Dick Allen is on the Classic Baseball Era Non-Players Committee Ballot (doesn’t that roll off the tongue so much better than Veteran’s Committee?).
Allen played 15 years (from 1963 to 1977) in the MLB for the Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers, White Sox, Phillies again and A’s. For 11 of those years, he was just a fantastic player.
He received MVP votes seven times and won once. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1964 and an All-Star seven times.
Career he hit .292/.378/.534 with 351 home runs and a 58.7 bWAR.
He had power and speed (133 steals) and could take a walk.
Allen was out of baseball at 35, which didn’t allow him to build the totals that baseball writers like to see when they vote on Hall of Famers. He also played at a time when offensive numbers were very low. At one point, the mound was lowered to try to level the battle between pitchers and batters.
Defensively, he wasn’t good. In 1964, he led the NL in errors, with 41, while playing third base. I remember the hard time we gave Edwin Encarnacion, who topped out at 18 for the Jays. Allen was moved to the outfield and then first base (where he was still at or near the top of the league in errors).
Allen, well, he came up to baseball at a time when there was a ton of racism (not that there is a time when there hasn’t been a ton of racism). And he wasn’t the type to take an insult quietly. And, of course, baseball writers were old and white and liked players to stay quiet about such things.
Phillies fans were willing to express their opinions about the team’s black player. He had things thrown at him a lot. He would wear his batting helmet in the field. Allen finally demanded a trade to get away from the Phillies fanbase, but the Cardinals outfielder Curt Flood refused to go to Philadelphia and he ended up suing baseball, trying to become a free agent.
Injuries, drinking issues, and perhaps the inability to accept insults with a smile shortened Allen’s career.
Teammates and managers generally had good things to say about Allen. It sounds like he was considered a good teammate.
He passed away in 2022.