting, and his one MVP year didn't stand out compared to other MVPs. Also, he played OF, so he's expected to hit at that position.
It's funny looking at players from the 80s and nowadays. I mean what would have Dave Winfield been paid? Nolan Ryan. George Brett. It's just a different game now. I mean look at Phil Neikro, he won well over 300 games, yet somehow Clayton Kershaw is a much better pitcher. Kershaw is never going to get anywhere near his win total, I dunno.Originally Posted by Dan Druff
Parker was never overly popular with the Pirates fans. I clearly remember fans throwing things at him including nuts & bolts and ever batteries.
He was also part of the infamous drug ring in the Pirates Club House. Which reminds me of a great prank done by someone. A local Drugstore Chain ran billboards listing them as “Pittsburghs #1 drugstore” or something similar. So someone vandalized a sign by spray painting “The Pirates Clubhouse” over the name, truly classic. I need to search for any pics online.
Also note the mascot “Pirate Parrot” was involved in dealing the coke to players.
He has effectivly the same stats as Johnny Bench, many more hits a few less home runs, but similar. But Johnny was a catcher, white and was not suspended for drugs, so yeah I get it.
2,700 plus hits 290 ba over 1000rbi pretty solid career reminds me of a poor mans Dave Winfield.
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