Happy Birthday to the great Dave Parker; throughout his 19-year career, Parker played for the Pittsburgh Pirates for the majority and the Cincinnati Reds, Oakland Athletics, Milwaukee Brewers, California Angels, and the Toronto Blue Jays.

Career Statistics (1973-1991):

.290 BA, 2,712 HITS, 339 HR, 1,493 RBI, .339 OBP, 1,272 RUNS

  • 7x All-Star
  • 3x Silver-Slugger
  • 3x Gold-Glove
  • 2x Batting Champion
  • 2x World Series Champion
  • 1978 NL MVP

Spending eleven years as the Right Fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, he’s the third greatest Pirate, behind only Paul Waner and Roberto Clemente. Defensively, he had a powerful arm winning three consecutively Gold Gloves, throwing out 26 runners in 1977. Offensively, he won the Batting Title in back-to-back years in 77 & 78. In 1978, he won the league MVP. The following year he and the Pirates would win the 1979 World Series, known as the We Are Family team. Overall, he was a slugger who hit for average as well. Unfortunately, in the early 1980s, he fell victim to nagging injuries, which robbed Parker of some more prime years. But still, even as he aged, he was dominant when he was healthy enough to play. In 1985-86 with the Reds in his age 34-35 seasons, he finished runner-up in the NL MVP voting and 5th the following year. 

Had it not been for some nagging injuries which interrupted three years in which Parker was still in his prime, he would’ve eclipsed 3,000 Hits and 1,500 Runs Batted In, two what you’d consider Hall of Fame milestones. He and Don Mattingly are what I would think your typical “borderline Hall of Famers” Both those guys fell victim to injuries that cost them both Hall of Fame votes. While Parker has yet to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, he is a part of the Pirates and Reds Hall of Fame, two of the iconic franchises in baseball.

References:

  1. Dave Parker Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/parkeda01.shtml
  2. Dave Parker via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Parker#