April 30, 2021 • 37 mins
A 19-year vet and MLB great, Dave Parker, joined the show to chat a bit about baseball. Spending his days in Pittsburgh, Oakland, and a few others...Parker shares some of the dark sides of his career and drops a few tales from his latest book.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
If you thought more hours a day, hundred minutes a
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Maller starts right now in the air everywhere. We were
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amazingly another weekend with David Gascon as he is in
(01:27):
here hand sound effects, n scind the thoughts on that
octu here nothing nothing canned about that just got some
people off the four or five free way they wanted
to come on in and say hello. So it's uh,
it's gonna be back in the house and of course
a brand new day, a little tired from having to
(01:49):
put together a bunch of crap for you. I'm sure
we'll get into that in the next day or two. No, no, no,
you didn't have to do any any of that. There's
high production value, like you know, like this podcast is
so moving. But but yeah, you are what pathetic? I'm awesome. Awesome,
that's not a word. That's not a word I would use.
(02:11):
That's a word I would use. You're not You're not
really kind, You're not really compatible with compliments. So it's
here's what I here's what I do. I believe in
tough love. Okay, that's what I do. I get I
believe you get better it's called constructive criticism, is what
it is. No, No, you don't give anything constructive, You
(02:33):
just criticize. Now, if I was a doctor. If I
was a doctor, would I be a dentist? Would I
be a surgeon? No? I would be doctor truth. All right,
That's what I am, doctor truth with valid and well
reasoned opinions. You'd be like by the dozen. You wouldn't
be an ear doctor. You wouldn't be ear nose and
(02:54):
through it. Maybe like an ophthalmologist, because at times you
are observant of the times you're not. You don't really
listen to ship. You just talk loud over people. It's
pretty much it. So you'd be an optimologists. It's called
being a talk show host. Have you ever heard a
talk host? Have you ever heard a talk show host?
(03:17):
Who's I have my talk show host. I would like
you to listen. We got some guys that are here
like that, don't you think? Do you want to name names? No?
But no, I don't know. I I don't listen to
a lot of these guys. But if I have heard
some people over the years that are like that, and
you know what I do? Click click, I move on,
(03:41):
I go, I go elsewhere. I don't listen. Why would
I want to listen to that. If I want to
hear somebody whisper, I'll go to the library. I don't
need to hear that on the radio or podcasting or
it's ridiculous. So mine back to this podcast. Yes, today's podcast. Now,
this is what's known as alternative programming. Right now. I'm
(04:04):
excited to do this. We were actually we're supposed to
do this interview last week. You know, we've been working
on this for a couple of weeks. But I think
it's perfect because it's obviously NFL Draft weekend and all
that going on that rigamore or so, I think we
should give you an alternate, a little break from all
that football stuff. And I am fired up because we
(04:24):
have a legitimate big name, this guy Royalty in his
day back in his halcyon days with the Pittsburgh Pirates,
as we are chatting with the great Dave Parker. Dave Parky,
National League MVP in nineteen seventy eight, was part of
(04:46):
the we Are Family Pittsburgh Pirates of nineteen seventy nine,
played with Willie Stargel and was teammates with Pete Rose.
Played with Conseco and McGuire. Robin Youunt was his team
in Hall of Famer with Milwaukee. Dave Winfield with the
Angels won a couple of World Series and his resume
(05:07):
is outstanding. Uh, And we're gonna gonna chat here with
with the Parker. He's got a new book out Gascon.
It's called Cobra, A Life of Baseball and Brotherhood. It
just came out in April, the beginning of April, so
it's only it's only been out for a short time.
And if you're like me and you remember watching Dave
(05:28):
Parker and the way he played with the Bravado to
his game, you're gonna wanna kinda read the book. I mean,
he goes uh full in on everything here. We'll get
into some of it just a little bit. We'll scratch
the service. But it's a book designed more for an
adult audience, which is good. So he's gonna tell some
(05:50):
of I mean, this guy was part of the pirates
back when they were you know, in the seventies and
the eighties, when you know, cocaine was in the air everywhere,
and I was dragged into that the Pittsburgh drug trials,
which he was a star of we'll ask him about that.
By the way, before I we get into the conversation
with Dave Parker, if you're gonna buy the book, I
(06:10):
recommend going to Dave Parker thirty nine Foundation dot com
because if you if you're gonna buy the book anyway,
you buy it there and it will help the Dave
Parker thirty nine Foundation in their mission to help defeat
Parkinson's which Dave has been battling here for the last
handfull of years. But let's get into it right now.
(06:32):
And I think we should start with this, Dave Parker
that recently we've seen a number of players of former players,
guys that you played with at the end of your
career who no longer are watching baseball, who are disgusted
with baseball. Gary Sheffield is one and David Wells is another.
Just at the top of my head here, But where
(06:53):
do you stand on that? Where are you at on
watching baseball? Do you still enjoy the game? Do you
still check out? Well, I'm watching it if I'm walking
through the house and happen to be on TVV. But
the game is too slow, They don't play small ball.
Guys are standing that to play taking the strikes, swinging
(07:17):
and balls and bob their head. They're not fundamentally sound,
and uh, it's hard to watch. Yeah, And I gotta
ask you, is a guy that played, you know, in
the for me the goal I grew up watching you
played there, so I loved I loved your your era
of baseball. But this ghost runner, right, they were an
(07:38):
extra inting So they just magically a runner pops up
on second base? Where are you on that? Pretty soon
they're gonna have robots pitching. You know, a weird thing.
I'm losing the rules. I don't even know the rules
are in baseball no more. You gotta guy running in Pennsylvania,
(07:59):
you know, if I know, like a pen Son, I
had to play the extra four or five years. Yeah,
it's pretty it's pretty crazy. If you were in charge
and Rob Manford and I do the overnight show here
at Fox, and I've taken my shots to the commissioner.
But if you were running baseball, David, you could you
could fix and tweak something in the sport of baseball.
(08:21):
What what would it be? What do you think baseball
needs that the commissioner could do? What they need to
promoted better? They need promoted better. And you don't have
any as African Americans in the game decentages like down
the seventh. Uh they need to promote the game more,
(08:44):
bring some new blood in. And they have this this broke.
Don't fix it. You know, ain't nothing wrong with baseball.
You throw it, I catch it, and you throwing it
out hit you know, and just keep it simple. Yeah, David,
you were, you know, one of the great African American
players in your day. But but baseball's they've they've had
(09:06):
these different campaigns to try to encourage uh more black
kids to play baseball. But it's it seems like basketball
and football for the last twenty or thirty years, everyone's
been gravitating to that. So I don't know what else
baseball can do. You know, It's it's an interesting dilemma, right,
I mean, if if kids don't want to play baseball,
(09:27):
you can't really force him, right, So what are they
supposed to do? It's an odd situation. Well, you know,
it's try to faults and to do it. But I mean,
you still got to promote it. You gotta. Basketball have
all these programs for youth during their All Star games,
(09:48):
and then they make a grandness to the kids baseball
could do the same thing. I'm not nothing a hook
with not fouls and players to do and just create
environment for them the I want to do it absolutely now.
