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Dick Allen dies
craig44
Posts: 13,004 ✭✭✭✭✭
in Sports Talk
78 years old. A fearsome hitter
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
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I really didn't see him play as he retired right as I was getting into the players, etc. But, when putting together a graded 1975 Topps AS card set, I really liked his card that year. And from what I've read , he had incredible natural power. RIP, Mr. Allen.
May he RIP.
Dick Allen had one of the sweetest swings i ever saw, and helped win a lot of games for the Phillies.
RIP
An almost great player who could have been more. RIP.
I've only read stories, but why did Philadelphia fans dislike him so much? Was it a purely racial thing or something else? I know he had the reputation of having a bad attitude in the locker room but I read where Mike Schmidt and others have said that was not true.
Tough player. Lots of power.
Nobody liked Allen, but I don't know exactly why. He got let go by enough teams that I have to assume there were good reasons. But Allen was great - not near great, not very, very good, but just plain great. If you check out the OPS+ leaders on baseball reference, you can see his face sandwiched between Tris Speaker above him and Willie Mays below him; he was that great.
RIP, and a chance to post the greatest SI cover of all time:
Is that a cigarette in his mouth? LOL
Damn right it is! That's what makes that cover so awesome. There's cool and there's juggling and smoking in a major league dugout in the middle of the greatest offensive season of a generation cool.
He was going to be voted on this Sunday, but they postponed the voting until winter 2021 because of covid. He just missed getting elected the last time by one vote. So, my guess is he will be a Hall of famer here in a few more months. Its sad that he now wont be able to go through the happiness of getting elected. Some of these voters are complete morons.
2025 SEC bowl record 4-10
SEC bowl record vs BIG TEN last two years 2-8
@dallasactuary That is a great cover! Thanks for posting it.
Mays and Speaker were way ahead of Allen. Willie Mays was ahead of Speaker IMO. Mays was an outstanding outfielder who was second to Hank Aaron for lifetime home runs when he retired. Speaker was a great outfielder who had a higher batting average when averages were higher.
I did not fully understand the racial situation, as a teenager, in Philadelphia in the mid 1960s. Curt Flood refused to play there. Allen had differences with another player on the Phillies. He demanded to be called “Dick”, not “Richie” because “Richie” sounded “like a kid.” Then he was traded. Later he came back to the
Phillies, but it didn’t work out.
Allen had a lot of talent, but he was a head case at times too. As I said, he was highly talented player who could have been better.
I think I'd rather be called Richie. No disrespect intended.
I see nothing wrong with the name Bobby. Why don't you like your name?
RIP
There's a great story about Dick in the book "Cult Baseball Players: The Greats, the Flakes, the Weird, and the Wonderful ".
I think it was written by Jim Kaat.
They were, mostly because they were great fielders and they played a lot longer than Allen. But just as a hitter, and just for a decade or so, Allen was right up there with them.
For an 11 year period (1964 through 1974), Dick Allen was the best player in baseball. He is the only player in MLB history (who didn't cheat or get banned) who can make that claim who did not sail in to the HOF on his first ballot. All of the others are, and deserve to be, household names; the pantheon of major league baseball. There are reasons why Allen doesn't belong in that group, but his hitting is not among them.
And he did one thing that none of the others ever did: he juggled baseballs in the dugout with a motherfriggin' cigarette in his mouth in the middle of an MVP season. He should be in the HOF just for that.
He wore a batting helmet while playing first base. Cool.
I read today that he did that because unruly fans threw bottles and stuff at him. I wonder if that is true? It wouldn't shock me in Philadelphia. They have some pretty rowdy fans there. I don't know why they hated him so much though.
It's true.
I wish he had gotten into the HOF last time. Sad they seem to like to wait until players pass
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Why?
So he could have enjoyed the honor while he was still alive.
I don't think it would have mattered all that much to him. Very likely he would not have attended the induction ceremony. He knew who he was and what he had accomplished. He didn't need the accolades. He was that kind of a man. I always respected him for his independent attitude. More so than for his baseball skills. I still do. R.I.P., Dick.
I think you hit it right "on the head"!
They blamed him for Frank Thomas being released by the Phillies. Thomas & Allen got in a fight that featured Thomas hitting Allen in the shoulder with a bat. Thomas got released while the Phillies refused to let Allen tell his side of the story. The fans blamed Allen and it escalated from there.
Then, in 1969, Allen missed a doubleheader because he went to a horse race and then "got stuck in traffic".
His tenure with the White Sox ended when he walked out with a couple of weeks left in the season apparently because of a feud with Ron Santo.
Thanks for the insight! I guess he was a troubled guy but may he rest in peace now.
I think Allen's HOF chances would have been better, too, had the Phillies pitching (as mishandled by Gene Mauch) hadn't epically collapsed to close the 1964 season. Boyer got the MVP because the Cardinals won the pennant, but Allen would have won it had the Phillies not lost 10 straight to blow it. Allen hit .415 and slugged .634 during that infamous 10-game losing streak, accumulating 0% of the blame. It's also highly likely that the Phillies would have won the WS that year, something Allen never came close to having the opportunity to do again.
Bill James, in his all-time ranking of first basemen, ranked Allen 15th. But James absolutely despised Allen, and his ranking formula included a "fudge factor" that he used to drop Allen way down the list. Had he just ranked them by formula, and left the "fudge factor" out of it, Allen would have ranked second, behind only Gehrig, and ahead of Foxx, Greenberg, Murray, McCovey, etc. By all accounts he was a SOB, but he was also one of the hitters ever.
True story. My mother's cousin, who is my first cousin one removed? 🤪🤔, married a guy named Richard. Richard's first born son was also named Richard. I grew up close to these cousins, as had my mother. The father was a real big guy. Great guy (RIP). I hadn't seen my cousin in maybe two decades, sadly, when I saw him at my Aunt's funeral service a few years ago. We used to distinguish between father and son by using Big and Little before the name that everyone called them. In conversation with my mother, mentioned casually but perhaps with intent before the services, my mother said "Here comes your cousin Rich" and then whispered that he goes by 'Rich' now.
I certainly don't blame him!
I cant believe Dallas just referenced batting average
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.