When Richard Parsakian walked into PNC Park this past Friday, it was the first time he’d been to a baseball game in 40 years. But he didn’t go straight to his section. He was here, as Pride Night began its third decade, to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
The Pirates’ annual celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community is 21 years old, embracing inclusivity on and off the field. For patrons who were here for the event as much as for the game, Parsakian is as familiar a name as McCutchen, Reynolds or Cruz — not just a team player, but a captain.
He’s the owner of Eons Fashion Antique, in Shadyside, bringing vintage pieces to stage and screen productions and to the public. He co-founded the city’s first gay newspaper and was instrumental in assembling talent for early versions of the city’s Pride Month festival; he’s designed costumes for theater, led fashion extravaganzas, and curated dance performances; and he’s a pivotal figure as an activist and supporter of countless causes.
Parsakian is such an established pillar of multiple communities that it’s a surprise he wasn’t here sooner.
'My high school trauma'
But for Parsakian, the surprise was in being asked at all. Most of his experience with baseball as an adult had come in 2008, designing costumes for barebones productions’ staging of “Take Me Out,” Richard Greenberg’s play about the chaos that ensues when a player for a fictional MLB team goes public with his sexual identity.
Parsakian is a fit 76 (he says 66 in gay years). But of his experiences with the game that don’t follow a script, he said, “This is my high school trauma.”
Growing up in Troy, N.Y., he was horrible at sports. “Always the last one to be picked for the team,” he says. “Always the first one to be hit in dodgeball.” He was most proficient at apologizing for his lack of ability. “My word all the time was sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.”
When he received this invite, via Allies for Health’s Mary Beth Wyko, he was perplexed, so much so that he posted about it on social media, saying, “I just can’t.”
But everybody else thought he could, and hundreds of folks offered an outpouring of encouragement. Theater friends Lucas Fedele and barebones’ Patrick Jordan both volunteered to coach. The instruction and support pushed the needle partway to yes; Parsakian’s realization of what he could bring to it sealed the deal. “I came to understand that not only was it an honor to be asked, but it was a way that I could honor friends and communities.”
One for the team
That started, appropriately enough for a boutique owner, with a shirt. All ceremonial pitchers receive jerseys emblazoned with their name and the number of their choice. Parsakian chose “3,” to honor Glenn Burke. This Black Dodgers outfielder was the first player to come out as gay, following his retirement from the MLB in 1982. He later competed in the Gay Olympics and the San Francisco Gay Softball League.
For his catcher, Parsakian benched the standard Pirate Parrot and brought in Lisa Palko, a player on the LGBTQ Steel City Softball League the Growlers. (Parsakian is a team sponsor.) He dedicated the moment to two late friends: activist Danny Garvin, featured in the documentary “Stonewall Uprising,” and singer-songwriter Jill Sobule.
“I couldn’t do it if I looked at it as about me,” he said. “I could when it was about something bigger than me.”
Parsakian had two practice sessions at Mellon Park last week. With Fedele, he threw 140 pitches; Fedele praised this as an entire game’s worth. With Jordan came more positive reinforcement in promises that “the crowd will go wild!” and drawings of Parsakian in action from Jordan’s young daughter, Pepper.
Then it was game day.
Parsakian arrived early with Palko, her two adopted sons in tow to join them on the field. “I could not have been more welcome,” Parsakian said, praising the kindness of the Pirates representatives including president Travis Williams, who made a point of introducing himself. Williams has children active in theater. “He gets the arts,” Parsakian said.
Rain delayed the game and Parsakian looked for a place to warm up. The players were already “rehearsing in the practice rooms,” as he put it. With the bullpens occupied, he found a tunnel and threw a few that went exactly as he wanted.
Eventually the sky cleared up, and he was on. Palko took her position, her sons at her sides. And from spot about 36 feet from home plate, Parsakian sent one right into the strike zone.
As daylight faded at the top of the second inning, the Roberto Clemente Bridge illuminated and glowed, a rainbow in neon. Parsakian sat back with friends, work complete, to take in his first game in decades.
The Pirates won.
