The financial landscape of baseball was different in the 1970s.
Though it was the decade that players secured free agency and the first million dollar contract was signed, there were plenty of Major Leaguers who had jobs in the offseason, and plenty continued to play in the winter leagues, opting to keep their game honed to a sharp edge in the Caribbean sunshine while earning extra money to help make ends meet. Even bona fide stars in Major League Baseball headed south for the winter.
Among them was Dave Parker, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame last weekend.
By the time Parker played his first season with the Navegantes de Magallanes in the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional in the winter of 1974-75, the man who’d later be known as “The Cobra” had already spent parts of two seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
That first season in Valencia, Parker helped the Navegantes reach the LVBP’s championship series, where they fell to the Tigres de Aragua. “Helped,” though, may not be a sufficient enough description, as Parker was a force of nature for the Navegantes, batting .329 and leading the league in RBIs, home runs, total bases, hits, doubles, and triples.
The next summer, Parker broke out in Pittsburgh, posting a .308/.357/.541 batting line with 25 homers and 101 RBIs, finishing third in the balloting for the 1977 National League MVP award.
He’d return to the Magallanes the next winter, winning the LVBP batting crown with a .414 average, and again in the winter of 1982-83, compiling some of the best statistics of any import player in LVBP history. In 105 games over his three seasons in Venezuela, Parker hit .347 (150-for-432), with 22 doubles, 11 triples and 11 home runs, scored 74 runs and drove in 90. His career average is the highest among foreigners who played for the Navegantes de Magallanes, and is the second highest in franchise history. He was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2012.
Parker’s time in Venezuela, however, also marked the first time that he used cocaine, a drug to which he’d be inexorably linked during the Pittsburgh Drug Trials of 1985, where the widespread use of cocaine among MLB players was revealed to the public by the players themselves, testifying to a federal grand jury.
Ultimately, the case led to the conviction of six Pittsburgh-area men and the Philadelphia Phillies’ clubhouse caterer on charges of selling cocaine. Following the trials, seven players — Parker, Joaquin Andujar, Enos Cabell, Dale Berra, Keith Hernandez, Lonnie Smith, and Jeffrey Leonard — were suspended for the 1986 season by MLB commissioner Peter Ueberroth, but ultimately allowed to play provided they contributed 10% of their salaries to anti-drug programs, submit to random testing, and perform 100 hours of drug-related community service.
Among Parker’s teammates in Venezuela was Omar Moreno, who’d later join Parker in Pittsburgh and went on to play 12 seasons in the Major Leagues. When Moreno made it to Pittsburgh, Parker took the young Panamanian outfielder under his wing, and their friendship continued through the end of Parker’s life.
“We both got emotional and cried,” Moreno told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review of a phone call he had with Parker after his election to the Hall of Fame was announced. “I felt that this honor should have happened many years ago, but I find satisfaction in knowing that he learned of it before he passed. I will always remember Dave as a great friend, a person who always treated me with respect and an incredibly professional player on the field.”
Known for his cocksure swagger on and off the field, Parker was also quick with a quip. He was known for saying things like, “Two things are for sure: the sun’s gonna come up and I’m going to go 3-for-4,” and “When the leaves turn brown, I’ll be wearing the batting crown.”
While playing for the Navegantes, a fan gave Parker a necklace with a Magen David — the star of David — that he took to wearing around his neck. Born in Grenada, Miss. and raised in Cincinnati, Parker was not Jewish, but was once asked why he wore a symbol of a religion to which he did not subscribe.
He is immortal. Dave Parker has been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. pic.twitter.com/UCtINFU0oH
— Pittsburgh Pirates History (@HistoryPirates) July 27, 2025
“Well, I’m a David,” he told the Washington Post. “And I’m a star.”
WBN Venezuela: https://worldbaseball.com/league/venezuela/
Photo: Dave Parker, a member of the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates World Championship team, tips his cap during a pre-game ceremony honoring the team before a baseball game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies in Pittsburgh, Saturday, July 20, 2019. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