When you played, you had you had swagger, You had
(10:10):
swagger to your to your your your game. There were
usually frowned upon. I know today in baseball one guys
like Fernando Tatis Jr. Who have that to their game,
there's still people call them out on it, like you're
not supposed to play baseball that way. When you were
playing back in the seventies and the eighties and the
(10:32):
end of the nineties, there were people. Do people give
you a hard time for the jewelry and all the
razmutazz that you brought. I got to hit fifty times
in twenty years, So when too many people won the
through me because I was a physical player and I
was intimidating and I had a situations would open McGuire
(10:57):
and got hit about three or four times in a week,
and uh put him to the side, And I said,
if you want to stop that, just run out there
one day and grab a guy in the college and
shaking for a second. And he did, and then you
get hit for the rest of the year. You know,
guys want to put on the show. Have some at
(11:18):
a possess to the game, be prepared to pay the price.
Bob Gibson would have probably unbroken about twelve thirteen ribs
by now. I've see these guys go up to line
thing that I'm looking for one to do a flip.
You know. It's a certain respect that's in baseball and
you gotta have it. Yeah, and we're talking with the
(11:41):
great Dave Parker. Obviously he's got a book out and
we're gonna talk more about that in a couple of minutes.
Here Cobra A Life of Baseball and Brotherhood. It's available
wherever you get books, in Amazon, Walmart, Barnes and Noble,
all those locations where you you would get your books.
And we'll talk more about that. But Dave, you mentioned
(12:02):
the on field justice when you played, and you would
get drilled, and then they didn't do that too often
because you were a big holking guy and you could
rip their heads off. But baseball's try to get away
from that now. It's another one of those things that's
changed since you played, where they don't really want the
players to take care of the adjudication on the field,
and uh, you know what were the rules I guess
(12:24):
the unspoken rules when you were playing that you guys
followed to police the game when you were playing well,
and to for two you hit one of mine when
we hit two years. You know that's that's that's the
way that a lot of guys dealt with it. But
I mean you sure enough respect You know, I had
(12:46):
a whole run truck where I had my fingers down
and I ran real slow, but uh, it was done
in a respectful way. And I don't think God will
offend him by and none of the guys took pride
and and taking deep one of my best friends then
in secondsly I got him about six or seven times,
(13:06):
and he had come and tell you a story about
what what he thought when it was going over the fence.
You know, it's a certain way that you can do
that without showing up the player. Yeah. Well, now, obviously
we live in the social media age, Dave. Everything's about Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
all that stuff. How would how would a young Dave
(13:29):
Parker when you were just mashing the baseball with the pirates,
how would you have been on social media in your
in your prime. I was a boy accepted because I
had a little pas working. I used to make a
rhymes and till you know, when the needs turned brown,
(13:51):
I'll be wearing the vetting crown. And I had another
one that I used on on Sundays was there's only
three things for sure, the day and the sun and
the winds don't blow and big days gonna go for
for four. You were like the poet laureate. They didn't.
I was talking to one of my buddies and we
were talking about you back in the day, and then
(14:13):
you have a wasn't there some line you like? Mommy
said there would be Daves like this, right? I mean
you you were you were a poet in your day.
Dave with the we were imperfect for Twitter would have
been perfect, you know they called me in baseball. The
one about Mama said every days like this was when
me and Winfield was playing together and and I had
(14:35):
so u. I just put together things that fit the club,
that fit the individual. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern
eleven pm Pacific. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven
pm Pacife on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart
Radio app Dave. What do you miss most about the
(14:57):
game nowadays? And obviously there's a change in saber mention
and analytics and things like that, But what do you
miss about what it was compared to what it is now?
Just the guys are not fundamentally sound, you know, and
you're making three hundred million a year, which I believe
in whatever the market or bear. But you know, the
(15:18):
older in the game, some some play. You know, you
gotta be fundamentally and sound and lease, you know, hustle
a little bit and leave your feet. You know, you
don't see that. And so the money that they're they're
getting paid, you can request some of that and maybe
get it. Any guys that played today that remind you
(15:40):
of how the game was played back in the day.
I like Tatis. I think that's the kid's name in
San Diego. I like his style. You know, he puts
himself on the line and he's got flash and then
he hustles put team on his back and we don't
(16:00):
have to many players es capable of doing and today,
I mean he's certainly a figure in San Diego. What
about Nanaheim with Shoo Tani, What do you think about him?
I don't know much about him fair enough. Um, you know, Dave,
with with the way that things have been progressive with
Major League Baseball, you mentioned a guy like Fernano Tattoos Jr.
(16:22):
And And marketing the game. What kind of steps would
you take to get these guys out there? I mean,
Mike Trout, for all intensive purposes, is the best player
in Major League Baseball right now, but doesn't have the personality,
doesn't have the chrisma, and he can't force the guy.
So who else would you go up there with and say, hey,
we need to market you a little bit more outside
(16:42):
of a guy like Tatis or maybe Mookie Betts. Well,
I'm sure is that more than one star? So you know,
you tell you, as a managine you star and tell
them what you expect and uh, they should be able
to do that. We know, no problem at all. Yeah, Dave,
(17:07):
your your book. Let's talk about that now. The Cobra,
that's why you're here. Cobra A Life of Baseball and Brotherhood,
as we mentioned, is available now wherever you get your books.
That just came out here in the month of April,
so it's a brand new books. You can be one
of the first people to check it out. I know,
for guys like me, listen, I I grew up watching
to play day. I want to. I want to hear
(17:27):
all about you and read all about you. And I've
actually read some of the book already. But for the
person listening, let's say the younger person, the gen Z
person that doesn't know Dave Parker, that didn't watch you
play with the swagger back in your day. Why should
someone who's in that category by this book, Dave? Well, there,
(17:48):
we've probably heard of me. If I hadn't seen me play,
and I interviewing the individual, then UM have a request
for the game. Somebody that played hard. I never ran out.
I always ran out my ground balls regards and when
he was hit, and I always played at a hundred.
(18:11):
I was physical, I was colorful. I was a fun
to watch. Now you were, and I I understand this
book is geared more to an adult towards an adult audience.
Right you you as you met you? I mean, you
played in a wild era before social media, when you
(18:31):
could you know, guys could get away with more stuff
back in the seventies in the eighties. So how saucy
do we get in this book? Are we gonna hear
about the partying and all that you know back in
the pirate days and whatnot? How how deep do we
get in this book? Dave? It gets pretty deep. I
tell people, you know, some curse words in here. You
might not want to care to read it, you know,
(18:52):
but it gets pretty deep. I was one of the
guys that wouldn't missed a good party. And when congregate
with my teammates, we'll go out to dinner and twelve
thirteen of us and we go to a nightclub back rooms,
so we, uh did all the fun stuff too. Yeah. So,
(19:13):
and baseball in those days, they've they've attempted to, I
guess clean it up and all that. But you played,
as I said, in the seventies and the stories about
greenies and whatnot in the locker room and just the
wildness in the parts. And then you played into the
eighties and the you know, the beginning of the steroid era.
