July 16, 2025 • 10 mins
Hip-hop icon and Rock N Roll HOFer Chuck D joins the podcast to remember baseball legend Dave Parker—The Cobra. Chuck reflects on Parker’s impact on the game, his cultural legacy, and what it meant to narrate Cobra at Twilight, the powerful documentary about Parker’s life and battle with Parkinson's.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mike Koser (00:00):
Dave Parker, there are three things we know for
sure today.
Dave Parker (00:03):
The sun's gonna shine, the wind's gonna blow,
and the big Dave's gonna gofour for four.
Howard Cosell (00:12):
It didn't take him long.
So it's four hits for DaveParker and a brilliant play in
right center field.
Chu (00:19):
(Song clip "The Cobra") See that ball going, going, going.
The cobra.
Mike Koser (00:28):
Hey, it's Mike Koser, and this is Lost
Ballparks.
Today's episode is different.
It's not about the ballparkswe've lost, but about a legend
we just lost.
Dave Parker, the Cobra, who waslarger than life, a cannon for
an arm, a bat that could splitthe sky, and a presence that
made pitchers sweat and fansrise.
(00:48):
Just weeks before he was to beinducted into the Baseball Hall
of Fame, we lost him after along, brave fight with
Parkinson's disease.
And now, who better to help usremember him than Rock and Roll
Hall of Famer, Hip Hop Icon, andnarrator of Parker's life in
the acclaimed documentary, TheCobra at Twilight.
Chuck D of Public Enemy.
Chuck D (01:09):
Hey Mike, what's up, man?
Mike Koser (01:10):
Thank you for doing this.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, yeah, we gotta do a lotmore.
I'm glad I'm I'm on with youguys, finally.
Do you remember the first timeyou watched Dave Parker play
baseball?
Chuck D (01:19):
Yeah, um, it was during the uh 1973 Mets um pennant
run.
Announcer (01:24):
Oh, big Dave Parker is gonna come up to bat.
Dave Parker's a left-handbatter, and he is big.
Chuck D (01:30):
And um and he had played a few games for the
Pirates then.
And this is the "You GottaBelieve" Mets.
Player (01:35):
Well, I'd say we started believing early in the year
when things were going bad andit helped pull us out, and right
now I'm sure there's not aperson in this room that doesn't
believe somehow.
Chuck D (01:44):
And uh we came from from last in the division to win
the division, and and as a13-year-old, um, that was one of
my fondest memories uh offollowing Mets baseball.
But uh the Pirates, we had towe had to get by the Pirates,
and I think that would have beenlike their third straight
division, the 70, 71, 70, thatwould have been a fourth
(02:06):
straight division championship.
But the um the 73 Pirates werealso the post-clemente pirates,
too.
So um Dave Parker was getting alittle bit of a run in right
field, so I remember seeing himfor the first time that uh that
season.
Mike Koser (02:20):
Yeah, and what'd you think of the when he first
caught a glimpse of what he wascapable of?
Chuck D (02:24):
Well, I knew he was a big dude.
Announcer (02:26):
Dave Parker standing well back from the plate.
Parker is six foot six.
Chuck D (02:31):
So he was as big as, you know, Dave Kingman at the
time.
Announcer (02:35):
And ...
like Kingman.
He runs very, very well.
He's one of the rising youngstars in baseball.
Chuck D (02:41):
Another big player was Dave Winfield.
They're all Dave's right.
Right.
So uh I thought that was weird, you know, as a kid,
you know, all these Dave's arelike six six or six five.
So, like if the pirates didn'thave enough, right?
Because they still had Stargelland Clemente had just you know
passed away, and they was ableto fill, you know, that that
(03:03):
situation.
I think they I think they wasplatooning um Parker in right
field.
He wasn't even a full um rightfielder.
And I remember having abaseball card for 74, 75, and um
that's when he started to get,you know, a lot more run.
Bob Prince (03:20):
And the cobra stands in with 99 runs driven in.
Would he like to finish thisyear with 100 ribbies or more?
And that he'll do.
Here's the ball hit deep toright field, going
back. Kiss it goodbye!
Mike Koser (03:36):
There's a line in the documentary that you
narrated, which was excellent.
