Yates: ‘The Cobra at Twilight’: Will Dave Parker ever get the recognition he deserves?
From Clinton Yates at The Undefeated on December 12, 2019:
There’s only one thing keeping Dave Parker out of baseball’s Hall of Fame: cocaine.
This week at the MLB’s winter meetings, the group of 16 members who make up the Modern Baseball Committee decided that a guy who played 19 seasons and whose decorations include two World Series rings, seven All-Star Games, three Gold Gloves, three Silver Sluggers, two batting titles, an MVP award and, most importantly, a legendary nickname, doesn’t deserve to be enshrined. The Cobra apparently doesn’t belong in Cooperstown. And after you see MLB Network’s documentary — The Cobra at Twilight, which premieres Thursday — about Parker’s life, career and current struggles with Parkinson’s disease, you’ll understand his snub was a lifetime in the making.
Casual baseball fans of a certain age probably don’t remember Dave Parker. A behemoth of a black man from Cincinnati, his impact on the game was one that centered on both his play and who he was. Parker was a five-tool player and his mouth was one of the best in sports. “When the leaves turn brown, I’ll be wearing the batting crown,” was one of his go-to phrases, and the famous photo of him at his locker wearing a shirt that says, “If you hear any noise it’s just me and the boys, boppin” is so popular that Pirates players and fans wear it to this day. Parker had swag, substance and zero humility.
Read the full article here: https://theundefeated.com/features/the-cobra-at-twilight-will-dave-parker-ever-get-the-recognition-he-deserves/
- Related link: Read our biography of Dave Parker at the SABR BioProject
Originally published: December 12, 2019. Last Updated: December 12, 2019.