PITTSBURGH — Dave Parker got his hopes up and then had them smashed like one of the homers he and his boys used to bop way out of Three Rivers Stadium. Now, he keeps stuff like this at an emotional distance, careful to not get fooled again.

The longtime Pirates outfielder has seen the numbers ... wait, no. He created the damn numbers, the impressive ones that made Parker the best player in Major League Baseball for several years in the late 1970s.

So why isn't Parker in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.? I don't know.

The Pittsburgh Drug Trials? A prickly reputation? It's a question I've been asked countless times and one that's impossible to answer if you consider what Parker did and compare it to his peers.

The 1978 National League Most Valuable Player and seven-time All-Star should be in there — and there's no better time than now to fix the problem.

On Monday, the Hall of Fame announced an eight-person ballot that will be considered by its Classic Baseball Era Committee for the Class of 2025. That meeting will take place on Dec. 8 at MLB's Winter Meetings in Dallas.

A similar group got it right last year with former Pirates manager Jim Leyland. I'm holding out hope that will happen again with Parker, who's joined by a few guys with local ties in Dick Allen, Vic Harris and Luis Tiant.

Allen, known better as the Wampum Walloper, has a solid case, earning the 1972 American League MVP and matching Parker with seven All-Star nods.

Harris was a .303 career hitter and a superb base stealer, but he was better known as a manager, winning seven Negro National League pennants with the Homestead Grays, along with the 1948 Negro League World Series.

Tiant won 20 games four times and two AL ERA titles, though he pitched in Pittsburgh for just one season (1981).

Those three were incredible players, but Parker remains the headliner for me because of the context surrounding his potential enshrinement. He's 73. He's been living with Parkinson's disease for over a dozen years.

We all hope "The Cobra" has 20 more good ones. He remains an incredible quote and magnetic personality. Let's also be honest, read the room and not pass on this opportunity. One of the game's greats — and a founding member of the All-Omission team across sports — deserves his moment.

Remember, we're talking about someone who hit .290 with 2,712 hits, 339 home runs, 1,493 RBIs and 1,272 runs scored in 19 MLB seasons. From 1975-79 specifically, Parker was second in batting average (.321), third in slugging (.532) and OPS (.909) and led the majors with 72 outfield assists.

Parker won two batting titles and that MVP. Harold Baines did none of those things yet was voted into the Hall. Yeah, makes no sense.

But here, again, is a chance. To make it right and recognize what Parker means to Pirates fans. A chance to properly honor someone who was top five in MVP voting five times.

Back in December 2019, I attended an MLB Network screening of "The Cobra at Twilight," a film about Parker's career from his childhood in Cincinnati, his Pirates days, then playing for the Reds and Athletics.

It was hard to not get emotional watching the thing, knowing what Parker meant to diehard baseball fans like my dad, who like any good yinzer parent introduced me to Parker by explaining what an atrocity it was that he's not in the Hall of Fame.

Later that night, I chatted with Parker and his wife, Kellye, about his career and the chance he had to make the Hall of Fame through what was formerly called the Modern Baseball Era ballot. (These things have been revised many times recently.)

"I done did it all," Parker said. "It's been 20-some odd years. We'll wait and see what happens. I feel real good about this year's Hall of Fame."

"Now, because he's older, you don't know how long he'll be around," Kellye added. "It would be nice for him. I don't want [to say] it would prolong his life, but it would give him something uplifting during his illness. We're hopeful."

You know what happened next, of course. Parker came up short, receiving just seven of the necessary 12 votes.

When I caught up with Parker this past May at PNC Park, his stance on the whole thing had certainly softened.

"I don't think about it much anymore," Parker said. "I just let people draw their own conclusions. I did well. I was considered the best player in the game for a stretch. I left my impression. I don't have anything to feel bad about."

No, Dave, you don't.

It's the others who should feel bad, the ones who've let this slip through the cracks, who've forced a proud man dealing with far more serious problems to worry whether some committee will take his career seriously enough.

At the same time, hope is not lost. There's a chance here, an opportunity to make this right. Let's just hope they take it.

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