Uh did you ever dabble in in that day when
(19:35):
you were playing or did you avoid that? You played
with the A's and McGuire and Conseco were there. So
how tempting was it if you didn't do it? No,
that wasn't tempting at all. You know, steroids slink to
human body, and I'm not one to try to slink.
I'm kind of add on uh STIs never did uh
(19:55):
attract me? Absolutely? You you told interesting story wrong with
my buddy sports with Coleman, and I had not heard this.
I've always known I have one of the great nicknames
in sports in the Cobra. And and what is the
origin of that? For the for the guys listening that
haven't heard you tell the story before? Who gave you
(20:17):
the nickname? And it's a great nickname, one of the
greats in sports. But who gave you the nickname the Cobra?
Trainer Tony brought a rome was a big boxing sing
and we had a fighter in Cincinnati called the Cincinnati Cobra.
His name was Es Shaul and he was the heavyweight champ.
(20:38):
And Tony associated me man Cincinnati and gave me the
title the Cobra, and Bob Prince made it famous are announcing.
So it came from a trainer. It's good nickname that trainer,
whoever that is that, I got a good job by him.
I saw in the book here there's a quote from
(20:58):
Keith Hernandez, who played it against you and now as
a Mets broadcaster, and he said of you that for
a that period of time, he he meeting you, Dave Parker,
the greatest player of my generation. That's a tremendous compliment
by Keith Hernandez. And I mean you were a wonderful day.
(21:21):
I mean, where do you put yourself, David, that in
that seventies early eighties window, I was the best player
from mid seventies, say heyy and uh from eighty four two,
I mean coming out of Oakland, Um, it was Milwaukee.
(21:46):
I was the best player for about ten of those
two years, Dave. Statistically speaking, your eight five campaign with Cincinnati,
you had thirty four home runs, drove in a hundred
and batted over three. That says a lot obviously in
the middle of your career. But where did you find,
(22:08):
I guess, the most comfort in your career. Did you
enjoyed Pittsburgh more than Cincinnati or Milwaukee or Oakland? Well,
I enjoyed Pittsburgh because they gave me an opportunity to
play and started was like a father, big brother talk
Ellis was like a brother, and we just had guys
Bill mad Lock guys that was great guys that play
(22:35):
with and organization was was great to play for at
a time. But I kind of overstayed my welcome and
uh ran into some problems with the fans for a
period of time. Did you get that sense that you
were overstaying you're welcome or is that something that was
hinted by somebody else. No, it's just uh when when
(22:59):
your fans thought, falling stuff and yelling stuff from the fans,
I mean from the stands and gets to the point
where maybe it's time to do something else. Was there? Wait? Wait, wait,
what were they thrown at you when you What was
the craziest thing that got thrown at you when you
were playing in those ear? In that ear that that
(23:19):
happened a lot, right? And what kind of projectiles were
flying down when you were out in the field. Well,
we had one of the strangest things with a sock
full of nuts and boats. It was a sock that
had nuts and boats and and somebody threw it out
the right field and I heard a chink, and I
want to see what it was, And that's what it was.
(23:42):
Some nuts and boats. What's so, was it worse in
Pittsburgh or worse in Philadelphia? It was in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia
through a battery. I mean somebody in Pittsburgh through a battery.
So I had two batteries and a sock full of
nuts and boats. That's crazy, Dave. Well, what about the
(24:03):
Hall of Fame? Obviously you didn't get voted in by
the writers. You're still eligible through the Veterans Committee. Do
you do you think you've been ostracized day because of
some of the stuff that happened in Pittsburgh where they
just won't put you any get your numbers. As you said,
you for for a period of years were the top
player in baseball. You wont an m v P award.
Like to me, the criteria for a Hall of Famer,
(24:25):
you meet the criteria. You're you were an m v P.
I'm not sucking up your day, but you were seven
time All Star. You won the World Series a couple
of times. Really bookaded right ten years apart, I think
it was you won the World Series. So what do
you think it is? Day? What do you think is
going on here where they you just you could not
carry enough support to get into Cooper's time. We had
(24:46):
to ask the committee as a Hall of Fame because
you couldn't do no more than I did. And if
you got drives better than me and hall of fame,
you know, I'd like to see him match the numbers
and get somebody to tell me that you better than me,
because I know I was best player in baseball about
(25:07):
ten of those twenty years I was in bold And
I was gonna say with with that, with what Ben
brought up, Dave mc Kurt Schilling is a guy that
we bring up it feels like annually right now, and
the biggest reason for that is because there's there's thoughts
that he is getting blackballed by the writers because of
his political allegiance. Um, do you think a guy like
(25:29):
that has hurt himself from getting into the Hall of
Fame because of how outspoken he is? And it kind
of goes away from the writers. When are you telling you,
you know, way from your personality. That's his personality. Kard
loved to put himself on the line, so I even
knew him. He was writing messages on balls and rolling
(25:51):
them across Philadelphia's ball park to the bad Boy and
sending me messages and I never faced the kid. It wait,
what kind of messing? Just this stuff? I watched you
play Tame way to get you out? You know stuff
like that. That's crazy. Yeah, yeah, So what what about
(26:12):
let's go back to you, I mean the dark Pard.
I'm sure you you mentioned this in the book here
the Pittsburgh days and there was the famous incident the
drug trials that took place. What you know, what was
that like going through that? How how scared were you?
How how nervous were you? And kind of paint the
picture for those that don't recall, like you know, that
whole era and what that was like going through as
(26:33):
you you know, being a star player in baseball and
being dragged into a courtroom when they was after the
big name players. You know that that that was what
they were seeking. And uh, they changed their direction and
gave us immunity and they had the big trial in
(26:54):
Ainty side. I didn't know more than anybody else and
and ned knowing that time you had lawyers doing and teaches,
other athletes, general managers. Uh, because everybody in society was
doing it. I thought it was a fair you know,
I thought it would go away after a few years
(27:15):
and grabbed the hold to a lot of players and
they can handle them and and merit them having some problems. Yeah. Absolutely.
And I want to circle back to the to the
money thing, and you were the first million dollar a
year guy. I remember that that story when they you
got the big contract, and to think like people were
(27:37):
upset with you, Dave, right because you were the million
dollar guy. And now as we talked about Mike Trout's
got a four million dollar deal, Mookie Bets is a
three sixty. Uh So, what I want to ask you
here is, and I know you're very confident man, Dave Parker,
but if you were playing today, if a prime m
VP vintage Dave Parker was playing today, how much money
(27:57):
would you get on your contract? Would you three hundred
four hundred? Where would you be, Dave park I'm gonna
pick out the nice city. I don't know, San Diego,
San Diego. How big a contract are we talking about
for you? If you if you could transport what you
were in nineteen seventy nine, that era, and then, how
(28:20):
how much money would you be getting right now? If
somebody's making four I gotta make fast. I like it.
