Maurice Wesley Parker III (born November 13, 1939) is a former
first baseman
A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...
in
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
who played for the
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...
from to . He also played one season in Japan for the
Nankai Hawks
The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. They compete in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as a member of the Pacific League.
The team was formerly known as the Nankai Hawks and was based in Osaka. ...
in .
As of 2009, Parker has been a member of the
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...
organization serving as a representative of the Dodgers Legend Bureau.
Biography
Major League playing career
Parker was part of the Dodgers' and
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
teams. Known as one of the slickest fielding first basemen of all time, he won the National League
Gold Glove Award for first base every year from to 1972. In 1970, Parker posted a career high batting average of .319 and performed the unusual feat of driving in over 100 runs in a season while hitting no more than 10 home runs.
In a game against the New York Mets on May 7, 1970, Parker
hit for the cycle
In baseball, hitting for the cycle is the accomplishment of one batter who hits a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in the same game. Collecting the hits in that order is known as a "natural cycle". Cycles are rare in Major League B ...
.
[Helfgott, Hali. "Wes Parker, First Baseman", ''Sports Illustrated'', March 22, 1971.] He was the last Los Angeles Dodger to accomplish that feat until
Orlando Hudson
Orlando Thill Hudson (born December 12, 1977) is an American former professional baseball second baseman. He played in Major League Baseball from 2002–2012 with the Toronto Blue Jays, Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, ...
did so against the
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...
on April 13, 2009.
On August 21, 2007, Parker was voted the best defensive first baseman in baseball since the inception of the Gold Glove award in 1957, and named to the
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
All-time Gold Glove Team.
["Their Work with the Glove is Golden," ''Los Angeles Times,'' Sports, D5, August 23, 2007.] He is the only member of the team who is not in the
Baseball Hall of Fame. (Parker is not eligible to enter the Hall of Fame as a player because he played in only nine seasons, one less than the minimum required for consideration.)
Parker is the only Dodger to have received the All-Time Gold Glove Team award.
After Sunday home games in the final years of his career, Parker would hit fly balls to local kids outside Dodger Stadium, then drive as many as would fit into his car for ice cream and sodas. He said that he enjoyed his interactions with the kids more than he did playing the games for which he was paid.
Career statistics
In nine seasons and 1,288
games played, Parker compiled a .267
batting average
Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic.
Cricket
In cricket, a player's batting average is ...
(1110-4157), with 548
runs scored, 64
home runs, 470
RBI, 532
walks, .351
on-base percentage and .375
slugging percentage. In 11
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
games (1965 and '66) he hit .278 (10-36). At 1,108 games at first base, his primary position, his
fielding percentage was .996. He also played at all three outfield positions.
Labor issues
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
had its first ever work stoppage with a
strike
Strike may refer to:
People
* Strike (surname)
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
*Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
at the beginning of the
1972 season, which lasted 13 days. The player representatives voted 47-0, with one abstention, in favor of the strike. The abstention was Parker, who felt a deep appreciation for everything the Dodgers had done for him.
Other endeavors
Parker retired from Major League Baseball after the 1972 season. He worked as a television
color analyst for the
Cincinnati Reds in 1973, then played in Japanese professional baseball in 1974.
[Leahy, Michael. ''The Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers,'' pp. 450-1, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, New York, 2016. .]
Parker subsequently pursued an acting career, and appeared in a number of television roles in the 1970s.
His most famous role came in episode #17 of ''
The Brady Bunch
''The Brady Bunch'' is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz that aired from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974, on ABC. The series revolves around a large blended family with six children. The show aired for five seasons and, afte ...
'', "The Undergraduate" (January 23, 1970), as the fiancèe of
Greg Brady's math teacher, on whom Greg has such a huge crush that it distracts him from his studies. Parker promises Greg two tickets to opening day if he earns an A in the class.
Parker eventually gave up acting, saying it did not fit his introverted personality.
Parker also was a baseball broadcaster for
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
in 1978–79 and for
USA Network
USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...
in 1980–83.
Personal life
Parker grew up in West Los Angeles. He attended
Claremont McKenna College, transferred to
USC, and graduated from USC with a B.A. in history.
[Leahy, Michael. ''The Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers,'' pp. 32-47, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, New York, 2016. .]
Beginning in 2001, Parker began as a volunteer teacher of a weekly sports class at the
Braille Institute
The Braille Institute of America (BIA) is a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Los Angeles providing programs, seminars and one-on-one instruction for the visually impaired community in Southern California. Funded almost entirely by pri ...
in Los Angeles.
Religious views
Parker served as a voice of faith for the ministry of television preacher
Dr. Gene Scott. During a 1982 broadcast (index number S-1086-3), Parker spoke with Scott publicly for over twenty minutes, stating that before coming across Dr. Scott's television program, he had never understood or felt drawn toward Christianity. He explained that it was Scott's intelligent and fact-based approach to teaching that earned his respect and allowed him to build faith. He stated that his earlier exposures to Christianity had no effect, because they were mostly based on simplistic platitudes such as "God is love" which he found unconvincing.
See also
*
List of Major League Baseball annual doubles leaders
In baseball, a doubles is recorded when the ball is hit so that the batter is able to advance to second base without an error by a defensive player. In Major League Baseball (MLB), the leader in each league (American League and National League) ...
*
List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
In baseball, completing the cycle is the accomplishment of hitting a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in the same game. In terms of frequency, the cycle is roughly as common as a no-hitter; '' Baseball Digest'' calls it "one of th ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
, o
Retrosheet*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Wes
1939 births
Living people
American expatriate baseball players in Japan
Baseball players from Illinois
Cincinnati Reds announcers
Gold Glove Award winners
Los Angeles Dodgers Legend Bureau
Los Angeles Dodgers players
Major League Baseball broadcasters
Major League Baseball first basemen
Nankai Hawks players
Sportspeople from Evanston, Illinois
Albuquerque Dukes players
Santa Barbara Rancheros players
Arizona Instructional League Dodgers players