Late legend Dick Allen set for long-awaited Hall of Fame honor
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PHILADELPHIA -- Dick Allen's family members, former teammates and coaches have long-considered him a Hall of Famer, despite the honor somehow eluding him for decades.
The wait will finally come to end on July 27, when Allen is posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
“It's a load off my mind and off my back," Allen's son, Dick Jr., said at the time of his father's induction. "He never talked about it. He always felt other people were more deserving. ... I was like, 'No, your numbers are just [as] good. You should be there. You should be there.' He’d say, 'I'm all right, I'm all right.'"
Despite Allen's pushback, his son had a point.
Over a 15-year career, Allen slashed .292/.378/.534 with 351 home runs, 1,119 RBIs, a .912 OPS and a 156 OPS+. He spent the majority of that time with the Phillies, though he also played for the White Sox, Cardinals, Dodgers and A's.
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Allen led his league in OPS four times, slugging percentage three times, on-base percentage and homers two times, and triples, RBIs, runs and walks once.
From 1964-74, he accounted for 58.3 WAR, per Baseball Reference. That was just ahead of Hall of Famer Willie Mays for sixth among all position players over that 11-year span. The only five players ahead of Allen were Hank Aaron (68.7), Carl Yastrzemski (68.2), Roberto Clemente (64.7), Ron Santo (60.1) and Brooks Robinson (59.2) -- all Hall of Famers in their own right. The top 10 is rounded out by Pete Rose (57.9) and Hall of Famers Frank Robinson (55.4) and Joe Morgan (54.1).
And it wasn't just the numbers. Allen had the accolades, too.
He won the 1964 National League Rookie of the Year Award with the Phils and the 1972 American League MVP Award with the White Sox. He received MVP votes in six other seasons. He was a seven-time All-Star.
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In 2014, Hall of Fame closer and former teammate Goose Gossage told USA Today that Allen was "the greatest player I’ve ever seen play in my life."
"The guy belongs in the Hall of Fame," Gossage said at the time.
That same year, Allen fell one vote shy of induction on the Golden Era Committee ballot. Following Allen's death in December 2020, there was hope that he would be inducted when the Golden Days Era Committee reconvened in '21 ... but he again came up one vote short.
It wasn't until this past voting cycle that the Classic Baseball Era Committee finally elected Allen, alongside Dave Parker, who will also receive the honor posthumously after passing away less than a month before the HOF ceremony. Sharing the same induction weekend is not the only tie-in for Allen and the former Pirates legend known as “The Cobra.”
"He really enjoyed him," Allen Jr. said years ago of Parker. "Actually, Dave gave me a glove. I still have it. It has the 'Cobra 39' on it."
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Allen and Parker will take their rightful place in Cooperstown as part of the Class of 2025, which also features Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner. That trio was elected via the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot.
Despite the HOF-worthy statistics, Allen never gained much traction in his initial 15 years on the BBWAA ballot during the 1980s and 1990s. A lot of that stemmed from the narrative that he was too brash on the field and in the clubhouse -- but much of that was in response to the racism he was dealing with throughout his career that spanned from 1963-77.
“I wonder how good I could have been,” Allen wrote in his memoir 'Crash.' “It could have been a joy, a celebration. Instead, I played angry. In baseball, if a couple things go wrong for you, and those things get misperceived, or distorted, you get a label. I was labeled an outlaw, and after a while, that’s what I became.”
It wasn't quite Cooperstown, but Allen did enjoy one particularly special celebration on Sept. 3, 2020, when the Phillies retired his No. 15 jersey in a ceremony at Citizens Bank Park.
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Until Allen, that was an honor the Phillies had reserved strictly for players enshrined in Cooperstown.
"Dick, your brilliance has compelled me to change our long-standing policy," Phillies managing partner John Middleton said that day. " ... You richly deserve this honor, Dick. You have earned it -- and no one can ever take this away from you."
The same can now, finally, be said for Allen’s well-deserved plaque in Cooperstown.