Um, the Cobra at Twilight,where Parker says they weren't
ready for someone like me.
As the voice bringing his storyto life, how did that hit you?
Chuck D (03:50):
Yeah, well, you know, Dave Parker, people were calling
him the Ali.
Ali was at that time.
Ali had just been beat GeorgeForeman, so uh Muhammad Ali was
still all our heroes and veryimpressionable.
So from from Reggie Jackson toDave Parker, that persona was
was understood and easy to pickup by people that had some
talent, you know, like DaveParker.
(04:12):
The bravado was hittingbaseball with a new dimension
that had never seen before.
And that was Dave Parker andReggie Jackson from the other
side.
Mike Koser (04:21):
What was it like stepping into the world of
Parker narrating his life withyour voice?
Did uh did anything surpriseyou about his story that maybe
you didn't know going in?
Chuck D (04:30):
Well, it was a it was a dream come true because I I
grew up following Dave Parker.
Um I got an earring in my earbecause of Dave Parker's
baseball card.
And um, you know, even in theearly 80s, having an earring was
kind of radical.
But I said, hey, Dave Parkergot one.
I feel like a pirate.
Not a not just a Pittsburghpirate, but a real pirate.
(04:53):
You know, he impressed upon meas a kid and then a young adult
going in into my um twenties,Dave Parker was still there.
And um and he spoke his mindand his game spoke.
So actually doing the his uhnarration was a dream come true.
And also um having Dave Parkersign his book over to me from
(05:14):
one icon to another.
I'm like, here's Dave Parkercalling me an icon.
What?
Get out of here.
But I heard he was very happy,very pleased at at what I was
able to do for him.
And it was my honor to such aninfluential person on my life.
Mike Koser (05:29):
There was a rhythm to the way that Dave Parker
moved.
He was silky, smooth, but heavylike a freight train.
The you know, the way that heplayed, the way that he walked
and talked, there was there wasbass in it.
He had swagger that you couldhear.
And when I played the song thatyou wrote, uh, Chuck, called uh
The Cobra, it's like youbottled all of that.
Chuck D (05:50):
(Song clip) "See that ball going, going, going.
The cobra."
What was going through yourmind when you sat down to create
that?
Baseball from its beginnings all the way up to
1994, um, it was in my blood.
So to make a song about DaveParker was was almost automatic.
(06:11):
And and my producer, um, alsomy label partner, um, David
Seedock Snyder, knew exactlywhere I come where I was coming
from because he's fromPittsburgh, and his dad grew up,
you know, as a pirates fan withthe Clemente Stargell Pirates
and Mazeroski Pirates.
He got it, I got it.
(06:32):
It was a no-brainer.
And just to be able to do it,um it was like written fast and
it it moved fast, and it wassomething that I that we wanted
to do.
It wasn't like, oh, somebodycome up with a Dave Parker song.
No, I did I did about 11 or 12songs on baseball players that I
admired, people like Pete Roseand Ferguson Jenkins and people
(06:54):
like that.
But Dave Parker really hit homefor me.
Mike Koser (06:57):
Chuck, I cannot tell you how much it breaks my heart
to see him pass away weeksbefore his Hall of Fame
induction.
This is a guy who was alifetime .290 hitter, over 2,700
hits, 339 home runs, seven-timeAll-Star, two-time world
champion.
He should have been in the Hallof Fame years ago.
Chuck D (07:14):
Well, Hall of Fame's uh uh, you know, they sh they
should be difficult.
But the thing that made Parkerdifferent is that where you
might not see tremendous homerun figures, the all-around game
and what he did to move thegame, and he won championships.
So that really separates himfrom the pack.
It might have separated himfrom Dick Allen just the fact
(07:36):
that he won.
And this Dick Allen was anotherplayer that was one of those
guys that you would think thatwould have been in the Hall of
Fame.
Mike Koser (07:42):
I think Parker changed the game.
I mean, I can remember being aseven, eight-year-old and uh
being a Cleveland fan, butloving Dave Parker and the
Pirates so much so that I uhconvinced my parents to buy me
uh Pittsburgh Pirates pajamas,and we had these long runners in
our house, I don't know, toprotect our carpet or something.
