Dave Parker died recently at the age of 74. He was selected as a member of the 2025 Hall of Fame class, yet another borderline player to get in.
There's no question Parker would have made the Hall of Fame easily going by the early years of his career, but the reasons why it ended up taking so long have not been mentioned in any of the stories I've read since his death. Parker was the best, or close to the best, all-around player in the National League in 1977, '78 and '79. The '79 Pirates won the World Series, the last time the franchise won the NL pennant.
But after 1979 Parker's career took a sharp downward turn. He won the NL batting title in '77 and '78 and combined that with good power and a powerful arm. He memorably threw out two American League baserunners in the '79 All Star Game. But after the 1979 season, Parker signed a five-year guaranteed contract with Pittsburgh with salaries between $1 million and $2 million annually depending on bonuses. It was a huge contract for the time, and the most important word about it was "guaranteed."
With his millions guaranteed, Parker immediately became the poster boy for athletes whose performance declines after "getting paid." Parker was huge at 6'5" and 230 pounds, but he reported to spring training in 1980 weighing 280. Not surprisingly his performance reflected his new quite plump figure. In '80 he hit .295 with just 17 homers and 79 RBIs. In '81 he declined further to .258/9/48 (in a strike shortened season). Injured for part of 1982, he hit .270 with 6 HR and 29 RBIs. In '83 Parker hit .279 with 12 HR and 69 RBIs. Offensively he was a shell of what he had been before he got the guaranteed money.
Parker also got into cocaine big time and was a central figure in the Pittsburgh drug trials of 1985, a lot of which centered around drug dealing in the Pirates locker room during Parker's days with the team.
Parker did eventually have some very good seasons after joining the Reds following the 1984 season, particularly '85, '86 and '87 before fading again and winding up his career in 1991.
With the passage of time Parker became viewed with nostalgia even in Pittsburgh, where a lot of fans turned on him after he became a 280 pound Porky Pig and then after his coke use became known. (He had one briefly publicized incident in the '70s where he threw a naked airline stewardess out of his house on a freezing winter night.)
I bring this up because not a single article I've read after Parker's death mentions any of this, whereas the alleged flaws of White baseball greats are ritually mentioned in any story about them. It's debatable whether Parker should have made it to Cooperstown, but why it took so long to finally get elected as a borderline inductee appears to have been consigned to the regime's memory hole.
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