Parker misses out on Baseball HOF

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- For all his career accomplishments, the Cobra is not heading to Cooperstown.
Dave Parker was up for election into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the 16-member Modern Baseball Era Committee, which announced its latest class Sunday night before the start of the Winter Meetings. Jack Morris and Alan Trammell were elected into the Hall of Fame, but Parker did not receive the necessary 12 votes to join them among the game's immortals next summer.
The Modern Era Committee was created to consider retired Major Leaguers no longer eligible for election to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers' Association of America along with managers, umpires and executives whose greatest contributions to the game came from 1970-87.
Parker was listed on the Modern Baseball Era ballot alongside Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Morris, Dale Murphy, Ted Simmons, Luis Tiant, Trammell and Marvin Miller, the longtime head of the Major League Baseball Players Association.
Parker spent 11 seasons of his 19-year big league career with the Pirates, four more with the Reds and two with the A's before bouncing through Milwaukee, California and Toronto. He slugged 339 career home runs and drove in 1,493 runs while totaling 2,712 hits and batting .290 with an .810 OPS, well above average for his career peers.
The right fielder's peak came with the Pirates, as he won consecutive batting titles (1977-78) and the '78 National League Most Valuable Player Award before helping the "We Are Family" Bucs capture a World Series championship in '79.
Parker's peak extended beyond Pittsburgh, however. He was twice named an All-Star and Silver Slugger Award winner while logging two top-five NL MVP finishes in 1985-86 for Cincinnati. He earned the last of his seven All-Star nods with the Brewers in 1990, when he hit .289 with 21 homers and 89 RBIs at 39 years old.
The Cobra was not a one-dimensional slugger, though, following in the legacy of Pirates right fielder Roberto Clemente as an all-around player, something he demonstrated with his three Gold Glove Awards.
"There was a stretch where nobody in the game was better. Hands down, Dave was the best all-around player," former pitcher Jim Rooker said recently. "When he was at his best, teams just couldn't figure out a way to get him out. Plus, his defensive skills were outstanding. There are guys in the Hall of Fame totally because of their offense. But Dave was a complete player."
Parker spent 15 years on the BBWAA's Hall of Fame ballot. His candidacy peaked in 1998, his second year on the ballot, when he received 24.5 percent of the vote. His final year on the ballot came in 2011, when he received 15.3 percent of the vote.