Philly’s superstar
The scoreboard at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium proclaims during the 1976 season what Phillies fans already know in a tribute to first baseman Dick Allen during his final season with the team.
Allen, who last night joins Dave Parker as the newest members of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025, plays nine of his 15 seasons with the Phillies, for whom he hits 204 of his 351 career home runs.
Twenty-nine of those homers come during the 1964 season, which ends with Allen being the runaway choice for the National League’s rookie of the year award with 18 of a possible 20 first-place votes.
The other two votes that season go to Milwaukee Braves outfielder Rico Carty and San Francisco Giants third baseman Jim Ray Hart.
Allen first plays for the Phillies from 1963-69, by which time he and the team are heading for a bitter divorce that ends with Philadelphia trading Allen to St. Louis after the 1969 season in a deal that includes catcher Tim McCarver and center fielder Curt Flood – well, at least, Flood’s rights – coming to Philadelphia.
Allen stays in St. Louis for one season before the Cardinals regift him after the 1970 season to Los Angeles for second baseman Ted Sizemore.
The Dodgers then keep Allen for just one season before repackaging him to the Chicago White Sox for pitcher Tommy John.
Dick Allen in 1972 with the White Sox
John also is on the latest veterans’ committee ballot that last night that leads to the 2025 Hall of Fame induction of Allen and Parker.
Allen stays in Chicago for three seasons, winning the American League’s most valuable player award in 1972.
Eventually, Allen and the Phillies reconcile and reunite early in the 1975 season.
In his second and last stop in Philadelphia, a declining Allen over the 1975-76 seasons hits just 27 home runs in 204 games for a team that includes future Hall of Famers Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt and Jim Kaat.
Prior to last night’s announcement, Allen comes close, but narrowly comes up short, on previous veterans’ committee votes prior to his death in 2020.
“I scouted 90,000 players in my lifetime,” longtime Phillies scout John Ogden once says. “Dick Allen was the greatest I ever saw.”