Dave Parker and Dick Allen elected to baseball's Hall of Fame

 

[December 09, 2024]  By RONALD BLUM

DALLAS (AP) — Having waited for the call from Cooperstown for nearly three decades, Dave Parker burst into tears Sunday when he was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame along with the late Dick Allen.

“Yeah, I cried,” Parker said after receiving the news from Hall chair Jane Forbes Clark. “It only took a few minutes, because I don't cry.”

Parker received 14 of 16 votes from the classic era committee at the winter meetings, and Allen got 13. A vote of 75% or more was needed for election.

They will be inducted into the Hall in Cooperstown, New York, on July 27 along with players voted in by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, whose balloting will be announced on Jan. 21.

Tommy John was third with seven votes on a committee that considered candidates whose primary impact was before 1980. Ken Boyer, Steve Garvey and Luis Tiant each received less than five votes, as did Negro Leaguers John Donaldson and Vic Harris.

Parker, who turned 73 in June, never got more 24.5% during 15 appearances on the BBWAA ballot from 1997-2011. Allen, who died in 2020 at age 78, received a high of 18.9% on the BBWAA ballot from 1983-97. Both also had fallen short in a series of prior committee votes.

His body shaking during a Zoom news conference from Parkinson's disease that was diagnosed in 2012, Parker flashed the quick wit he became known for during a 19-year career that ended in 1991 and included a pair of World Series titles. Asked whether he had thought of himself as a Hall of Famer, Parker responded with one of his often-said remarks.

“Without a doubt. When the leaves turned brown, I’d be wearing the batting crown," he said. "That was one of my sayings, so I always thought that I was going to be a major leaguer. I told my mother at 8 years old that I would be a baseball star and one day buy her a house. Well, I did that in ’78. I got that done.”

Nicknamed The Cobra, Parker hit .290 with 339 homers and 1,493 RBIs for Pittsburgh (1973-83), Cincinnati (1984-87), Oakland (1988-89), Milwaukee (1990), California (1991) and Toronto (1991).

Since 2002, the Hall has made the decision on what team logo is used on a player’s cap.

“I might have to split it up three ways,” Parker said.

He won World Series titles in 1979 and ’89. He was the 1978 NL MVP, won the 1977 and ’78 NL batting titles, and was a seven-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove right fielder.

Pirates Dave Parker smashes ball that took a bad hop in front of Orioles Rich Dauer and sailed into right field scoring Omar Moreno and the Bucs first run in the seventh inning of the sixth World Series game, Oct. 16, 1979, in Baltimore. Parker was credited with a single. Tim Foli, who later scored, took third. (AP Photo, File)

“I was a five-tool player. I could do them all,” he said. "I never trotted to first base. I don’t know if people noticed that, but I ran hard on every play.”

He had the Pirates wear T-shirts that read: “If you hear any noise, it's just me and the boys boppin,” an idea sparked when Pittsburgh lost three of four after a 5-0 start in 1976.

“Don’t go out and try to copyright it because it’s mine,” he recalled telling his teammates.

Parker homered for the A's in the 1989 World Series opener and took credit for helping the Bash Brothers of Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire take the title.

“I taught them how to win," Parker said. “They didn’t know how to win. They had all that thunder and didn’t know how to win.”

Parker led major league outfielders with 26 assists in 1977 and finished with 143.

“I enjoyed throwing out players," he said. "And if they kept running, I would hit them in the back of the head with the ball.”

Allen, who died in 2020 at age 78, was born in Wampum, Pennsylvania, and he was nicknamed The Wampum Whammer along with Crash — shortened from Crash Helmet, which started when wore his helmet in the field to protect himself from demanding Philadelphia Phillies fans.

He hit .292 with 351 homers and 1,119 RBIs from 1963-77 for Philadelphia (1963-69, 1975-76), St. Louis (1970), the Los Angeles Dodgers (1971), Chicago White Sox (1972-74) and Oakland (1977).

Known as Richie Allen with the Phillies before asking to be referred to as Dick for the rest of his career, Allen was seven-time All-Star who was voted the 1964 NL Rookie of the Year and the 1972 AL MVP.

Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Félix Hernández are among the 14 players eligible for the BBWAA ballot for the first time in the upcoming vote. Holdovers include Billy Wagner, who was five votes shy last January.

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