In my opinion, the bespectacled slugger is among the five best hitters in baseball history to remain outside the Hall of Fame, along with Shoeless Joe, Pete Rose, Barry Bonds and Ross Barnes.
Because he played in the second deadball era and his career was relatively short, the less scholarly baseball fans don’t know just how good Allen was. I will direct you to the baseball-reference section on lifetime OPS+, which adjusts the hitting performance of players based on their era and their specific ballparks. You will notice that Dick is rated just higher than four guys you may have heard of: Hank Aaron, The Big Hurt, Willie Mays and Joe DiMaggio.
In the exact same category as Aaron, Mays and DiMag? That’s not in the “pretty good” category. It’s in the “very best of tier one” category. He was the best hitter in baseball for a span of ten years, 1964-1973, and he was the AL MVP in 1972. That sumbitch could flat-out rake.
And he did so with Mantle-like power. On July 6, 1974, he smashed one into the roof facade in left center field at Tiger Stadium. The spot where it landed was 415 feet from home plate and 85 feet in the air.
So why isn’t he in the Hall? Well, he was not a friendly man. He didn’t get along with the press. He got into fights with teammates. He had a serious drinking problem. He was once found at the racetrack when his team was supposed to be playing. He missed team flights and buses. He sometimes wouldn’t take batting practice or play in exhibition games. He had a reputation as a quitter.
Whose fault was all of that? He gets some blame. External forces get some as well. He was pushed hard by fans (especially in Philly), by sportswriters and by racist assholes in general – and he was not one to suffer that gladly. This article at the Bill James site covers Allen’s bad behavior in a reasonably objective manner, summing it all up with, “We tend to think that Dick Allen’s failings are the failing of the larger society, while his successes are the triumphs of a courageous but flawed individual.”
And his defense was as bad as his offense was good, which is kind of surprising for a guy who originally played shortstop in the minors. But he just never got the hang of defense. My grandmother used to say of my grandpa that he spoke six languages, all poorly. Dick Allen was like that. He played six positions poorly. Maybe seven. There’s no official record of him in right field, but I bet he got out there a few times and bungled just as badly as he did everywhere else. (Outfield innings by exact position were not always recorded diligently.)
So should he be in the Hall? As my man Dalton used to say, “Opinions vary.” But the current of history is flowing in his direction. I think he will make it some day, perhaps very soon. His hitting feats will endure in the record books, even as the bad memories fade.
Here’s a more accurate picture of Dick Allen 🙂
The man should be in a Phillies uniform!
He was legendary for his bat speed and power. Players used to say the ball came off his bat like a knuckleball and was really hard to catch. Look at his triples count. When he swung the bat it would start out with the head almost pointing at the pitcher, then he would snap it around and hit the ball. It was unreal. Also he played many years before they lowered the mound in ’69. In 1968 a whopping .301 average led the AL!
I was living in Chicagoland in the 1972, so I have fond memories of Allen, Chuck Tanner, Wilber Wood, Carlos May, etc I always liked the Sox much more than the Cubs and their annoying fans.
Give me a break. He didn’t hit a lifetime .300, he didn’t get even 2000 hits and he didn’t get even 400 home runs. New gen stats (OPS+) cannot overcome his paltry totals in the traditional hitting categories. He was terrible on defense and his intangibles are all negative.
His “paltry hitting totals” in that era are relatively better than Sammy Sosa’s or Raphael Palmiero’s in the steroid era, thus the value of OPS+, which removes our blinders. His slugging average in the 1964-73 period was the second highest in baseball, behind only Hank Aaron, and he had a better on-base percentage than Aaron. And he did hit the ball incredible distances.
Here’s a look at his prime 1964-1973, compared to all of his exact contemporaries (born within three years in either direction). As you can see, he was a much better hitter than many guys who are in the Hall of Fame for their hitting prowess. He was clearly a better hitter than Yaz or Santo or Perez.
There’s really not any doubt about his credentials as a hitter. Anybody with a better OPS+ than Mays or DiMaggio was just spectacularly good.
But all those negatives you specified are real, so … who knows?
I’m pretty sure he will get in eventually. I’m not so sure that he deserves it.
Two things ~ yes he was, how shall is say, moody. And he used an extremely heavy sized bat ie Babe Ruth, so when he connected look out!
He marched to the beat of his own drummer, much like myself. 😛
He was always one of my heroes mainly because he was such a rebel. He plays one year as a St. Louis Cardinal in my childhood. One of the most memorable Sports Illustrated covers was of him as a White Sox player in 1972….he’s juggling three balls and smoking a cigarette in front of the dugout.