Dick Allen … MVP

                                                                                                                               (John Iacono photo)                                     

Dick Allen – one of baseball’s all-time iconoclasts – is the runaway winner of the American League’s Most Valuable Player award 52 years ago today with 21 of a possible 24 first-place votes among American League beat writers.

Historians note the three other first-place votes in the 1972 balloting for AL MVP go to Oakland A’s left fielder Joe Rudi, New York Yankees relief pitcher Sparky Lyle and Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Mickey Lolich.

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.

Dick Allen batting at Comiskey Park in 1972

“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 in 1972,

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.