Wes Parker

For the English footballer, see Wes Parker (footballer).

Wes Parker
First baseman
Born: November 13, 1939 (1939-11-13) Evanston, Illinois
Batted: Switch	Threw: Left
MLB debut
April 19, 1964 for the Los Angeles Dodgers
Last MLB appearance
October 1, 1972 for the Los Angeles Dodgers
Career statistics
Batting average	.267
Home runs	64
Runs batted in	470
Teams
Los Angeles Dodgers (1964–1972) Nankai Hawks (1974)
Career highlights and awards
6× Gold Glove Award winner (1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972) World Series champion (1965) 1972 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award

Maurice Wesley Parker III (born November 13, 1939 in Evanston, Illinois) is a former first baseman in Major League Baseball who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1964 to 1972. He also played one season in Japan for the Nankai Hawks in 1974.

As of 2009, Parker is a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers organization serving as a representative of the Dodgers Legend Bureau.

Biography

Playing career

Parker batted a career high of .319 in 1970, joining a small group of players to drive in over 100 runs while hitting 10 homers or less. Known as one of the slickest fielding first basemen of all time, he won the National League Gold Glove Award award for first base every year from 1967 to 1972. He was also part of the 1965 Dodgers World Series team. Parker was a Cincinnati Reds broadcaster in 1973.

In a game against the New York Mets in May, 1970, Parker hit for the cycle (single, double, triple, and home run in the same game). He was the last Los Angeles Dodger to accomplish that feat until Orlando Hudson did it against the San Francisco Giants on April 13, 2009.

On August 21, 2007, Parker was named to the Major League Baseball All-time Gold Glove Team, and is the only eligible member of the team who is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame.[1]

Retirement

In 1972, Parker retired from the Major League Baseball and played in Japanese professional baseball in 1974, which was his last year of baseball career. After the retirement, Wes Parker became an actor and participated in a number of movies.[2]

He appeared in episode #17 of The Brady Bunch, "The Undergraduate" (1/23/70), as the boyfriend of Greg Brady's math teacher, on whom Greg has such a huge crush that he is distracted in his studies. Parker promises Greg two tickets to Opening Day if he scores an "A" on the next test.

Parker worked as a television color analyst for the Cincinnati Reds (1973), NBC (1978–79), and USA Network (1980–83).

Personal life

Parker grew up in West Los Angeles. He is the only Major League Baseball player to have attended Claremont McKenna College, but because of a family situation, he transferred to USC and graduated from there.

Wes Parker had a son in 1967 with then girlfriend, Patricia Randall, who was an acting coach and Broadway actress.

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), Wes spoke with Dr. 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 Gene 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. An audio recording of this conversation was included in Dr. Scott's cassette album "Demonology Vol. 3" and today is preserved in a freely downloadable torrent collection entitled "Dr. Gene Scott - Part 5 - 7 New Digitized Tape Albums, etc."

See also

• List of Major League Baseball doubles champions

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube

Preceded by Harmon Killebrew

Lou Gehrig Memorial Award 1972

Succeeded by Ron Santo