Powerful enough that long before Cincinnati legend Dave Parker, who died at the age of 74 Saturday, June 28, won his own long-awaited place in baseball’s Hall of Fame, he helped open the path for another Cincinnati-raised player to reach Cooperstown.

Dave "The Cobra" Parker, the Cincinnati native and one of the most feared hitters of his generation, has died of complications following a long illness, the Cincinnati Reds announced Saturday. He was 74.

We sat down with Helen Kugel, a former guidance counselor at the now-defunct Courter Tech High School in Cincinnati, who had a 50-year friendship with the late Dave Parker. Parker, a Cincinnati native and former Reds player,