Lost Ballparks

Chuck D Remembers Dave Parker

• Mike Koser • Season 9 • Episode 3

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0:00 | 10:12

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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Mike Koser:

Dave Parker, there are three things we know for sure today.

Dave Parker:

The sun's gonna shine, the wind's gonna blow, and the big Dave's gonna go four for four.

Howard Cosell:

It didn't take him long. So it's four hits for Dave Parker and a brilliant play in right center field.

Chuck D:

(Song clip "The Cobra") See that ball going, going, going. The cobra.

Mike Koser:

Hey, it's Mike Koser, and this is Lost Ballparks. Today's episode is different. It's not about the ballparks we've lost, but about a legend we just lost. Dave Parker, the Cobra, who was larger than life, a cannon for an arm, a bat that could split the sky, and a presence that made pitchers sweat and fans rise. Just weeks before he was to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, we lost him after a long, brave fight with Parkinson's disease. And now, who better to help us remember him than Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Hip Hop Icon, and narrator of Parker's life in the acclaimed documentary, The Cobra at Twilight. Chuck D of Public Enemy.

Chuck D:

Hey Mike, what's up, man?

Mike Koser:

Thank you for doing this. I appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, we gotta do a lot more. I'm glad I'm I'm on with you guys, finally. Do you remember the first time you watched Dave Parker play baseball?

Chuck D:

Yeah, um, it was during the uh 1973 Mets um pennant run.

Announcer:

Oh, big Dave Parker is gonna come up to bat. Dave Parker's a left-hand batter, and he is big.

Chuck D:

And um and he had played a few games for the Pirates then. And this is the "You Gotta Believe" Mets.

Player:

Well, I'd say we started believing early in the year when things were going bad and it helped pull us out, and right now I'm sure there's not a person in this room that doesn't believe somehow.

Chuck D:

And uh we came from from last in the division to win the division, and and as a 13-year-old, um, that was one of my fondest memories uh of following Mets baseball. But uh the Pirates, we had to we had to get by the Pirates, and I think that would have been like their third straight division, the 70, 71, 70, that would have been a fourth straight division championship. But the um the 73 Pirates were also the post-clemente pirates, too. So um Dave Parker was getting a little bit of a run in right field, so I remember seeing him for the first time that uh that season.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, and what'd you think of the when he first caught a glimpse of what he was capable of?

Chuck D:

Well, I knew he was a big dude.

Announcer:

Dave Parker standing well back from the plate. Parker is six foot six.

Chuck D:

So he was as big as, you know, Dave Kingman at the time.

Announcer:

And ... like Kingman. He runs very, very well. He's one of the rising young stars in baseball.

Chuck D:

Another big player was Dave Winfield. They're all Dave's right.

Mike Koser:

Right.

Chuck D:

So uh I thought that was weird, you know, as a kid, you know, all these Dave's are like six six or six five. So, like if the pirates didn't have enough, right? Because they still had Stargell and Clemente had just you know passed away, and they was able to fill, you know, that that situation. I think they I think they was platooning um Parker in right field. He wasn't even a full um right fielder. And I remember having a baseball card for 74, 75, and um that's when he started to get, you know, a lot more run.

Bob Prince:

And the cobra stands in with 99 runs driven in. Would he like to finish this year with 100 ribbies or more? And that he'll do. Here's the ball hit deep to right field, going back. Kiss it goodbye!

Mike Koser:

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 story to life, how did that hit you?

Chuck D:

Yeah, well, you know, Dave Parker, people were calling him the Ali. Ali was at that time. Ali had just been beat George Foreman, so uh Muhammad Ali was still all our heroes and very impressionable. So from from Reggie Jackson to Dave Parker, that persona was was understood and easy to pick up by people that had some talent, you know, like Dave Parker. The bravado was hitting baseball with a new dimension that had never seen before. And that was Dave Parker and Reggie Jackson from the other side.

Mike Koser:

What was it like stepping into the world of Parker narrating his life with your voice? Did uh did anything surprise you about his story that maybe you didn't know going in?

