Remembering Dick Allen

Dick Allen was too often tagged with negative words -- such "angry," "lazy" and "troublemaker." The Phillies first black superstar built a prolific career in a time when racism was still present in baseball and the media. He overcame hate, sometimes inflicted by his own teammates, sometimes from members of the team's front office.

No one should ever doubt his skills -- from 1964 to '74, he ranked with the most feared hitters in baseball, someone other teams didn't want to face in crunch time. In a time of smaller offensive numbers, he averaged 31 homers and 95 RBIs over those 11 seasons, hitting .299 with an OPS of .940. Sounds like a Hall of Famer to me -- but not the Cooperstown voters, who never gave him even 20% of the vote during his years of eligibility.

What were they thinking? While it's easy to say that Allen was never the media's favorite player, should that have so swayed their thinking? And don't blame him for the Phils infamous late season 1964 collapse. During that 10-game slide, be batted .417. 

Increasingly unhappy as the years and the losing continued in Philadelphia, Allen moved onto the Cardinals and Dodgers, before finding a second home with the White Sox, where he won an MVP and regained his place among the game's biggest stars.

There was a late-career return to the Phillies, but at age 33, his tank was nearly empty. In 1976, he and the Phils finally tasted the post-season, but were swept in the NLCS by the eventual champion Reds. 

More recently, under different ownership and management, the Phillies and Allen overcame their animosity. He was welcomed back to Alumni Weekend (the above photo is from 2015), and the Phils joined the chorus urging the Veterans Committee to induct him to the Hall of Fame. One year, he missed by one vote -- but hopes were high that this year's vote would finally bring him the honor he deserved.

Phils owner John Middleton and franchise icon Mike Schmidt pushed for Allen's number-15 to be retired. The ceremony occurred in September; no fans were on hand.

Then, the hope was snatched away. Word began to spread that Allen's health was failing -- and the Hall decided that instead of the traditional in-person session for the voters to consider Old Timers, it had to be postponed. In the year baseball survived without fans and with media contact limited zoom sessions, a virtual meeting was not appropriate for a Hall of Fame discussion and vote. It would have to wait.

But Dick Allen did have the time to wait. He died of cancer Monday at age 78.