DAVE PARKER

Dave Parker gave baseball an album full of snapshots. At the beginning, there is young Dave, the tall and sleek and speedy ''Cobra,'' carrying on the legacy of Roberto Clemente as the Pirates' right fielder.

Playing the first 11 of his 19 ML seasons with the Bucs, Parker did it all; in one of his best photos, 1975, we see Parker driving in 101 runs, and hitting 25 hrs; two pages later, in 1977, he would hit a league-leading .338, with 44 doubles and 215 hits.

At the end of 1978, Parker's smile reflects his MVP award---or maybe his million dollar contract Another MVP smile followed soon after, this one for the 1979 All Star Game, where his two outfield assists preserved a 7-6 NL win. Attached photos show his clothesline peg home to nail Brian Downing, trying to score after a fly out‹and another, his one-hop toss to third cutting down Jim Rice trying to stretch his pop-fly lost-in-the-Kingdome double into three bases.

As Pirate fan Glenn E. Gearhard observed, while Parker's career in Pittsburgh was terrific‹Gold Gloves, batting crowns, MVP, and perennial driving force in the lineup‹many fans feel he could have done eve better, had he not had weight and drug problems.

Dave Parker went on to have fine seasons in his hometown of Cincinnati, and Oakland, before winding down with three other AL teams. Perhaps the photo that best captures Dave Parker is from 1978, when he broke his jaw, but continued to play, leading his team down the stretch in a charge that fell just short of a pennant. Statistics do not sum Dave Parker, nor do words--he was a man of actions ‹and truly a Star In His Time.