And so I would spray those downwith pledge, and then I would
(08:04):
run from one end of the house tothe other and slide across,
imagining I was Dave Parkersliding into home, you know.
Chuck D (08:10):
I mean well, it didn't it didn't hurt that the the fact
that the pirates were the firstteam that w went into the
multi-uniform phase.
I mean, now today in differentsports, you know, you have this
multi-jersey, multi-uniform,especially in the NBA where they
got like four or five differentuniform combinations they do
(08:30):
now.
But the pirates did that in inbaseball, and um it it connected
with young people real quick,the the combinations.
I mean, who's doing that today,right?
Mike Koser (08:40):
Yeah, not like them, you know what I mean?
I mean, hey, listen, Chuck,thank you for taking a few
minutes to remember uh theCobra.
Um I I really appreciate it.
I know you're on tour andyou're in Europe and doing your
thing, and um, I'm just I'mgrateful for the time.
Chuck D (08:54):
Yeah, it struck me real real hard because uh I like
you, you know, we we've knownthe work that we've done for for
Dave Parker and the legacy, andhe finally gets in and doesn't
see it.
So things happen, right?
And but uh the memory lives on,and uh, and I'm glad that we
were able to make a contributionin making a song about him, me
(09:17):
doing the voiceover, and um mejust being able to carry a slice
of that swagger in infamy.
Mike Koser (09:25):
For a kid who once wore holes in the knees of his
We Are Family Pittsburgh Piratespajamas, dreaming of one day
becoming the next Dave Parker,there are moments you never
forget.
One of mine came in March of2022 when the Cobra, my
childhood hero, said yes tobeing on this podcast.
It was early days for Lost Ballparks before most people even
(09:47):
knew it existed.
But he showed up, gracious,generous, and larger than life.
That meant more to me than heprobably ever knew.
Rest easy, Dave Parker.
You'll always be part of thefamily.
(Clip from 2022 Podcast) DaveParker, thanks for the memories.
Um, thanks for the stories.
Dave Parker (10:04):
It was great talking to you, and I enjoyed
telling the stories because Imake my day.
Mike Koser (10:09):
We'll talk to you down the road.
Dave Parker (10:11):
All right, sounds good.
Dave Parker, there are three things we know for
sure today.
Dave Parker (00:03):
The sun's gonna shine, the wind's gonna blow,
and the big Dave's gonna gofour for four.
Howard Cosell (00:12):
It didn't take him long.
So it's four hits for DaveParker and a brilliant play in
right center field.
Chu (00:19):
(Song clip "The Cobra") See that ball going, going, going.
The cobra.
Mike Koser (00:28):
Hey, it's Mike Koser, and this is Lost
Ballparks.
Today's episode is different.
It's not about the ballparkswe've lost, but about a legend
we just lost.
Dave Parker, the Cobra, who waslarger than life, a cannon for
an arm, a bat that could splitthe sky, and a presence that
made pitchers sweat and fansrise.
(00:48):
Just weeks before he was to beinducted into the Baseball Hall
of Fame, we lost him after along, brave fight with
Parkinson's disease.
And now, who better to help usremember him than Rock and Roll
Hall of Famer, Hip Hop Icon, andnarrator of Parker's life in
the acclaimed documentary, TheCobra at Twilight.
Chuck D of Public Enemy.
Chuck D (01:09):
Hey Mike, what's up, man?
Mike Koser (01:10):
Thank you for doing this.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, yeah, we gotta do a lotmore.
I'm glad I'm I'm on with youguys, finally.
Do you remember the first timeyou watched Dave Parker play
baseball?
Chuck D (01:19):
Yeah, um, it was during the uh 1973 Mets um pennant
run.
Announcer (01:24):
Oh, big Dave Parker is gonna come up to bat.
Dave Parker's a left-handbatter, and he is big.
Chuck D (01:30):
And um and he had played a few games for the
Pirates then.
And this is the "You GottaBelieve" Mets.
Player (01:35):
Well, I'd say we started believing early in the year
when things were going bad andit helped pull us out, and right
now I'm sure there's not aperson in this room that doesn't
believe somehow.
