Pittsburgh Pirates legend Dave Parker elected to Cooperstown, Baseball Hall of Fame

Parker won the 1978 MVP and 1979 World Series as a critical member of the Pirates dominance in the 1970s

Sunday, December 8th was a day one Pirates legend will remember forever. It was a day he had been waiting on for years, a day he didn’t know would ever come.

On Sunday night, former Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Dave Parker received the call to Cooperstown, officially being voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Classic Era Baseball Committee voted on eight candidates whose primary contributions to the game came before 1980. Parker received 14 of the 16 eligible votes and White Sox first baseman Dick Allen totaled 13.

The 1978 NL MVP and Pirates Hall of Famer slugged 339 home runs, 1493 RBIs, slashed .290/.339/.371, and earned a 40.1 WAR in 19 MLB seasons.

Parker earned seven All-Star nods and three Silver Sluggers in a career playing for six different teams. The heart of his playing days came in Pittsburgh where “The Cobra” spent his first 11 seasons.

“It was a long time waiting,” Parker told MLB Network after the Hall of Fame announcement. Parker played in Pittsburgh at Three Rivers Stadium from 1973-1983 and suited up for the Cincinnati Reds and Oakland A’s during his incredible and Hall of Fame-worthy career.

Parker hit 32 doubles, 32 home runs, drove in 117 runs, stole 20 bases, won the NL batting title, and led all of baseball in average (.334), OPS (.979), OPS+ (166), and intentional walks (23) during his MVP campaign. He led the NL in slugging (.585) and total bases (340) but didn’t make the All-Star Game.

He won the first-ever Home Run Derby in 1985 with only six long balls in a 10-out format. The lefty slugger closed his Pirates career with 166 homers, 758 RBIs, 123 steals, and a .305 batting average. He also won three Gold Gloves from 1977-1979 and was a critical piece of the 1979 World Series Champions.

Parker surprisingly never received more than 24.5% of the vote on the writers ballot from 1997-2011, even during a 15-year cycle before it shrunk to 10 in 2014.

Parker, Allen, and the player(s) who earn 75% of the vote on the BBWAA ballot being announced in January will be inducted on July 27 in Cooperstown, New York.