Dave Parker on success, failure, fight of his life

Cobra…still spitting to all fields.

“I know when I was younger people use to want to come up to me and talk about being the best player in the game in the seventies. I said you’re doing the right thing if you want to know how good I am ask me cause I believe in my ability.”

He began his major league career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, taking over right field after the death of Pirates’ legend Roberto Clemente.

“I just went in trying to play within myself I had won three batting titles in the minor leagues. I felt like I could do the same things up here as Dave Parker not as the second Roberto Clemente,” Parker said.

...Despite his stellar career, the Baseball Hall of Fame has eluded him.

“It was frustrating because I know I was a great player. I knew I had my thumbprint on the game and I think it was all because of that 1985 drug trial that set me back with writers and possibly the general public,” Parker said. But baseball is supposed to be so forgiving and this is a forgiving country why didn’t they forgive me.”

He’ll know in one month if baseball is forgiving. The veteran’s committee votes on new Hall of Fame members.

“I stood accountable for I never pointed the finger at anybody else I thought that infringed on me getting into the hall a lot sooner.”