There you go see that you got. You gotta go
higher than Mike trapping. Mike's making four thirty on the
on the contractor you gonna go higher than that. You
played with the Cincinnati Reds. Pete Rose was a teammate.
He was your manager in in Cincinnati there also for
(28:44):
for a few years. What was he like? I mean,
we've heard stories about you competed against him for a
long period of your career, you played with him. What
was Pete Rose like? Behind the scenes, it was what
you What you see is what you get. And when
Pete did everything like Charlie hustle and Wade running, the
first face was just then it's Pete Rose. I enjoyed
(29:07):
playing against him, and it was even the bigger three
of playing with him because I've watched him every day
in his latter years, played the game in the same
way then when he first got to the big league.
So he was the thrill of the play with Dave,
who was the toughest picture. He went up against Steve Carlton.
(29:28):
He uh had a slatter that he started to nod
the played out and it would break over another baddest
box and I would He punched me out about three
times a game. But we had a funny stat going.
Steve struck me out more than any picture I ever faced,
and I hit more home runs off of him than
any picture I ever faced. So that's weird stat. At
(29:51):
least it's not one dimensional like it was with Greg
Maddox and Tony going back in the day. Yeah, absolutely,
id I was surprised that he was so great because
he had medium philosophy and he came up with the
fastball that he would run back over the plate When
(30:13):
I got in the MAGA League and I'm looking at
the the standings and he would be nothing off twenty
wins he or he's almost zero. He turned out to
be one of the greatest pitches of all time. You
mentioned you're obviously known as a guy that enjoyed a
(30:33):
good party, and you played in a great era for that.
Who is the teammate that you were with that could
match you party for party. Who was the wildest party
animal teammate he had back in those days. Doc Ellis
was a flambornet guy and uh a ladies man. Doc
was a guy that could run with me, and did
(30:57):
he not. The famous story about Doc Ellis is that
he supposedly pitched I use on LSD or something like that.
He pitched a no hitter. Uh, that's what he'd say.
That the stories about that. He said he wasn't aware
of him pitching the note head and to the seventh center,
(31:19):
but he said it's true. He got to know hitter.
That's pretty crazy, dropping some acid, throwing a no hitter,
that's that's right up there. That's right. One of the
greatest things he did. I think the Cincinnati knocked us
out of the playoffs like two years in a row.
And Doctor came, he's gonna start the season and he said,
(31:43):
you guys stared at the red and uh. He said,
I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna hit
everybody come to the plate. And I said, you ain't
gonna do nothing. He said, I'm hetting everybody come to
the plate. Well, heat, everybody came to the plate. They
took him out and against Tony Freas and was hid
fifth that day. But he hid the first hit, the second,
(32:06):
third in the forfeit and missed the fifth. Said, and
that was Johnny Bench. But he's a man of his words.
There you go, you see you say you're gonna do something.
Dave you gotta do it. That are talking at gascon
over here now, you Dave, but very important Now. Uh. Meanwhile,
you played at the end, near the end of your
(32:28):
career with the A's some tremendus tremendous teams and talent
wise in Oakland has one championship. But Tony Russo was
your manager and he's back, Dave. He's managing the Chicago
White Sox. Now when you saw that, like, what were
you vacant? I got what went through your mind when
you saw Tony LaRusso returning to baseball at at his
(32:49):
you know, at his age he's been out for a
while managing the White Sox. Well, he's a good manager.
He uh could have handled that, I don't think and
be putting an interfuestion on him because he's not one
maybe three World Series and uh he's the most prepared
(33:09):
manager I ever played for because he thoughts to every eye,
crosses every team. So uh he even been falified to
have a good team play to stop. Yeah, you know
you've been very open, Dave. I'm gonna, you know, kind
of wrap this up a little bit. But you've got
the book out again and you go into great detail
about your your day's designed more for an adult, yes,
(33:32):
because it's some language and whatnot. If you're the kids
today though they speak all kinds of language. But cobra
a life of baseball and brotherhood. And you've been very
open about your health, David, your fight against Parkinson's and
and how is your health today? How are you doing
these days? I'm doing. I have good days, bad days.
(33:54):
And some days you go out and you feel like
you do normally. In other days you go out and
your nags ain't working properly. Uh, you just saw moving
as as fluent as as I should. But uh, I
got to play the hand. That's dealt you know, this
is what I gotta deal with. This is what I'm
(34:16):
dealing with. Yeah, I heard the story. You you were
just going for your regular physical and then you know,
you didn't realize you had this right, and then the
doctor kind of noticed there was something awful a little bit.
And that's how you found out, is that correct? Right?
I had? My hand was tremdling. I didn't even notice
it until you pointed it out to my attention. And
(34:37):
I you said, then, like you might have a little
touch of Parkerson, And uh, that's how I found out
interesting and yeah, go ahead. I dealt with it. In
the early stages, I thought I was gonna beat it.
But partisan is non altared. My life mainchanged everything slowed
(35:01):
everything down. So it's something. And uh, I'm got my
foundation while I'm raising money to for research, and uh
that's been basically what I've been doing, is trying to
raise uh the money for research and see if we
can bite to staying in. But absolutely that's a great cause.
(35:25):
In fact, you know, a bad job by me, Dave.
I was promoting Amazon and Walmart and all that. But
if you buy the book from and I think this
is still going on, Dave, I read this on your website.
Dave Parker thirty nine Foundation dot com is the website.
So if you're interested in buying this book, uh, you
should go to Dave Parker thirty nine Foundation dot com
(35:47):
because according to what I read here, Dave, every copy
sold via that website, your website there benefits the Dave
Parker thirty nine Foundation and your mission to help defeat
Parking sins. And again, the name of the book, Cobra,
A Life of Baseball and Brotherhood, just came out here
(36:08):
at the beginning of April, so it's a fresh book.
And if you're like me and you appreciated Dave Parker
playing for the for the Pirates and the Reds. And
I saw it at the end with the Angels when
I was and I was a young pup going out
watching you and Winfield with the Angels there, and I loved, damn.
I love the sledge hammer that you had in the
on deck circle. That was that was my favor. I
(36:29):
was like, I want as a kid, I was like,
I can't believe it. This guy's like a superhero. He's
swinging a sledge hammer in the on deck So it
was awesome and uh and love it. And listen continued
to you know, good good health to you, keep fighting
the fight there, good luck with the book, and we
thank you for spending some time with Thank you, Dave,
thank you, thanks for the book. Be sure to catch
(36:51):
live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two
am Eastern eleven pm Paci Effect. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two
a m. Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio app.
If you thought more hours a day, hundred minutes a
week was enough, I think again. He's the last remnants
of the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He
treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the
rich pill poppers in the penthouse, to clearinghouse of hot takes,
break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben
(00:24):
Maller starts right now in the air everywhere. We were
back at it starting the weekend. As we get going
here with another full weekend a fifth Hour podcast. A
very special cult group of the Mallard Militia have found
this podcast and we thank you for that, and I
(00:45):
am excited. We do this now eight days a week,
double barrel action on a Friday, and we had the
overnight show and now we go right in sash our
way in to our conversation podcast. We do the us
because four hours a night not enough. In the overnight.
