RIP, Baseball’s Million Dollar Man
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Technically, Dave Parker was Baseball’s second million dollar contract, Nolan Ryan beat him by a few weeks, but Parker’s contract was bigger news because he was black. The guy had bats, batteries, and sacks of bolts thrown at him, and not by opposing team fans, but Pittsburgh fans…The year after he helped lead them to a World Series It gets glossed over as being related to the economic conditions in Pittsburgh at the time, that no athlete should be making $1M, but it’s understood in the region that it was based more on race, and the fact that Parker had a really bad rap. He was a guy that came across as being an asshole when he was trying to joke around.
From all accounts that I know from 3 people that personally knew him, he was actually a hell of a guy, a real sweetheart, but with a sense of humor that most people didn’t get.
Anyway, Rest in Peace, Cobra.
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@Mik said in RIP, Baseball’s Million Dollar Man:
I used to run into him a lot at the Montgomery Kroger. He was always very nice to fans.
He settled back in that area after he retired, too, I think?
