John Parker · 2005 Honoree

John Parker grew up in the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest D.C. playing  pick-up football and baseball in the alleys near his home; he was a high school athlete and at the University of Maryland he majored in physical education and played non-roster fall baseball (he had a “good glove but no bat.”) When he was drafted in 1970 John was quickly recruited to play intra-Army fast pitch softball for Fort Dix. And after that he taught high school science and coached baseball; he then went to Gallaudet University where he spent thirteen years as athletic director. John also picked up a Master’s degree in physical education from American University. By the late eighties he was feeling burned out on highly organized, competitive sports. He had moved to the Hill and loved the houses here. So he went into real estate.

In 1992 John joined the Don Denton real estate office and it wasn’t long before his past caught up with him. The children’s summer baseball and softball league the firm sponsors was in need of leadership and he was asked to take it on. After initially declining, John agreed to become the commissioner and he has been on the go ever since. The league that started with 10 teams has expanded to the point that now there are now a total of about 400 children from ages 4 to 16 involved in summer leagues for T-ball, softball and baseball. The younger children compete against each other, the teams of older kids compete city-wide as part of the Babe Ruth League and the Senators, the girls’ 16 and under slow pitch softball team, is ranked nationally. One of the 9 and 10 year old teams won the city championship in 2002.

John is quick to credit others with the astonishing success of the program. Brett Summers, a neighbor he met dog-walking in Lincoln Park, “was my partner in crime in those early days. He did 99% of the work.” Parent volunteers help in many ways from coaching to managing teams to grooming the fields. Talented young Hill staffers have signed on as coaches. The business community has been “incredibly generous” with financial contributions that sponsor teams, providing them with quality uniforms and a strong sense of community support. And the team members themselves, he says, are not just good ball players, “they are nice kids.”

But the league could not function without leadership and, as commissioner, John provides that along with his own enthusiasm and philosophical sense of what participating in sports can do for young and old alike. “I know it’s a cliché,” he says, “but the skills you develop in sports transfer to life. You have good years and you have lean years. You can dwell on disappointment or you can put it behind you; any game can change completely at half-time.” John is thankful that, as a child, he had sports to rescue him from a sometimes difficult home life, to give him structure and allow him to build up faith in himself. He sees the opportunity for their children to participate in neighborhood sports as one of the elements attracting young families to the Hill and keeping them here.

The real estate market on the Hill has “come back with a vengeance” and that plus the summer league keep John pretty busy. He finds time for working out at Results three times a week, for ice skating at Fort Dupont in the winter and tennis when it’s warm. And, needless to say, this summer whenever he isn’t watching our kids play he’ll be at RFK rooting for the Nationals.