We thank you for finding it. We hope you've subscribed.
(01:06):
Hit that little subscribe button on the podcast. If you
have not reviewed, I know it's a pain in the ass,
but if you if you like the podcast, you should
review the podcast. If you don't like the podcast, you
probably shouldn't review it. It's not for you. But if
you like the podcast, man, that would be great. Five
stars review it and that would be wonderful. And back
amazingly another weekend with David Gascon as he is in
(01:27):
here hand sound effects, n scind the thoughts on that
octu here nothing nothing canned about that just got some
people off the four or five free way they wanted
to come on in and say hello. So it's uh,
it's gonna be back in the house and of course
a brand new day, a little tired from having to
(01:49):
put together a bunch of crap for you. I'm sure
we'll get into that in the next day or two. No, no, no,
you didn't have to do any any of that. There's
high production value, like you know, like this podcast is
so moving. But but yeah, you are what pathetic? I'm awesome. Awesome,
that's not a word. That's not a word I would use.
(02:11):
That's a word I would use. You're not You're not
really kind, You're not really compatible with compliments. So it's
here's what I here's what I do. I believe in
tough love. Okay, that's what I do. I get I
believe you get better it's called constructive criticism, is what
it is. No, No, you don't give anything constructive, You
(02:33):
just criticize. Now, if I was a doctor. If I
was a doctor, would I be a dentist? Would I
be a surgeon? No? I would be doctor truth. All right,
That's what I am, doctor truth with valid and well
reasoned opinions. You'd be like by the dozen. You wouldn't
be an ear doctor. You wouldn't be ear nose and
(02:54):
through it. Maybe like an ophthalmologist, because at times you
are observant of the times you're not. You don't really
listen to ship. You just talk loud over people. It's
pretty much it. So you'd be an optimologists. It's called
being a talk show host. Have you ever heard a
talk host? Have you ever heard a talk show host?
(03:17):
Who's I have my talk show host. I would like
you to listen. We got some guys that are here
like that, don't you think? Do you want to name names? No?
But no, I don't know. I I don't listen to
a lot of these guys. But if I have heard
some people over the years that are like that, and
you know what I do? Click click, I move on,
(03:41):
I go, I go elsewhere. I don't listen. Why would
I want to listen to that. If I want to
hear somebody whisper, I'll go to the library. I don't
need to hear that on the radio or podcasting or
it's ridiculous. So mine back to this podcast. Yes, today's podcast. Now,
this is what's known as alternative programming. Right now. I'm
(04:04):
excited to do this. We were actually we're supposed to
do this interview last week. You know, we've been working
on this for a couple of weeks. But I think
it's perfect because it's obviously NFL Draft weekend and all
that going on that rigamore or so, I think we
should give you an alternate, a little break from all
that football stuff. And I am fired up because we
(04:24):
have a legitimate big name, this guy Royalty in his
day back in his halcyon days with the Pittsburgh Pirates,
as we are chatting with the great Dave Parker. Dave Parky,
National League MVP in nineteen seventy eight, was part of
(04:46):
the we Are Family Pittsburgh Pirates of nineteen seventy nine,
played with Willie Stargel and was teammates with Pete Rose.
Played with Conseco and McGuire. Robin Youunt was his team
in Hall of Famer with Milwaukee. Dave Winfield with the
Angels won a couple of World Series and his resume
(05:07):
is outstanding. Uh, And we're gonna gonna chat here with
with the Parker. He's got a new book out Gascon.
It's called Cobra, A Life of Baseball and Brotherhood. It
just came out in April, the beginning of April, so
it's only it's only been out for a short time.
And if you're like me and you remember watching Dave
(05:28):
Parker and the way he played with the Bravado to
his game, you're gonna wanna kinda read the book. I mean,
he goes uh full in on everything here. We'll get
into some of it just a little bit. We'll scratch
the service. But it's a book designed more for an
adult audience, which is good. So he's gonna tell some
(05:50):
of I mean, this guy was part of the pirates
back when they were you know, in the seventies and
the eighties, when you know, cocaine was in the air everywhere,
and I was dragged into that the Pittsburgh drug trials,
which he was a star of we'll ask him about that.
By the way, before I we get into the conversation
with Dave Parker, if you're gonna buy the book, I
(06:10):
recommend going to Dave Parker thirty nine Foundation dot com
because if you if you're gonna buy the book anyway,
you buy it there and it will help the Dave
Parker thirty nine Foundation in their mission to help defeat
Parkinson's which Dave has been battling here for the last
handfull of years. But let's get into it right now.
(06:32):
And I think we should start with this, Dave Parker
that recently we've seen a number of players of former players,
guys that you played with at the end of your
career who no longer are watching baseball, who are disgusted
with baseball. Gary Sheffield is one and David Wells is another.
Just at the top of my head here, But where
(06:53):
do you stand on that? Where are you at on
watching baseball? Do you still enjoy the game? Do you
still check out? Well, I'm watching it if I'm walking
through the house and happen to be on TVV. But
the game is too slow, They don't play small ball.
Guys are standing that to play taking the strikes, swinging
(07:17):
and balls and bob their head. They're not fundamentally sound,
and uh, it's hard to watch. Yeah, And I gotta
ask you, is a guy that played, you know, in
the for me the goal I grew up watching you
played there, so I loved I loved your your era
of baseball. But this ghost runner, right, they were an
(07:38):
extra inting So they just magically a runner pops up
on second base? Where are you on that? Pretty soon
they're gonna have robots pitching. You know, a weird thing.
I'm losing the rules. I don't even know the rules
are in baseball no more. You gotta guy running in Pennsylvania,
(07:59):
you know, if I know, like a pen Son, I
had to play the extra four or five years. Yeah,
it's pretty it's pretty crazy. If you were in charge
and Rob Manford and I do the overnight show here
at Fox, and I've taken my shots to the commissioner.
But if you were running baseball, David, you could you
could fix and tweak something in the sport of baseball.
(08:21):
What what would it be? What do you think baseball
needs that the commissioner could do? What they need to
promoted better? They need promoted better. And you don't have
any as African Americans in the game decentages like down
the seventh. Uh they need to promote the game more,
(08:44):
bring some new blood in. And they have this this broke.
Don't fix it. You know, ain't nothing wrong with baseball.
