Man with the Golden Glove

Fans Vote Ex-Dodger Wes Parker to Rawlings’ All-Time Defensive Team

Former Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Wes Parker has been voted by fans to the all-time Rawlings Gold Glove team as one of major league baseball’s best nine fielders of the last half century and the 35-year Pacific Palisades resident is still on Cloud Nine. “I was so excited upon hearing the news that I was walking on air,” said Parker, who won six gold gloves with the Dodgers from 1964-72. “They [Rawlings] called me the Friday before the announcement and swore me to secrecy. For me, this is the equivalent of the Hall of Fame.” A panel of 70 experts trimmed the initial list of Gold Glove winners (over 250 since the award’s inception in 1957) down to a ballot of 50 players that included 18 outfielders, five catchers, three pitchers and 24 infielders (six at each position). Nearly one million votes were cast online, by mail and in person at sporting goods stores. Results of the Internet poll were released last Wednesday morning, with Parker collecting 53 percent of the votes at first base to finish ahead of Don Mattingly, Keith Hernandez, Vic Power, J.T. Snow and Bill White. “When I first saw who I was up against I figured Mattingly and Hernandez were my main competition since they played in New York,” Parker said. “Overall, I think the committee did a phenomenal job narrowing the candidates and the fans really did their homework when it came to the voting.” Joining Parker on the all-time team were Greg Maddux (pitcher); Johnny Bench (catcher); Joe Morgan (second base); Ozzie Smith (shortstop); Brooks Robinson (third base); and outfielders Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente and Ken Griffey, Jr. “From an individual standpoint, this means everything to me,” Parker admitted. “There’s no feeling that compares with winning the World Series but that’s a team achievement. This is an acknowledgement of my individual skills and it wraps up my career in a nice blue ribbon.” Robinson, who won a record-tying 16 Gold Gloves, received 61 percent of the vote–the highest percentage for any position. Bench was second with 59 percent, followed by Smith (56 percent) and Parker. “The only one that might have been different was Johnny Bench,” Parker replied when asked if he was surprised by the poll results. “Not that Johnny doesn’t deserve it, I just thought a lot of younger fans would choose [Ivan] Rodriguez because he’s still playing.” Parker’s .996 career fielding average set a major league record (since tied) and he teamed with Jim Lefebvre, Maury Wills and Jim Gilliam in 1965 and 1966 to form the only all-switch-hitting regular infield in major league history. Legendary Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda wasn’t surprised when Parker made the all-time team. “I voted for him,” Lasorda said. “Wes was one of the best.” Just before his final season with the Dodgers, Parker moved from Century City to his current home near Will Rogers State Historic Park–within three miles of where he grew up in Brentwood. This spring, donning his No. 28 jersey and Dodgers cap, Parker threw the ceremonial first pitch to California First Lady Maria Shriver in March to open the Palisades Pony Baseball Association season at the Field of Dreams, prompting PPBA Commissioner Bob Benton to ask, “Who could catch our First Lady any better than a six-time Gold Glover?” Introduced to the sport by his dad at the age of seven, Parker estimates that over the next 10 years he fielded 100,000 ground balls from his younger brother Lyn in their front yard. All of that practice served him well on the West Los Angeles Little League fields and later at Claremont College. Parker transferred to USC his senior year to complete his education, then traveled to Europe to ponder his future. “I remember I decided on a rainy day in Paris that I wanted to play for the Dodgers,” Parker recalled. “So I flew back, looked up their number in the phone book and asked for [ex-Dodgers skipper] Charlie Dressen, who I knew from my American Legion ball in high school. Of course, this is three years before the draft. So he put me on a winter team, the scouts liked what they saw, and three months later I was signed to a no-bonus minor league contract.” After one season in the minor leagues Parker was invited to Dodgers spring training in Vero Beach, Florida, and made the team. He played all three outfield positions and backed up first base as a rookie. Parker won the starting job in 1965 and, thanks in part to his dependability at the bag, the Dodgers won the National League pennant and beat the Minnesota Twins in the World Series. What made Parker so formidable at first base were his mastery of the fundamentals, cat-like reflexes and the confidence he had in his defensive ability. As a left-hander, he had better range and a better angle to throw to second to start a double play. “My attitude was that if you hit the ball to me, you’re going down,” he said. “I’m going to take a hit away from you. And if you don’t like it, hit it to someone else.” Parker, 67, played his entire career under manager Walter Alston but it was Lasorda, then the Dodgers’ AAA Pacific Coast League manager with the Spokane Indians, who changed Parker’s mental approach to hitting during spring training in 1970. “I asked him if we were winning 2-1 in Cincinnati and Joe Morgan was at the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning with a chance to go to the World Series, who would he want the ball hit to,” Lasorda recalled. “And Wes answered, ‘Me.'” “Then I said, what if we’re down 2-1 with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth at Dodger Stadium and the winner goes to the World Series, who would you want at bat. Wes asked ‘Who’s pitching?’ And I said ‘That’s your problem right there.’ It was simply a matter of getting him to believe he could hit just as well as he could field.” Parker took Lasorda’s advice to heart and, on May 7, 1970, tripled in the 10th inning to complete the cycle (a single, double, triple and home run in one game), making him the only Dodgers player to achieve that feat since the franchise relocated from Brooklyn in 1958. He led the league with 47 doubles that season and posted a career-best .319 batting average and 111 runs batted in. Though he became a capable hitter, Parker is known best for his work with the glove and someone who witnessed it up close was pitcher Al Downing, a teammate in 1971 and 1972. “Wes didn’t get a lot of publicity because he wasn’t a home run hitter, but he was an outstanding fielder,” Downing said when contacted at his residence in Valencia. “I always felt confident that he’d make the play. He had good hands, great anticipation and always plugged the gap really well. No doubt he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves.” Parker believes his best defensive play came in a regular season game at Dodger Stadium in 1970 against the St. Louis Cardinals and he can still describe it in vivid detail: “I was holding the pitcher on first base and Lou Brock [a left-handed hitter] was up with one out and a 3-2 count. I was playing behind the runner because I knew he was no threat to steal. As our pitcher delivered the ball I moved back and over to my right to better cover the hole and sure enough Brock hit a hard two-hopper exactly where I was moving. It caught me on an in-between hop and with no time to adjust I went through the motion of catching it on the run and throwing to [shortstop] Maury Wills at second without even knowing yet that I had caught it. We ended up turning a double play and the fans applauded politely, not realizing how good a play it was. “I turned to [second baseman] Jimmy Lefebvre and said ‘That’s the best play I’ve ever made.’ He had a look on his face of complete awe because he knew I was right. It was the kind of play only a high professional would recognize for its difficulty.” Parker retired after nine seasons and therefore could not be considered for the Hall of Fame since induction requires a minimum of 10 major league seasons. “I wasn’t upset about not making the Hall of Fame because I wasn’t even eligible,” Parker said. “And even if I had been, the truth is that I didn’t hit enough and as good as my fielding was it didn’t make up for that. So for me, this is my Hall of Fame.” Still, Parker has no regrets about retiring at the peak of his game, only a week after his 33rd birthday. “I called it quits for three reasons,” he said. “First, because we weren’t winning. Second because all of my friends were gone–I think 23 out of 24 players who were on the team my rookie year were no longer with the Dodgers. And last because I never wanted to experience the game with declining skills. I didn’t want to cheat myself or the fans out of my best performance.” After a year away from the game Parker resumed his career in Japan, batting .301 with 14 home runs and earning another Gold Glove (called a Silver Glove in Japan) before retiring for good. Parker’s life after baseball began as an actor in television and commercials in the 1970s and ’80s. Still a bachelor, he enjoys playing golf and bridge and has remained involved with the Dodgers organization. He is an avid collector of sports memorabilia and even teaches a class about seasonal sports at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles. “Wes was a good friend of a lot of the players because he stood up for his own principles,” said Downing, who was invited to speak to one of Parker’s classes. “He may not be in the Hall of Fame but what’s more important is that he’s a Hall of Fame person.” Parker understands that fame can be fleeting and thus is enjoying the media attention surrounding his latest honor. Since the all-time Gold Glove team was announced, the lone Dodgers representative (not counting Maddux last year) has given nine radio and TV interviews and fielded questions on an Internet chat room as deftly as he used to snare hard line drives in his prime. “The best part about this is not feeling the need to prove myself anymore,” he said. “I can just be who I am.” Parker will be recognized for his all-time Gold Glove selection next April at Dodger Stadium.