By GERRY SHIH Special to the Daily Press
LOS ANGELES The late Major League pitcher Earl Wilson once said: “A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings.”
But for Dodgers fans flocking to Chavez Ravine from 1964 to 1972, the sight of Wes Parker warming up was immediate reassurance, a guarantee that at least first base would be in safe hands.
On Wednesday, the deft fielding “Mr. Steady” provided over his nine seasons with the Dodgers earned Parker a place on the all-time Rawlings Gold Glove team. The Southern California native — his father worked in Santa Monica,his mother a Samohi grad — was selected by fans as the greatest fielding first baseman in baseball history.
“I am proud to bring this award home to Los Angeles, prouder still to call it my own personal Hall of Fame,” said Parker, who grew up in Brentwood.
The 67-year-old Parker still recalls pestering his father for a TV set back in 1958, but settled for renting movies and a 16mm projector from a Westwood camera shop every weekend. Then there would be the Sunday ballgames, when father and son would sit behind first base, and Parker Sr. would “almost taunt” his son by goading him into studying how Gil Hodges (the inaugural Gold Glove first baseman) plied his trade.
Despite his relatively short career and mediocre hitting, Parker garnered 53 percent of the vote by fans and topped five other greats for inclusion on the Rawlings Gold Glove team, including Don Mattingly and Keith Hernandez, a testament to his extraordinary defensive value at a position typically considered a placeholder for sluggers.
Fans began voting online, by mail or at Major League stadiums back in February, selecting the final team from a pool of 50 nominees chosen by baseball officials and journalists. Nearly a million votes were ultimately cast to decide the best defensive player at each position in the half century since the inception of the Gold Glove award.
“I was a weak kid who had asthma growing and was sick a lot,” Parker told the Daily Press on Wednesday. “I didn’t have confidence that I was good enough.”
But he landed a gig training with the Dodgers while still a senior in high school. Before games, he would be out on the field throwing the ball around with the players, learning early on to deal with 60,000 pairs of eyes on his back. Following his graduation from Claremont McKenna College, Parker claimed former idol Gil Hodges’ old position with the Dodgers within two years. The switch-hitter, unimpressive at the plate with a.267 career batting average and 64 home runs, became an exemplary component of a strong defense led by formidable pitching tandem Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale — whom Parker described as “equally” unnerving to play behind.
Parker won six straight Gold Gloves from 1967 to 1972 — his final season — and quit after having won the 1965 World Series and finishing with a Major League record.996 fielding percentage at first base.
He attributes his defensive acumen to a combination of good natural ability, an insatiable desire to improve and a fiery competitiveness that still burns today.
“Don’t hit it to me because if you do, I’m taking you down and I’m burying you,” he said of his mentality as an infielder. “When a batter hit the ball my way, I took it as an insult — a personal challenge — and I gloried in getting guys out. When batters like Joe Morgan screamed at me in frustration after I got them out, it was as good a compliment as I could get.”
The only member of the Rawlings team not in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, or projected to be a Hall of Famer, Parker was considered by many a surprise inclusion in the final list of nine names that also includes Greg Maddux (pitcher), Johnny Bench (catcher), Morgan (second base), Ozzie Smith (shortstop), Brooks Robinson (third base), Willie Mays (outfield), Ken Griffey Jr. (outfield) and Roberto Clemente (outfield). The nine have won a combined 100 Gold Gloves, awarded annually to the best fielding player at his given position.
Over the years, Parker’s heavy focus on defense attracted harsh critical scrutiny of his overall ability.
Many local fans dismiss the criticism and consider him to be a remarkable player in Dodgers history — precisely because his impeccable fielding remains salient today.
“It’s pretty significant that even though he’s not a household name, people still remember him after all these years just for his defense,” said Alex Tamber, a resident of Marina del Rey. “It’s a good story because he beat out guys like Mattingly and Keith Hernandez, and those guys can really play some first base.”
Parker personally parries the criticism, and said that there has always been an over-emphasis on hitting. His approach to playing his position, he said made a valuable contribution to the greater game.
“The thing about first base is it’s very easy to play poorly and very difficult to play well,” he said. “You can get by just digging balls out of the dirt and catching throws, and there are low expectations. Hopefully, when I played, I raised everybody’s expectations. I was not typical in the entire way I played first base — my thoughtfulness, my desire to be good... I truly cared about it.”
“This award wraps up my career in the most beautiful way possible,” Parker said. “I am a very proud man right now.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 23, 2007. Read the original PDF.