Chuck D:

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 ear because of Dave Parker's baseball card. And um, you know, even in the early 80s, having an earring was kind of radical. But I said, hey, Dave Parker got one. I feel like a pirate. Not a not just a Pittsburgh pirate, but a real pirate. You know, he impressed upon me as a kid and then a young adult going in into my um twenties, Dave Parker was still there. And um and he spoke his mind and his game spoke. So actually doing the his uh narration was a dream come true. And also um having Dave Parker sign his book over to me from one icon to another. I'm like, here's Dave Parker calling 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 an influential person on my life.

Mike Koser:

There was a rhythm to the way that Dave Parker moved. He was silky, smooth, but heavy like a freight train. The you know, the way that he played, the way that he walked and talked, there was there was bass in it. He had swagger that you could hear. And when I played the song that you wrote, uh, Chuck, called uh The Cobra, it's like you bottled all of that.

Chuck D:

(Song clip) "See that ball going, going, going. The cobra."

Mike Koser:

What was going through your mind when you sat down to create that?

Chuck D:

Baseball from its beginnings all the way up to 1994, um, it was in my blood. So to make a song about Dave Parker was was almost automatic. And and my producer, um, also my label partner, um, David Seedock Snyder, knew exactly where I come where I was coming from because he's from Pittsburgh, and his dad grew up, you know, as a pirates fan with the Clemente Stargell Pirates and Mazeroski Pirates. He got it, I got it. 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 was something that I that we wanted to do. It wasn't like, oh, somebody come up with a Dave Parker song. No, I did I did about 11 or 12 songs on baseball players that I admired, people like Pete Rose and Ferguson Jenkins and people like that. But Dave Parker really hit home for me.

Mike Koser:

Chuck, I cannot tell you how much it breaks my heart to see him pass away weeks before his Hall of Fame induction. This is a guy who was a lifetime .290 hitter, over 2,700 hits, 339 home runs, seven-time All-Star, two-time world champion. He should have been in the Hall of Fame years ago.

Chuck D:

Well, Hall of Fame's uh uh, you know, they sh they should be difficult. But the thing that made Parker different is that where you might not see tremendous home run figures, the all-around game and what he did to move the game, and he won championships. So that really separates him from the pack. It might have separated him from Dick Allen just the fact that he won. And this Dick Allen was another player that was one of those guys that you would think that would have been in the Hall of Fame.

Mike Koser:

I think Parker changed the game. I mean, I can remember being a seven, eight-year-old and uh being a Cleveland fan, but loving Dave Parker and the Pirates so much so that I uh convinced my parents to buy me uh Pittsburgh Pirates pajamas, and we had these long runners in our house, I don't know, to protect our carpet or something. And so I would spray those down with pledge, and then I would run from one end of the house to the other and slide across, imagining I was Dave Parker sliding into home, you know.

Chuck D:

I mean well, it didn't it didn't hurt that the the fact that the pirates were the first team that w went into the multi-uniform phase. I mean, now today in different sports, you know, you have this multi-jersey, multi-uniform, especially in the NBA where they got like four or five different uniform combinations they do now. But the pirates did that in in baseball, and um it it connected with young people real quick, the the combinations. I mean, who's doing that today, right?

Mike Koser:

Yeah, not like them, you know what I mean? I mean, hey, listen, Chuck, thank you for taking a few minutes to remember uh the Cobra. Um I I really appreciate it. I know you're on tour and you're in Europe and doing your thing, and um, I'm just I'm grateful for the time.

Chuck D:

Yeah, it struck me real real hard because uh I like you, you know, we we've known the work that we've done for for Dave Parker and the legacy, and he 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 contribution in making a song about him, me doing the voiceover, and um me just being able to carry a slice of that swagger in infamy.

Mike Koser:

For a kid who once wore holes in the knees of his We Are Family Pittsburgh Pirates pajamas, dreaming of one day becoming the next Dave Parker, there are moments you never forget. One of mine came in March of 2022 when the Cobra, my childhood hero, said yes to being on this podcast. It was early days for Lost Ball parks before most people even knew it existed. But he showed up, gracious, generous, and larger than life. That meant more to me than he probably ever knew. Rest easy, Dave Parker. You'll always be part of the family. (Clip from 2022 Podcast) Dave Parker, thanks for the memories. Um, thanks for the stories.

Dave Parker:

It was great talking to you, and I enjoyed telling the stories because I make my day.

Mike Koser:

We'll talk to you down the road.

Dave Parker:

All right, sounds good.

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Mike Koser

Host