Chuck D (01:44):
And uh we came from from last in the division to win
the division, and and as a13-year-old, um, that was one of
my fondest memories uh offollowing Mets baseball.
But uh the Pirates, we had towe had to get by the Pirates,
and I think that would have beenlike their third straight
division, the 70, 71, 70, thatwould have been a fourth
(02:06):
straight division championship.
But the um the 73 Pirates werealso the post-clemente pirates,
too.
So um Dave Parker was getting alittle bit of a run in right
field, so I remember seeing himfor the first time that uh that
season.
Mike Koser (02:20):
Yeah, and what'd you think of the when he first
caught a glimpse of what he wascapable of?
Chuck D (02:24):
Well, I knew he was a big dude.
Announcer (02:26):
Dave Parker standing well back from the plate.
Parker is six foot six.
Chuck D (02:31):
So he was as big as, you know, Dave Kingman at the
time.
Announcer (02:35):
And ...
like Kingman.
He runs very, very well.
He's one of the rising youngstars in baseball.
Chuck D (02:41):
Another big player was Dave Winfield.
They're all Dave's right.
Right.
So uh I thought that was weird, you know, as a kid,
you know, all these Dave's arelike six six or six five.
So, like if the pirates didn'thave enough, right?
Because they still had Stargelland Clemente had just you know
passed away, and they was ableto fill, you know, that that
(03:03):
situation.
I think they I think they wasplatooning um Parker in right
field.
He wasn't even a full um rightfielder.
And I remember having abaseball card for 74, 75, and um
that's when he started to get,you know, a lot more run.
Bob Prince (03:20):
And the cobra stands in with 99 runs driven in.
Would he like to finish thisyear with 100 ribbies or more?
And that he'll do.
Here's the ball hit deep toright field, going
back. Kiss it goodbye!
Mike Koser (03:36):
There's a line in the documentary that you
narrated, which was excellent.
Um, the Cobra at Twilight,where Parker says they weren't
ready for someone like me.
As the voice bringing his storyto life, how did that hit you?
Chuck D (03:50):
Yeah, well, you know, Dave Parker, people were calling
him the Ali.
Ali was at that time.
Ali had just been beat GeorgeForeman, so uh Muhammad Ali was
still all our heroes and veryimpressionable.
So from from Reggie Jackson toDave Parker, that persona was
was understood and easy to pickup by people that had some
talent, you know, like DaveParker.
(04:12):
The bravado was hittingbaseball with a new dimension
that had never seen before.
And that was Dave Parker andReggie Jackson from the other
side.
Mike Koser (04:21):
What was it like stepping into the world of
Parker narrating his life withyour voice?
Did uh did anything surpriseyou about his story that maybe
you didn't know going in?
Chuck D (04:30):
Well, it was a it was a dream come true because I I
grew up following Dave Parker.
Um I got an earring in my earbecause of Dave Parker's
baseball card.
And um, you know, even in theearly 80s, having an earring was
kind of radical.
But I said, hey, Dave Parkergot one.
I feel like a pirate.
Not a not just a Pittsburghpirate, but a real pirate.
(04:53):
You know, he impressed upon meas a kid and then a young adult
going in into my um twenties,Dave Parker was still there.
And um and he spoke his mindand his game spoke.
So actually doing the his uhnarration was a dream come true.
And also um having Dave Parkersign his book over to me from
(05:14):
one icon to another.
I'm like, here's Dave Parkercalling me an icon.
What?
Get out of here.
But I heard he was very happy,very pleased at at what I was
able to do for him.
And it was my honor to such aninfluential person on my life.
Mike Koser (05:29):
There was a rhythm to the way that Dave Parker
moved.
He was silky, smooth, but heavylike a freight train.
The you know, the way that heplayed, the way that he walked
and talked, there was there wasbass in it.
He had swagger that you couldhear.
And when I played the song thatyou wrote, uh, Chuck, called uh
The Cobra, it's like youbottled all of that.
Chuck D (05:50):
(Song clip) "See that ball going, going, going.
The cobra."
What was going through yourmind when you sat down to create
that?
