'Ohhhh, David Gene': A picture of Dave Parker tells a thousand words

Like a lot of young Pittsburgh Pirates fans who were introduced to baseball in the 1970s, I had a Dave Parker poster on my wall.

A shot of him with his massive chest opened toward the camera after a swing — one hand on the bat about to drop it after swatting a home run or doubling down the right field line.

Somehow, the photo made the 6-foot-5, 230-pound Parker look even bigger than that, and you knew the ball had just been hit harder than it deserved.

That was Parker. Larger than life. Especially to an impressionable grade school kid. The kind of athlete whose every story felt like a legend.

“He’d hit a two hopper to second base and beat it out,” former Pirate Ken Macha told me. “He was the fastest player in the organization. He ran a 6.2 (second) 60-yard dash. He was huge, and he could run. He had this down-stroke. He hit some vicious line drives out of the park in A-ball.”

A lot of those legends were shared across the baseball world this weekend after news of Parker’s death was announced by the Pirates on Saturday.

We are heartbroken to learn of the passing of Hall of Famer Dave Parker.

A legendary Pirate, Parker spent 11 years in a Pirates uniform, winning 2 batting titles, an MVP award and a World Series Championship in 1979.

The Cobra was part of the inaugural Pirates Hall of Fame… pic.twitter.com/UuikGxw6dI

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) June 28, 2025

“Ohhhh, David Gene,” former Pirate Mike Easler exclaimed at the mere mention of Parker’s name during an interview last year. “People don’t realize how good Parker was. He was one of the greatest athletes you’ve ever seen play.”

With Parker, everything delivered. Not just his loaded resume and accomplished statistics.

I’m saying, with Parker, everything fits the descriptions you heard about him and the visualization you may have had of him. Everything about him lived up to the expectations you may have had looking at a poster on your wall.

The image fit. The powerful swing fit. The rocket arm fit. The on-field aggression fit. The brash personality fit. Swinging the sledgehammer in the on-deck circle fit, as did wearing the intimidating football and goalie facemasks in the wake of his 1978 broken jaw.

The nickname especially fit.

“He was the Cobra, man. He could strike,” Pete Rose said in the MLB Network documentary. “The Cobra at Twilight.”

NFL coach Tony Dungy, a contemporary of Parker’s in Pittsburgh while he was a Steelers defensive back, also waxed poetic regarding the nickname for Parker during that documentary.

“That’s the way he played. He lashed out at that ball. But it was also that personality. ‘You never know when I’m going to jump out there and bite you,’” Dungy said under video of Parker brawling on the field and rumbling through catchers at home plate.

Even the uniform fit.

Actually, to a certain degree, it didn’t. There are some old clips of Parker where it looked like the Pirates gave him the biggest uniform they had, and it still might’ve been a half-size too small.

But the black jersey looked darker. The gold pants and helmet popped even brighter. The Stargell Stars seemed more important. The points on the “Pirates” script looked sharper on the front of No. 39’s jersey than anyone else’s. His alternate pinstripes seemed more regal. When the Pirates wore the all-gold uniforms, you never would’ve even thought there was that much yellow in a rainbow when Parker came up to hit.

Or when he was gunning down baserunners from right field.

People who are old enough to have seen Parker in his prime will tell you that a few still photos and pieces of video on YouTube aren’t enough to tell the story of his whole career.

They are right. It’s hard to sum up seven All-Star nominations, three Gold Gloves, two batting crowns, two World Series rings and the 1978 MVP in a bite-sized serving like that.

But if you aren’t one of those people old enough to have seen “David Gene” play and your only exposure to Parker is a poster and highlights, he’s the kind of athlete who could be captured in one still shot, and you could just let your imagination run wild.

And you’d be right.

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