You throw it, I catch it, and you throwing it
out hit you know, and just keep it simple. Yeah, David,
you were, you know, one of the great African American
players in your day. But but baseball's they've they've had
(09:06):
these different campaigns to try to encourage uh more black
kids to play baseball. But it's it seems like basketball
and football for the last twenty or thirty years, everyone's
been gravitating to that. So I don't know what else
baseball can do. You know, It's it's an interesting dilemma, right,
I mean, if if kids don't want to play baseball,
(09:27):
you can't really force him, right, So what are they
supposed to do? It's an odd situation. Well, you know,
it's try to faults and to do it. But I mean,
you still got to promote it. You gotta. Basketball have
all these programs for youth during their All Star games,
(09:48):
and then they make a grandness to the kids baseball
could do the same thing. I'm not nothing a hook
with not fouls and players to do and just create
environment for them the I want to do it absolutely now.
When you played, you had you had swagger, You had
(10:10):
swagger to your to your your your game. There were
usually frowned upon. I know today in baseball one guys
like Fernando Tatis Jr. Who have that to their game,
there's still people call them out on it, like you're
not supposed to play baseball that way. When you were
playing back in the seventies and the eighties and the
(10:32):
end of the nineties, there were people. Do people give
you a hard time for the jewelry and all the
razmutazz that you brought. I got to hit fifty times
in twenty years, So when too many people won the
through me because I was a physical player and I
was intimidating and I had a situations would open McGuire
(10:57):
and got hit about three or four times in a week,
and uh put him to the side, And I said,
if you want to stop that, just run out there
one day and grab a guy in the college and
shaking for a second. And he did, and then you
get hit for the rest of the year. You know,
guys want to put on the show. Have some at
(11:18):
a possess to the game, be prepared to pay the price.
Bob Gibson would have probably unbroken about twelve thirteen ribs
by now. I've see these guys go up to line
thing that I'm looking for one to do a flip.
You know. It's a certain respect that's in baseball and
you gotta have it. Yeah, and we're talking with the
(11:41):
great Dave Parker. Obviously he's got a book out and
we're gonna talk more about that in a couple of minutes.
Here Cobra A Life of Baseball and Brotherhood. It's available
wherever you get books, in Amazon, Walmart, Barnes and Noble,
all those locations where you you would get your books.
And we'll talk more about that. But Dave, you mentioned
(12:02):
the on field justice when you played, and you would
get drilled, and then they didn't do that too often
because you were a big holking guy and you could
rip their heads off. But baseball's try to get away
from that now. It's another one of those things that's
changed since you played, where they don't really want the
players to take care of the adjudication on the field,
and uh, you know what were the rules I guess
(12:24):
the unspoken rules when you were playing that you guys
followed to police the game when you were playing well,
and to for two you hit one of mine when
we hit two years. You know that's that's that's the
way that a lot of guys dealt with it. But
I mean you sure enough respect You know, I had
(12:46):
a whole run truck where I had my fingers down
and I ran real slow, but uh, it was done
in a respectful way. And I don't think God will
offend him by and none of the guys took pride
and and taking deep one of my best friends then
in secondsly I got him about six or seven times,
(13:06):
and he had come and tell you a story about
what what he thought when it was going over the fence.
You know, it's a certain way that you can do
that without showing up the player. Yeah. Well, now, obviously
we live in the social media age, Dave. Everything's about Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
all that stuff. How would how would a young Dave
(13:29):
Parker when you were just mashing the baseball with the pirates,
how would you have been on social media in your
in your prime. I was a boy accepted because I
had a little pas working. I used to make a
rhymes and till you know, when the needs turned brown,
(13:51):
I'll be wearing the vetting crown. And I had another
one that I used on on Sundays was there's only
three things for sure, the day and the sun and
the winds don't blow and big days gonna go for
for four. You were like the poet laureate. They didn't.
I was talking to one of my buddies and we
were talking about you back in the day, and then
(14:13):
you have a wasn't there some line you like? Mommy
said there would be Daves like this, right? I mean
you you were you were a poet in your day.
Dave with the we were imperfect for Twitter would have
been perfect, you know they called me in baseball. The
one about Mama said every days like this was when
me and Winfield was playing together and and I had
(14:35):
so u. I just put together things that fit the club,
that fit the individual. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern
eleven pm Pacific. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven
pm Pacife on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart
Radio app Dave. What do you miss most about the
(14:57):
game nowadays? And obviously there's a change in saber mention
and analytics and things like that, But what do you
miss about what it was compared to what it is now?
Just the guys are not fundamentally sound, you know, and
you're making three hundred million a year, which I believe
in whatever the market or bear. But you know, the
(15:18):
older in the game, some some play. You know, you
gotta be fundamentally and sound and lease, you know, hustle
a little bit and leave your feet. You know, you
don't see that. And so the money that they're they're
getting paid, you can request some of that and maybe
get it. Any guys that played today that remind you
(15:40):
of how the game was played back in the day.
I like Tatis. I think that's the kid's name in
San Diego. I like his style. You know, he puts
himself on the line and he's got flash and then
he hustles put team on his back and we don't
(16:00):
have to many players es capable of doing and today,
I mean he's certainly a figure in San Diego. What
about Nanaheim with Shoo Tani, What do you think about him?
I don't know much about him fair enough. Um, you know, Dave,
with with the way that things have been progressive with
Major League Baseball, you mentioned a guy like Fernano Tattoos Jr.
(16:22):
And And marketing the game. What kind of steps would
you take to get these guys out there? I mean,
Mike Trout, for all intensive purposes, is the best player
in Major League Baseball right now, but doesn't have the personality,
doesn't have the chrisma, and he can't force the guy.
So who else would you go up there with and say, hey,
we need to market you a little bit more outside
(16:42):
of a guy like Tatis or maybe Mookie Betts. Well,
I'm sure is that more than one star? So you know,
you tell you, as a managine you star and tell
them what you expect and uh, they should be able
to do that. We know, no problem at all. Yeah, Dave,
(17:07):
your your book. Let's talk about that now. The Cobra,
that's why you're here. Cobra A Life of Baseball and Brotherhood,
as we mentioned, is available now wherever you get your books.
That just came out here in the month of April,
so it's a brand new books. You can be one
of the first people to check it out. I know,
for guys like me, listen, I I grew up watching
to play day. I want to. I want to hear
(17:27):
all about you and read all about you. And I've
actually read some of the book already. But for the
person listening, let's say the younger person, the gen Z
person that doesn't know Dave Parker, that didn't watch you
play with the swagger back in your day. Why should
someone who's in that category by this book, Dave? Well, there,
(17:48):
we've probably heard of me. If I hadn't seen me play,
and I interviewing the individual, then UM have a request
for the game. Somebody that played hard. I never ran out.
I always ran out my ground balls regards and when
he was hit, and I always played at a hundred.
(18:11):
I was physical, I was colorful. I was a fun
to watch. Now you were, and I I understand this
book is geared more to an adult towards an adult audience.