Baseball from its beginnings all the way up to
1994, um, it was in my blood.
So to make a song about DaveParker was was almost automatic.
(06:11):
And and my producer, um, alsomy label partner, um, David
Seedock Snyder, knew exactlywhere I come where I was coming
from because he's fromPittsburgh, and his dad grew up,
you know, as a pirates fan withthe Clemente Stargell Pirates
and Mazeroski Pirates.
He got it, I got it.
(06:32):
It was a no-brainer.
And just to be able to do it,um it was like written fast and
it it moved fast, and it wassomething that I that we wanted
to do.
It wasn't like, oh, somebodycome up with a Dave Parker song.
No, I did I did about 11 or 12songs on baseball players that I
admired, people like Pete Roseand Ferguson Jenkins and people
(06:54):
like that.
But Dave Parker really hit homefor me.
Mike Koser (06:57):
Chuck, I cannot tell you how much it breaks my heart
to see him pass away weeksbefore his Hall of Fame
induction.
This is a guy who was alifetime .290 hitter, over 2,700
hits, 339 home runs, seven-timeAll-Star, two-time world
champion.
He should have been in the Hallof Fame years ago.
Chuck D (07:14):
Well, Hall of Fame's uh uh, you know, they sh they
should be difficult.
But the thing that made Parkerdifferent is that where you
might not see tremendous homerun figures, the all-around game
and what he did to move thegame, and he won championships.
So that really separates himfrom the pack.
It might have separated himfrom Dick Allen just the fact
(07:36):
that he won.
And this Dick Allen was anotherplayer that was one of those
guys that you would think thatwould have been in the Hall of
Fame.
Mike Koser (07:42):
I think Parker changed the game.
I mean, I can remember being aseven, eight-year-old and uh
being a Cleveland fan, butloving Dave Parker and the
Pirates so much so that I uhconvinced my parents to buy me
uh Pittsburgh Pirates pajamas,and we had these long runners in
our house, I don't know, toprotect our carpet or something.
And so I would spray those downwith pledge, and then I would
(08:04):
run from one end of the house tothe other and slide across,
imagining I was Dave Parkersliding into home, you know.
Chuck D (08:10):
I mean well, it didn't it didn't hurt that the the fact
that the pirates were the firstteam that w went into the
multi-uniform phase.
I mean, now today in differentsports, you know, you have this
multi-jersey, multi-uniform,especially in the NBA where they
got like four or five differentuniform combinations they do
(08:30):
now.
But the pirates did that in inbaseball, and um it it connected
with young people real quick,the the combinations.
I mean, who's doing that today,right?
Mike Koser (08:40):
Yeah, not like them, you know what I mean?
I mean, hey, listen, Chuck,thank you for taking a few
minutes to remember uh theCobra.
Um I I really appreciate it.
I know you're on tour andyou're in Europe and doing your
thing, and um, I'm just I'mgrateful for the time.
Chuck D (08:54):
Yeah, it struck me real real hard because uh I like
you, you know, we we've knownthe work that we've done for for
Dave Parker and the legacy, andhe finally gets in and doesn't
see it.
So things happen, right?
And but uh the memory lives on,and uh, and I'm glad that we
were able to make a contributionin making a song about him, me
(09:17):
doing the voiceover, and um mejust being able to carry a slice
of that swagger in infamy.
Mike Koser (09:25):
For a kid who once wore holes in the knees of his
We Are Family Pittsburgh Piratespajamas, dreaming of one day
becoming the next Dave Parker,there are moments you never
forget.
One of mine came in March of2022 when the Cobra, my
childhood hero, said yes tobeing on this podcast.
It was early days for Lost Ballparks before most people even
(09:47):
knew it existed.
But he showed up, gracious,generous, and larger than life.
That meant more to me than heprobably ever knew.
Rest easy, Dave Parker.
You'll always be part of thefamily.
(Clip from 2022 Podcast) DaveParker, thanks for the memories.
Um, thanks for the stories.
Dave Parker (10:04):
It was great talking to you, and I enjoyed
telling the stories because Imake my day.
Mike Koser (10:09):
We'll talk to you down the road.
Dave Parker (10:11):
All right, sounds good.
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