From left, CC Sabathia, Willa Allen, wife of the late Dick Allen, and Dave Parker II, son of the late Dave Parker, display the plaques that will be in the Baseball Hall of Fame Photo courtesy of the Baseball Hall of Fame
by Alvin A. Reid | The St. Louis American
It might happen again, but what occurred on Sunday July 27, 2025, in Cooperstown, New York, could join a list of “unbreakable” Major League Baseball records.
Three Black players were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the same hot afternoon outside of baseball’s Mecca.
Denied their proper place in the Hall of Fame for years, the late Dave Parker and Dick Allen finally were inducted. Parker passed away on June 18, just over a month before his induction ceremony. Allen passed on Dec. 7, 2020.
CC Sabathia was the third of the Black players enshrined. He praised Parker in his acceptance speech and reminded the audience that baseball is falling short in development of future Black stars.
“It’s an extra honor to be part of Dave’s Hall of Fame Class. He was ‘The Cobra,’ but also became ‘Pops;’ a father figure to a generation of Black stars,” said Sabathia.
“In the 80’s and early 90’s when I first started watching baseball and Dave Parker was crushing homers, the number of Black players in the Major Leagues was at its highest, about 18%.
“Me and my friends played the game because we saw those guys on TV. There was always somebody who looked like me in a baseball uniform.”
On Opening Day 2025, according to Major League Baseball, 6.2% of players were African American. That was up from 6% in 2024.
“Baseball has always been great for Black athletes, but baseball culture has not always been great for Black people,” Sabathia said.
Through his and other Black players’ work with the Players Alliance and Commissioner’s Office, Sabathia said he hopes “we’re starting to turn that around.”
“I don’t want to be the final member of the ‘Black Aces,’ a Black pitcher to win 20 games in the Big Leagues. And I don’t want to be the final Black pitcher standing here giving a Hall of Fame speech.”
Parker’s son, Dave Parker II, shared that his father was working on his acceptance speech when he died.
Parker II said his father had written a poem that he wanted him to deliver.
“The Cobra. 39. It’s about damn time,” was among the stanzas. It noted Parker’s uniform number and his dissatisfaction with being passed over for enshrinement for decades.
With a touch of humor, Parker praised himself posthumously for his fashion taste, his being a “sex symbol,” his “rocket arm,” and joy for “running over any catcher.”
Allen, who played for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1970 after being traded by the Philadelphia Phillies, won the American League Most Valuable Player Award in 1972 with the Chicago White Sox.
His widow, Willa Allen, remembered her husband’s kindness during his 15-year career.
“Whether it was taking time to speak with children who were fans of his or his simple ‘Thank you,’ when the Phillies told him that they were going to retire his number, [Dick] never took the fact that he got to play baseball for a living for granted.”
Willa Allen said when her husband was a child, a teacher asked her students what they wanted to be when they grew up.
“Dick said he was going to be a Major League Baseball player. The kids all laughed because at that time there were no Black players in baseball. Well, look at him now,” she said.
The Reid Roundup
Bubba Wallace won NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 last Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, becoming the first Black driver to win a major race at the historic home of the Indianapolis 500. The victory guarantees Wallace a spot in the NASCAR playoff series, which now includes the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill., on Sept. 7… 2025 could be the best in history for Black drivers on major racing circuits. Rajah Caruth won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rackley Roofing 200 on May 31 in Nashville. Myles Rowe became the first Black driver to win an Indy NXT race when he took the first checkered flag of his career at the Iowa Grand Prix on June 12…Now, if only Lewis Hamilton could race to a victory during the remaining Formula 1 schedule with Ferrari, this will indeed be the Year of the Black Driver.
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