Right you you as you met you? I mean, you
played in a wild era before social media, when you
(18:31):
could you know, guys could get away with more stuff
back in the seventies in the eighties. So how saucy
do we get in this book? Are we gonna hear
about the partying and all that you know back in
the pirate days and whatnot? How how deep do we
get in this book? Dave? It gets pretty deep. I
tell people, you know, some curse words in here. You
might not want to care to read it, you know,
(18:52):
but it gets pretty deep. I was one of the
guys that wouldn't missed a good party. And when congregate
with my teammates, we'll go out to dinner and twelve
thirteen of us and we go to a nightclub back rooms,
so we, uh did all the fun stuff too. Yeah. So,
(19:13):
and baseball in those days, they've they've attempted to, I
guess clean it up and all that. But you played,
as I said, in the seventies and the stories about
greenies and whatnot in the locker room and just the
wildness in the parts. And then you played into the
eighties and the you know, the beginning of the steroid era.
Uh did you ever dabble in in that day when
(19:35):
you were playing or did you avoid that? You played
with the A's and McGuire and Conseco were there. So
how tempting was it if you didn't do it? No,
that wasn't tempting at all. You know, steroids slink to
human body, and I'm not one to try to slink.
I'm kind of add on uh STIs never did uh
(19:55):
attract me? Absolutely? You you told interesting story wrong with
my buddy sports with Coleman, and I had not heard this.
I've always known I have one of the great nicknames
in sports in the Cobra. And and what is the
origin of that? For the for the guys listening that
haven't heard you tell the story before? Who gave you
(20:17):
the nickname? And it's a great nickname, one of the
greats in sports. But who gave you the nickname the Cobra?
Trainer Tony brought a rome was a big boxing sing
and we had a fighter in Cincinnati called the Cincinnati Cobra.
His name was Es Shaul and he was the heavyweight champ.
(20:38):
And Tony associated me man Cincinnati and gave me the
title the Cobra, and Bob Prince made it famous are announcing.
So it came from a trainer. It's good nickname that trainer,
whoever that is that, I got a good job by him.
I saw in the book here there's a quote from
(20:58):
Keith Hernandez, who played it against you and now as
a Mets broadcaster, and he said of you that for
a that period of time, he he meeting you, Dave Parker,
the greatest player of my generation. That's a tremendous compliment
by Keith Hernandez. And I mean you were a wonderful day.
(21:21):
I mean, where do you put yourself, David, that in
that seventies early eighties window, I was the best player
from mid seventies, say heyy and uh from eighty four two,
I mean coming out of Oakland, Um, it was Milwaukee.
(21:46):
I was the best player for about ten of those
two years, Dave. Statistically speaking, your eight five campaign with Cincinnati,
you had thirty four home runs, drove in a hundred
and batted over three. That says a lot obviously in
the middle of your career. But where did you find,
(22:08):
I guess, the most comfort in your career. Did you
enjoyed Pittsburgh more than Cincinnati or Milwaukee or Oakland? Well,
I enjoyed Pittsburgh because they gave me an opportunity to
play and started was like a father, big brother talk
Ellis was like a brother, and we just had guys
Bill mad Lock guys that was great guys that play
(22:35):
with and organization was was great to play for at
a time. But I kind of overstayed my welcome and
uh ran into some problems with the fans for a
period of time. Did you get that sense that you
were overstaying you're welcome or is that something that was
hinted by somebody else. No, it's just uh when when
(22:59):
your fans thought, falling stuff and yelling stuff from the fans,
I mean from the stands and gets to the point
where maybe it's time to do something else. Was there? Wait? Wait, wait,
what were they thrown at you when you What was
the craziest thing that got thrown at you when you
were playing in those ear? In that ear that that
(23:19):
happened a lot, right? And what kind of projectiles were
flying down when you were out in the field. Well,
we had one of the strangest things with a sock
full of nuts and boats. It was a sock that
had nuts and boats and and somebody threw it out
the right field and I heard a chink, and I
want to see what it was, And that's what it was.
(23:42):
Some nuts and boats. What's so, was it worse in
Pittsburgh or worse in Philadelphia? It was in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia
through a battery. I mean somebody in Pittsburgh through a battery.
So I had two batteries and a sock full of
nuts and boats. That's crazy, Dave. Well, what about the
(24:03):
Hall of Fame? Obviously you didn't get voted in by
the writers. You're still eligible through the Veterans Committee. Do
you do you think you've been ostracized day because of
some of the stuff that happened in Pittsburgh where they
just won't put you any get your numbers. As you said,
you for for a period of years were the top
player in baseball. You wont an m v P award.
Like to me, the criteria for a Hall of Famer,
(24:25):
you meet the criteria. You're you were an m v P.
I'm not sucking up your day, but you were seven
time All Star. You won the World Series a couple
of times. Really bookaded right ten years apart, I think
it was you won the World Series. So what do
you think it is? Day? What do you think is
going on here where they you just you could not
carry enough support to get into Cooper's time. We had
(24:46):
to ask the committee as a Hall of Fame because
you couldn't do no more than I did. And if
you got drives better than me and hall of fame,
you know, I'd like to see him match the numbers
and get somebody to tell me that you better than me,
because I know I was best player in baseball about
(25:07):
ten of those twenty years I was in bold And
I was gonna say with with that, with what Ben
brought up, Dave mc Kurt Schilling is a guy that
we bring up it feels like annually right now, and
the biggest reason for that is because there's there's thoughts
that he is getting blackballed by the writers because of
his political allegiance. Um, do you think a guy like
(25:29):
that has hurt himself from getting into the Hall of
Fame because of how outspoken he is? And it kind
of goes away from the writers. When are you telling you,
you know, way from your personality. That's his personality. Kard
loved to put himself on the line, so I even
knew him. He was writing messages on balls and rolling
(25:51):
them across Philadelphia's ball park to the bad Boy and
sending me messages and I never faced the kid. It wait,
what kind of messing? Just this stuff? I watched you
play Tame way to get you out? You know stuff
like that. That's crazy. Yeah, yeah, So what what about
(26:12):
let's go back to you, I mean the dark Pard.
I'm sure you you mentioned this in the book here
the Pittsburgh days and there was the famous incident the
drug trials that took place. What you know, what was
that like going through that? How how scared were you?
How how nervous were you? And kind of paint the
picture for those that don't recall, like you know, that
whole era and what that was like going through as
(26:33):
you you know, being a star player in baseball and
being dragged into a courtroom when they was after the
big name players. You know that that that was what
they were seeking. And uh, they changed their direction and
gave us immunity and they had the big trial in
(26:54):
Ainty side. I didn't know more than anybody else and
and ned knowing that time you had lawyers doing and teaches,
other athletes, general managers. Uh, because everybody in society was
doing it. I thought it was a fair you know,
I thought it would go away after a few years
(27:15):
and grabbed the hold to a lot of players and
they can handle them and and merit them having some problems. Yeah. Absolutely.
And I want to circle back to the to the
money thing, and you were the first million dollar a
year guy. I remember that that story when they you
got the big contract, and to think like people were
(27:37):
upset with you, Dave, right because you were the million
dollar guy. And now as we talked about Mike Trout's
got a four million dollar deal, Mookie Bets is a
three sixty. Uh So, what I want to ask you
here is, and I know you're very confident man, Dave Parker,
but if you were playing today, if a prime m
VP vintage Dave Parker was playing today, how much money
(27:57):
would you get on your contract? Would you three hundred
four hundred? Where would you be, Dave park I'm gonna
pick out the nice city. I don't know, San Diego,
San Diego. How big a contract are we talking about
for you? If you if you could transport what you
were in nineteen seventy nine, that era, and then, how
(28:20):
how much money would you be getting right now? If
somebody's making four I gotta make fast. I like it.
