Paul Zeise: It could be a long time before the Pirates celebrate another Hall of Famer

PITTSBURGH — The late Dave Parker was celebrated this weekend with the ultimate honor for any professional athlete, as he was inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Parker was inducted along with CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki and Dick Allen this past weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y., and the Pirates paid tribute to him by wearing black uniform pants.

It was long overdue for Parker, as he was one of the most important players on those great Pirates teams of the 1970s, including the World Series champion team of 1979. Parker won the 1978 MVP and was a seven-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger award winner and two-time batting champion. He actually won a second World Series ring in 1989 as a member of the A’s.

He died less than a month before the ceremony, so his son accepted the induction, gave the speech and read a poem from his dad that included this line that exemplifies his personality perfectly:

“I’m in the Hall now

You can’t take that away

The statue better look nice

You know I’ve got a pretty face”

That was Parker, the perfect mixture of jovial personality and confidence (bordering on a little cocky) and someone who had a deep understanding of the history of baseball and what an honor it is to be named among the game’s all-time greats.

I watched some of the ceremony and I would be lying if I didn’t ask myself at least a few times: When will be the next time we celebrate a player going into the Hall of Fame as a Pirate? I honestly don’t know the answer to that question because I just don’t know when the next time the Pirates will have a player who is Hall of Fame-worthy and will spend enough time on the roster to want to be inducted as a Pirate.

That is the economic realities of baseball, and it is, in some ways, sad to someone like me who grew up in the 1970s and ’80s. I have said this often — the teams that dominated the 1970s (along with the Yankees, of course) are the Pirates, Orioles, Reds and A’s.

Forget about the Hall of Fame — tell me the next time you think any of those four teams not named the Yankees will ever win another World Series. I suppose the Orioles might have the resources to figure it out, and maybe the A’s economic situation will dramatically improve in their next city. But those teams are among the have-nots in Major League Baseball, and that is not a good place to be.

The Pirates currently have Paul Skenes, who, if he stays healthy and plays 10-plus years, is almost assuredly going to be a Hall of Famer. But if he signs a 10-, 12-year deal with his next team, wins a World Series or two with them and crosses some important milestones with them, is he really going to want to go into the Hall of Fame as a Pirate just because they were his first team?

Gerrit Cole probably has an outside chance at the Hall of Fame if he is able to have another three or four seasons when he is one of the best pitchers in baseball. He has some work to do, for sure, but he is at least in the conversation and, like Skenes, he started with the Pirates. But he was with the Pirates for five seasons and has already been elsewhere for seven.

Cole will presumably play for the Yankees for at least the next three years, if not four, as he has four years left on his contract, which would mean he will have played with the Yankees for about twice as long as the Pirates. I have a hard time believing he would go into the Hall of Fame as anything but a Yankee considering the success he has had with them.

We appreciate Andrew McCutchen here in this town probably more than most, but that is because we watched him up close and personal for a lot of his best years. He is clearly someone who deserves a lot of credit for carrying one of the worst franchises in sports to the playoffs three years in a row. He has been a great ambassador for baseball and even now he is still compiling numbers.

But overall, if you look completely objectively at his numbers, he is probably in that category of “really close but not quite a Hall of Famer.” That is just where he fits in the grand scheme of things, especially when you take the local sentiments out of the equation. McCutchen would definitely go into the Hall of Fame as a Pirate, but I just don’t think that will be a bridge we cross.

There is always still the Barry Bonds discussion, but that one gives me a headache and I think he would go in as a San Francisco Giant anyway.

This past weekend was a great time to be a Pirates fan, as it brought back lots of memories of those great Pirates teams in the glory years of We are Family. Parker was at the heart and soul of those teams, so it was a great to reminisce about much better times for the Pirates.

It also was very likely the last time we will get to watch a former Pirate get inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Pirate because the team is not likely to have anyone at that level stay around long enough to be the next one. A lot can change. Maybe it could happen unexpectedly, but while this weekend’s festivities were a lot of fun, they were also a sobering reminder of the state of the Pirates and just how barren of high success the future likely is.

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