Dick Allen … MVP

Sports Illustrated photo, 1972

Dick Allen – one of baseball’s all-time rebels – is the runaway winner of the American League’s Most Valuable Player award 51 years ago today with 21 of a possible 24 first-place votes among American League beat writers.

All Allen does for the Chicago White Sox in 1972 is hit .308 while leading the league in homers with 37, runs batted in at 113, walks with 99, on-base percentage at .420 and slugging percentage at .603.

“He was the finest athlete I’ve ever seen on the field,” White Sox manager Chuck Tanner says of Allen.

Only Rod Carew’s leading-leading .318 batting average for Minnesota and Lou Piniella’s .312 average for Kansas City keep Allen from winning the Triple Crown.

Allen’s impact on the field helps the White Sox fill the stands at Comiskey Park, where more than a million fans turn out in each of Allen’s three seasons with the White Sox from 1972-74.

Prior to Allen’s arrival, the White Sox draw only 833,891 fans for home games in 1971 after attracting only 495,355 in 1970.

“He gave us great years,” White Sox general manager Roland Hemond later says. “He made it fun. Attendance had been down for years. … Dick got them out to the ballpark again.”

Perhaps not so coincidentally, the White Sox’s attendance plummets to 750,802 in 1975 after Chicago sends Allen to Atlanta for cash and a player to be named later, which turns to be journeyman catcher Jim Essian after Allen refuses to report to the Braves.