On Sunday, July 27, Dave Parker will be posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Parker finally received 14 votes to become elected in 2024 on a ballot that focused on candidates who contributed to the game prior to 1980.
After he passed away on June 28, 2025, Gary Sheffield expressed frustration and didn’t hold back on the MLB and its Hall of Fame.
Sheffield Goes Off on MLB As Parker Passes Away Before Hall of Fame Induction
As a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fames, Parker received 87.5% of the votes as he was a member of the Classic Baseball Era Committee. The seven-time All-Star played on six teams during his MLB career which spanned from 1973-91. As a two-time World Series Champion and three-time Gold Glove winner, Sheffield knows that it took far too long to induct the 1985 NL RBI leader into the Hall of Fame.
“We’re playing with people’s lives that deserve to be here.”@GarySheffield says it bothers him to the core that Dave Parker won’t get to experience his Hall of Fame induction ceremony. pic.twitter.com/Prgwzbf0pV
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) July 1, 2025
“I’m so upset with Major League Baseball and the Hall of Fame. It’s not funny no more,” Sheffield said. “We’re playing with people’s lives that deserve to be here, and they never got a chance to walk across that stage. That bothered me to the core.”
He continued, “Gary’s wife, Kelly, is an amazing woman, and she said to me, ‘Gary, the one thing that Dave knew is that he’s in. He knew he was going in, and that was enough for him.'”
Sheffield touched on Pete Rose as well: “When Pete Rose died and didn’t get to walk across that stage, I had that same emotion.”
When “The Cobra” signed a five-year, $5 million contract with the Pirates in 1979, he became just the second professional athlete to earn an average of $1 million per year. The lefty also took home three Silver Slugger awards along with a pair of NL batting titles in 1977-78.
While Sheffield fell short of the Hall of Fame in his final year on the ballot in 2024, he remains adamant that the league needs to change the system. This isn’t even about the nine-time All-Star not being elected, but it involves the lengthy process with heaps and bounds that prevented Parker from walking the stage upon his induction later this month.
The Pirates will honor Parker, as he had the longest tenure of his career on that team. He played in Pittsburgh from 1973-83. From there, he played on the Reds for four seasons, followed by short stints with the Oakland Athletics, Milwaukee Brewers, California Angels, and Toronto Blue Jays.