Part of the 13th Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Hall of Game class, Rob Parker is being presented the second annual JL Wilkinson “Innovator” Award. Parker joins former Major League players Ralph Garr, Gary Matthews, Sr., Reggie Smith, and Andre Thornton in the Class of 2026, and they will be inducted on Saturday, September 26 at the Gem Theater in Kansas City, MO.
The JL Wilkinson “Innovator” award is named after the only white owner of the original eight Negro League teams when the circuit was established in 1920. Wilkinson owned the Kansas City Monarchs, who are one of the greatest franchises in baseball history. The recognition is presented to someone with a hand in growing the game of baseball and developing initiatives to make the sport more accessible to underserved communities.
Parker has covered MLB for the last 40 years, starting as a Yankees and Mets beat reporter for the Daily News in his home state of New York as a 22-year-old. On April 1, 2021, Parker officially founded MLBbro.com, a website that covers Black and brown Major Leaguers. Less than two years later, Parker and MLBbro.com partnered with Major League Baseball. The site now has more than 75 employees, each working to shine light on Black players in MLB, which was always Parker’s goal.
“To say the least, I’m humbled to be honored by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum,” Parker said. “The mission of MLBbro.com is to tell the story of the Black and brown MLB player – both past and present.”
“To be recognized for all the hard work the staff has put in is simply amazing.”
In 1991, Parker became the first Black reporter to cover the Cincinnati Reds full-time for the Cincinnati Inquirer. He then became the first Black sports columnist at the Detroit Free Press in 1993, two years before Parker moved to a general sports columnist position at Newsday in New York, also being the first Black person to do so.
He is currently a co-host of “The Odd Couple” on Fox Sports Radio, which launched in 2018. After just six months of “The Odd Couple” airing only on weekends, Fox Sports promoted the show to a weekday timeslot. Parker also serves as an analyst on MLB Network and KNBC in Los Angeles.
Last October, Parker’s alma mater, Southern Connecticut State University, renamed its press box to the “Rob Parker Press Box” in his honor. He graduated from SCSU with a bachelor’s in Journalism and later earned a master’s in Journalism from Columbia University. Parker is also an adjunct professor at USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism.
He and the rest of the Class of 2026 will join names like Roberto Clemente, Ozzie Smith, Rickey Henderson, and Dwight Gooden in the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum’s Hall of Game, another prestigious honor in Parker’s career.
