This has been a terrible year for baseball greats. The controversial slugger died today at the age of 78 after a long illness.
Allen, who was the NL Rookie of the Year for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1964 and the AL MVP for the Chicago White Sox in 1972, was frequently criticized for his “attitude” — code word for an African-American player who “didn’t know his place” — but there was no denying his offensive credentials. Over the past several years, his name came for consideration for the Hall of Fame through the Veteran Committee.
According to the obituary in the Chicago Tribune
Attendance at Comiskey had fallen below 500,000 in 1970 and was barely over 830,000 when Allen joined a team that hadn’t won a pennant since 1959 and finished 22½ games out of first place in ’71.
But he helped rejuvenate the club on the field and at the gate in 1972 on his way to being named the American League’s Most Valuable Player. Allen batted .308 with a league-leading 37 home runs, 113 RBIs, 99 walks and a .603 slugging percentage, and he led the majors with a .420 on-base percentage, 1.023 OPS and 199 OPS plus.
A seven-time All-Star, Allen also played one season with the St. Louis Cardinals (1970) and LA Dodgers (1971) before joining the White Sox for whom he played for three years. He was traded to the Atlanta Braves after the ’74 season but never played for them, returning to the Phillies in May 1975. He signed with the Oakland As as a free agent in 1977 to cap off his 15-year career.
Allen published his memoirs, Crash: The Life and Times of Dick Allen
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is available on Amazon.com,
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