Up Close with the Pittsburgh Sports Report
Former Pirates All-Star Dave Parker

Thirty years have passed since Willie Stargell, Dave Parker and the rest of the 1979 Pirates delivered Pittsburgh the most recent of its five World Series Championships. The game, along with the relationship between the Pirates and the city, has changed fairly radically since. The Pirates were among the league's elite clubs throughout much of the mid-20th century; the '79 squad was perhaps the last outpost of that era, before the drug trials kicked off the 1980's and the Pirates struggled to regain relevance.

One Pirate on that team, more than any other, embodied the change taking place throughout Major League Baseball. Dave Parker, a two-time batting champ and the 1978 National League MVP, was an intimidating, bruising power hitter before the era of power began in earnest. After terrorizing opposing pitching to consecutive .330 averages in 1978 and 1979, "The Cobra" became baseball's first million-dollar man, receiving the largest contract in baseball history to that point. Parker left the Pirates in 1983, but won another World Series with the Oakland Athletics in 1989, as part of a trio of super-sluggers with Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire.

Parker's swing is just as fearsome today, although he's traded the bat for a golf club. Now living in Cincinatti, Parker spoke with PSR contributing writer Sean Collier about the Pirates, his career and baseball's new era.

PSR: How closely do you follow baseball today, and how closely are you following the Pirates?

Parker: I really don't follow baseball that closely any more. I mostly try to move my handicap - I'm about a ten. Not bad. But if it's on, I watch it. I was thinking about getting back in the game. You know, the Pirates need some tradition. They need some of the guys that were around when we were a winning team. We have a tradition of winning - I think they could utilize a little more of that.

PSR: You were on the last Pirate team to win a Series, in '79. We're in the thirtieth season since that championship, and haven't been back since. Does that surprise you?

DP: Not with the big markets making all the money and signing all the good talent, it doesn't surprise me. It's tough for a small market to compete today.

PSR: You were the first player to receive a million-dollar contract. Has the size of contracts grown too far? Are inflated payrolls bad for baseball?

DP: I think it's whatever the market can bear. The owners wouldn't be paying [that much] if it was detrimental to their success and survival. But I was born too soon, because some of these guys that are making that money couldn't even make that '79 Pirates team.

PSR: Then you don't think that a salary cap would help? You think that the market is going to take care of itself?

DP: Well, I believe that they need a salary cap to ease the financial burden on the fans. You've got guys making $122 million - that's incredible. It's gotta stop somewhere.

PSR: So with that environment, can improvements in coaching and drafting alone pull the Pirates out of their drought? Or will it take some major signings, the addition of big-name players?

DP: I think it's going to be hard for them to land big-name talent right now. They're going to have to develop some star players through the minor league system and they're going to have to make a commitment to them financially, and they're going to have to be willing to get some supporting players for them.

PSR: You were a World Series Champion twice, ten years apart. Is one team more memorable for you than the other?

DP: Well, they were both great teams. I think '79 is probably the one that means the most - it was the first World Series that I was in, and I had the opportunity to do it with that cast of characters that we had on that team. Those guys were like family, just like our theme was that year - We Are Family. That meant an awful lot to me - I've won batting titles and MVP's, but you appreciate things that you did collectively, as a group.

And with Oakland in '89, Oakland was just flat-out an All-Star team. Rickey Henderson, Canseco, me, McGwire, Dave Henderson, Dennis Eckersley…that was probably the best team I ever played on. But the most cohesive and united team was the Pirates.

PSR: You won two batting titles in the 70's with the Pirates, part of a long list of Pirate batting champions. The most recent entry on that list is Freddy Sanchez in 2006. Looking back at some of the other Pirate batting champs - yourself, Clemente, going all the way back to Honus Wagner - do you see Sanchez as a player of that caliber?

DP: He's the type of hitter that can possibly win it every year. He can hit line drives, he can hit the ball hard on the ground. He has great foot speed, a good eye, good hands, he doesn't strike out a lot. I think he's got another batting title in his future.

PSR: How do you think those first ten years with the Pirates compare with the second half of your career?

DP: I was great in the first half of my career and good in the second. Well, better than good - I should've won the MVP in '85, with that year that I had. So I think my career was pretty much complete…the only thing I lack was the 3,000 hits, but my ego came into play on that. They wanted me to play for a half-million dollars that year, and coming from where my salary was… I just didn't want to take that kind of cut. If I had, I probably would've ended up getting my 3,000th hit.

PSR: You're on the Hall of Fame ballot for the 14th time this year. You always have a number of supporters and usually get about eighty votes, but that's not nearly enough to make it in. Do you still think about the Hall, after all this time?

DP: Well, you know, I really don't think about it. I appreciate the guys that have voted for me. But, two batting titles, an MVP, DH of the Year back-to-back years, two World Series. Basically, I've done everything that's required of me to be in the Hall of Fame. I think it's political, and I think they should deal with the numbers and they should deal with what an individual meant to his team. So, analyze that and see what's right, and put me in the Hall.

PSR: I think I have to agree with you. But the new issue surrounding the Hall is, of course, whether players like Barry and A-Rod, and now Manny, deserve it. Do you think that those players should be in there on the numbers and on the contributions, or is what they've done enough to keep them out?

DP: It's unfair to take their numbers and compare them to what an individual did naturally. They need two sets of rules, basically. Analyze those players-McGwire and Bonds and all those people-in a different category than they would [judge] players prior to the steroid era.

PSR: Finally, I have to ask - there's a tall tale about you hitting a ball from Charleston, West Virginia, to Columbus, Ohio. Is that true?

DP: Yeah, that's a true story. I was playing in Charleston in '73, and I was at the plate when a train was going by on the tracks outside the right field fence. I hit a home run, and the ball landed in the coal car. They tracked the car to Columbus. So I hit a ball from Charleston to Columbus. So I've got that on my resume, the longest home run ever.