There you go see that you got. You gotta go
higher than Mike trapping. Mike's making four thirty on the
on the contractor you gonna go higher than that. You
played with the Cincinnati Reds. Pete Rose was a teammate.
He was your manager in in Cincinnati there also for
(28:44):
for a few years. What was he like? I mean,
we've heard stories about you competed against him for a
long period of your career, you played with him. What
was Pete Rose like? Behind the scenes, it was what
you What you see is what you get. And when
Pete did everything like Charlie hustle and Wade running, the
first face was just then it's Pete Rose. I enjoyed
(29:07):
playing against him, and it was even the bigger three
of playing with him because I've watched him every day
in his latter years, played the game in the same
way then when he first got to the big league.
So he was the thrill of the play with Dave,
who was the toughest picture. He went up against Steve Carlton.
(29:28):
He uh had a slatter that he started to nod
the played out and it would break over another baddest
box and I would He punched me out about three
times a game. But we had a funny stat going.
Steve struck me out more than any picture I ever faced,
and I hit more home runs off of him than
any picture I ever faced. So that's weird stat. At
(29:51):
least it's not one dimensional like it was with Greg
Maddox and Tony going back in the day. Yeah, absolutely,
id I was surprised that he was so great because
he had medium philosophy and he came up with the
fastball that he would run back over the plate When
(30:13):
I got in the MAGA League and I'm looking at
the the standings and he would be nothing off twenty
wins he or he's almost zero. He turned out to
be one of the greatest pitches of all time. You
mentioned you're obviously known as a guy that enjoyed a
(30:33):
good party, and you played in a great era for that.
Who is the teammate that you were with that could
match you party for party. Who was the wildest party
animal teammate he had back in those days. Doc Ellis
was a flambornet guy and uh a ladies man. Doc
was a guy that could run with me, and did
(30:57):
he not. The famous story about Doc Ellis is that
he supposedly pitched I use on LSD or something like that.
He pitched a no hitter. Uh, that's what he'd say.
That the stories about that. He said he wasn't aware
of him pitching the note head and to the seventh center,
(31:19):
but he said it's true. He got to know hitter.
That's pretty crazy, dropping some acid, throwing a no hitter,
that's that's right up there. That's right. One of the
greatest things he did. I think the Cincinnati knocked us
out of the playoffs like two years in a row.
And Doctor came, he's gonna start the season and he said,
(31:43):
you guys stared at the red and uh. He said,
I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna hit
everybody come to the plate. And I said, you ain't
gonna do nothing. He said, I'm hetting everybody come to
the plate. Well, heat, everybody came to the plate. They
took him out and against Tony Freas and was hid
fifth that day. But he hid the first hit, the second,
(32:06):
third in the forfeit and missed the fifth. Said, and
that was Johnny Bench. But he's a man of his words.
There you go, you see you say you're gonna do something.
Dave you gotta do it. That are talking at gascon
over here now, you Dave, but very important Now. Uh. Meanwhile,
you played at the end, near the end of your
(32:28):
career with the A's some tremendus tremendous teams and talent
wise in Oakland has one championship. But Tony Russo was
your manager and he's back, Dave. He's managing the Chicago
White Sox. Now when you saw that, like, what were
you vacant? I got what went through your mind when
you saw Tony LaRusso returning to baseball at at his
(32:49):
you know, at his age he's been out for a
while managing the White Sox. Well, he's a good manager.
He uh could have handled that, I don't think and
be putting an interfuestion on him because he's not one
maybe three World Series and uh he's the most prepared
(33:09):
manager I ever played for because he thoughts to every eye,
crosses every team. So uh he even been falified to
have a good team play to stop. Yeah, you know
you've been very open, Dave. I'm gonna, you know, kind
of wrap this up a little bit. But you've got
the book out again and you go into great detail
about your your day's designed more for an adult, yes,
(33:32):
because it's some language and whatnot. If you're the kids
today though they speak all kinds of language. But cobra
a life of baseball and brotherhood. And you've been very
open about your health, David, your fight against Parkinson's and
and how is your health today? How are you doing
these days? I'm doing. I have good days, bad days.
(33:54):
And some days you go out and you feel like
you do normally. In other days you go out and
your nags ain't working properly. Uh, you just saw moving
as as fluent as as I should. But uh, I
got to play the hand. That's dealt you know, this
is what I gotta deal with. This is what I'm
(34:16):
dealing with. Yeah, I heard the story. You you were
just going for your regular physical and then you know,
you didn't realize you had this right, and then the
doctor kind of noticed there was something awful a little bit.
And that's how you found out, is that correct? Right?
I had? My hand was tremdling. I didn't even notice
it until you pointed it out to my attention. And
(34:37):
I you said, then, like you might have a little
touch of Parkerson, And uh, that's how I found out
interesting and yeah, go ahead. I dealt with it. In
the early stages, I thought I was gonna beat it.
But partisan is non altared. My life mainchanged everything slowed
(35:01):
everything down. So it's something. And uh, I'm got my
foundation while I'm raising money to for research, and uh
that's been basically what I've been doing, is trying to
raise uh the money for research and see if we
can bite to staying in. But absolutely that's a great cause.
(35:25):
In fact, you know, a bad job by me, Dave.
I was promoting Amazon and Walmart and all that. But
if you buy the book from and I think this
is still going on, Dave, I read this on your website.
Dave Parker thirty nine Foundation dot com is the website.
So if you're interested in buying this book, uh, you
should go to Dave Parker thirty nine Foundation dot com
(35:47):
because according to what I read here, Dave, every copy
sold via that website, your website there benefits the Dave
Parker thirty nine Foundation and your mission to help defeat
Parking sins. And again, the name of the book, Cobra,
A Life of Baseball and Brotherhood, just came out here
(36:08):
at the beginning of April, so it's a fresh book.
And if you're like me and you appreciated Dave Parker
playing for the for the Pirates and the Reds. And
I saw it at the end with the Angels when
I was and I was a young pup going out
watching you and Winfield with the Angels there, and I loved, damn.
I love the sledge hammer that you had in the
on deck circle. That was that was my favor. I
(36:29):
was like, I want as a kid, I was like,
I can't believe it. This guy's like a superhero. He's
swinging a sledge hammer in the on deck So it
was awesome and uh and love it. And listen continued
to you know, good good health to you, keep fighting
the fight there, good luck with the book, and we
thank you for spending some time with Thank you, Dave,
thank you, thanks for the book. Be sure to catch
(36:51):
live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two
am Eastern eleven pm Paci Effect. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two
a m. Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio app.
Host
Ben Maller
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