What a card: This is the first base card of Dave Parker as a Cincinnati Red (he was with Cincinnati for update sets for both Topps and Fleer). He signed as a free agent in December of 1983.
My observation on the front: Parker looks as powerful as ever with that swing.
More opinion from me: It was very, very strange at the time to see Parker in anything other than a Pirates uniform. And I think a lot of people today don't remember what big rivals the Reds and Pirates were during the 1970s and into the early '80s. Of all teams for him to go to -- the Reds! (But Parker is also a Cincinnati native).
Something you might know: Parker was a fixture of the "We Are Family" Pirates, the first player to get a million-dollar-a-year contract, a man with an unbelievable throwing arm, and someone who paid for his involvement with cocaine during the Pittsburgh drug trials (Parker claimed that it was the reason he finished second in the '85 MVP voting instead of first).
Something you might not know: When Dave Parker made this commercial, little did he know that he would be the only one of the three not in the Hall of Fame, even though many were predicting a Hall career for him at the time.
My observation on the back: Courter Tech is now Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.
The blog wants to speak now: A small update to the News tab. I'm going to have to cut back these updates a little bit if I want to continue to make tab updates for the remainder of this blog.
That commercial is AWESOME.
ReplyDeleteI thought Nolan Ryan was the first $1 million a year player.
ReplyDeleteI guess it depends on who you ask. There were published reports after Parker signed his deal with the Pirates that said it was $5 million for 5 years and that he was making a million a year.
ReplyDeletePerhaps they were jumping the gun a little and the 5-for-5 was estimated, because I've heard the Nolan Ryan thing, too.
Baseball-reference says Parker made $775,000 in 1979.
ReplyDeleteNolan Ryan was the first player to make a million dollars in a year, Parker was the first to sign a million dollar a year average contract - a semantic difference to be sure, but a valid one.
ReplyDeleteAnd I hate making these argument, but if Jim Rice is in the Hall, Dave Parker really should be.