Dave "The Cobra" Parker

Dave Parker, the recently inducted Baseball Hall of Famer who dominated with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds in the 1970s and '80s, died June 28, 2025 of complications from Parkinson's Disease in Cincinnati at the age of 74, less than a month before his Hall of Fame induction ceremony was due to take place.

A colorful talker known as "the Cobra" who was quick to deliver memorable quotes and zingers, Parker's skills with the media were matched only by his skills on the field.

He made his major league debut with the Pirates in 1973 at 22 years old, and by his third season was already a perennial MVP contender. Parker hit .308 that year, led the league in slugging, and finished third in National League MVP voting. He went on to hit over .300 every year for the rest of the '70s, leading the league twice in a row in '77 and '78.

The latter year saw Parker lead the National League in hitting (.334), slugging, OPS, and total bases on his way to winning the MVP award. He was so good, he got baseball's first ever million-dollar-per-year contract. One of the most famous photos of him from this era shows him in a T-shirt reading, "If you hear any noise it's just me and the boys poppin'."

Parker went through a mid-career slump in the early 1980s, including a suspension for drug use that was commuted after he donated 10 percent of his salary to drug-related community services. However, he signed with the Cincinnati Reds as a free agent in 1984 and quickly proved that he still had it, slamming over 100 RBI two years in a row (including a league-leading 125 in 1985) and finishing in the top 5 for MVP voting in '85 and '86.

All told, Parker finished his career with a .290 batting average, 339 home runs, over 2,700 hits, and seven All-Star appearances. He also won two World Series rings, one in 1979 with the Pirates and another in 1989 with the Oakland A's.

Parker was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame this year; his induction ceremony is scheduled for July 2025. He is also in the Reds Hall of Fame, Pirates Hall of Fame, Cincinnati Public Schools Athletic Hall of Fame, and the Navegantes del Magallanes Hall of Fame.

Former teammates honored him on social media, with Jose Canseco calling him the "funniest and nicest man I've ever met" and Latino Hall of Fame inductee Omar Moreno calling him a mentor: "It was an honor, a privilege to be his teammate; I learned so much from him on and off the field."

But perhaps it was the Super 70s Store who best summed up how fans saw Parker, as posted to the social media platform X: "He was the first player I ever saw wear an earring, a pillbox hat-wearing, swashbuckling urban badass who wielded heavy lumber like a toothpick and made big league pitchers weak in the knees. And that arm? It was a nuclear missile launcher. I'm sad he won't be there physically to be enshrined in Cooperstown in less than a month. But I'm happy he passed secure at last in the knowledge he will forever reside among baseball's immortals."

By Eric San Juan

(Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)