Dave Parker acknowledges the crowd during a pregame ceremony honoring the 1979 World Series champions before the Pirates' game against the Phillies on July 20, 2019.
For some time, Dave Parker's Hall of Fame exclusion has been considered an injustice among baseball circles in and out of Pittsburgh.
But Sunday night, the 16-person Classic Baseball Era Committee deemed Parker, 73, worthy of enshrinement in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Also chosen for induction was Dick Allen, a Wampum native who played from 1963-1977, winning NL Rookie of the Year in 1964 with the Philadelphia Phillies and 1972 AL MVP with the Chicago White Sox. Allen, a seven-time All-Star, died in 2020 at age 78.
The committee's vote was revealed on MLB Network ahead of the annual Winter Meetings, which commence Monday in Dallas.
Those under consideration required at least 75% of the committee's vote, the same threshold for the traditional Baseball Writers' Association of American selection process.
Parker, the 1978 NL MVP and part of the 1979 World Series champions, spent the first 11 seasons of an eventual 19-year career from 1973-1983 with the Pirates, making four All-Star appearances (1977, 1979-81) and winning three Gold Gloves (1977-79) in Pittsburgh.
For his career, Parker hit .290 and collected 2,712 hits, 339 home runs and 1,493 RBIs in 2,466 games, 1,301 of which were in a Pirates uniform.
A 6-foot-5, 230-pounder who grew up in Cincinnati, Parker regularly hit for power and had a powerful arm in right field, attaining star status in the 1970s.
In 1978, Parker captured NL MVP honors after batting .334 with 30 home runs and 117 RBIs, and he placed third in MVP voting in 1975 and 1977.
A two-time NL batting champion with the Pirates (1977, 1978), Parker was a key member of the 1979 World Series club, starting 158 games that year in right field while hitting .310 with 25 homers and 94 RBIs.
Departing Pittsburgh for the Cincinnati Reds after the 1983 campaign, Parker earned two more All-Star selections in 1985 and 1986, winning a pair of Silver Sluggers while finishing as NL MVP runner-up in 1985.
Parker, whose career spanned 1973-91, first received MVP votes in 1975 at the age of 24. In 1990 with the Milwaukee Brewers, Parker won a Silver Slugger, was an All-Star and placed 16th in the MVP voting at age 39.
In 1989, he won a second World Series ring with the Oakland Athletics.
Parker was an inaugural inductee into the Pirates Hall of Fame in 2022.