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