On September 29, 1979, Dave Parker was operating on roughly forty-five minutes of sleep. He had broken up with his live-in girlfriend the night before after she had cursed out his mother on the phone. She did not take it well and had proceeded to cause thousands of dollars in damage to his home and car, necessitating a police visit.
But this was Dave Parker, aka “The Cobra.” The Pirates’ All-Star right fielder went five-for-six that afternoon in a thirteen-inning loss to the Chicago Cubs. The Bucs, though, clinched the Eastern Division with a 5-3 win over the Cubs the next day, on their way to a World Series championship.