Living legend with brief Blue Jays cameo finally earns a spot in the MLB Hall of Fame

It was certainly a long time coming, but living legend Dave Parker finally got the MLB Hall of Fame recognition that he truly deserves. On Sunday, it was announced that Parker was elected into the Hall by the Classic Baseball Era Committee. He received 14 votes among the 16 committee members to meet the 75% threshold for induction.

Nicknamed “The Cobra”, Parker had spent 19 seasons in the major leagues, including a brief stint with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1991. That season, the Jays added him to help boost their roster down the stretch following his release from the California Angels in early September. In 13 games with Toronto, Parker batted a solid .333 with an .844 OPS, along with two runs scored, four doubles and three RBI. Because he didn’t meet the September 1st playoff roster eligibility cutoff, he was ineligible to appear in the Jays’ subsequent postseason run that year. At the twilight of his career, the Jays weren’t able to experience more of his greatness as Parker officially retired upon the conclusion of the 1991 season.

Dave Parker finally earns his spot in MLB Hall of Fame

However, that didn’t take anything away from his illustrious baseball career that included stops with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Oakland Athletics, Milwaukee Brewers, Angels and of course ultimately the Blue Jays. During that time frame, Parker compiled a career .290 batting average, .810 OPS, together with 2712 hits, 1272 runs scored, 339 home runs, 1493 RBI and 154 stolen bases in 2466 career MLB games.

In doing so, he was a seven-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger and Gold Glove winner. More significantly, Parker captured NL MVP honours in 1978 with the Pirates, along with finishing in the top 5 in MVP voting on four other occasions. He also has the distinguished honour to be the inaugural winner of the MLB All-Star Home Run Derby in 1985. To cap it all off, Parker played a huge role in bringing home the World Series championship with the Pirates in 1979 and with the Athletics in 1989.

Having averaged over 20 home runs and close to 100 RBI per season over a 162-game schedule while batting close to .300 for most of his career, it was surprising that Parker didn’t gain entrance traditionally via the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. In fact, he did not even garner more than 25% of the votes over his 15 years of eligibility. Nevertheless, Parker is now finally confirmed to be among one of the best to have ever played the game of baseball as he will be officially enshrined in the Class of 2025 induction ceremony on July 27, 2025 in Cooperstown, New York.