Phillies great Dick Allen voted into Hall of Fame
Late Phillies great Dick Allen, after years of waiting from his family, teammates and supporters, will finally be a Hall of Famer.
Allen was one of two players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Classic Baseball Era Committee, the Hall of Fame announced Sunday night. In his third chance on a Veterans Committee ballot since 2014, Allen finally reached enshrinement.
“I am overjoyed that the Classic Baseball Era Committee has recognized that Dick is worthy of being immortalized in the Baseball Hall of Fame,” Phillies owner John Middleton said in a statement. “It has been a long time coming. The Phillies look forward to celebrating this honor with Dick’s family.”
Allen received 13 of 16 votes to earn election to the Hall of Fame, while former outfielder Dave Parker was also elected with 14 votes. The remainder of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025 will be announced on Jan. 21 as the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s vote is revealed.
The right-handed slugger was the 1964 National League Rookie of the Year, the 1972 American League MVP and a seven-time All-Star in his career. Philadelphia’s first Black superstar, he was a trailblazer in the sport of baseball, a tantalizing talent and one of the most productive players of his era. Allen, who died in 2020, will be posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on July 27, 2025, in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Allen played nine of his 15 seasons with the Phillies across two stints in Philadelphia. After making his big-league debut with the team in 1963, he burst onto the scene in his dominant 1964 rookie campaign, posting a .939 OPS, hitting 29 home runs and leading the majors in triples and runs scored. Through 1969, Allen dazzled with a level of show-stopping power that had not yet been seen at Connie Mack Stadium.
He excelled despite the racism he endured in Philadelphia. Fans taunted him and yelled slurs. They threw objects at him, forcing him to wear a batting helmet in the field. The media portrayed him as a disruptor. Allen continued to perform.
“I’d seen him play,” Mark Carfagno, a former Phillies groundskeeper who befriended Allen and has managed a campaign calling for his induction into the Hall of Fame, said. “I’d seen all the racism that he was subjected to. I’d seen them throw stones, batteries and they threw bottles back then. They even threw a smoke bomb at him. So to be able to play with all that adversity, how did he concentrate? How did he do that? But he did. He played. He played.”
Allen was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1970 and he played for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1971. He landed with the White Sox in 1972 and exploded in his first year in Chicago with 37 home runs and a 1.023 OPS in his MVP season. He played three All-Star seasons with the White Sox before returning to the Phillies in 1975 and 1976, mentoring players like Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt and other members of the core that won the 1980 World Series. Allen wrapped up his career with the Oakland Athletics in 1977.
With 351 career home runs and a 58.7 career WAR, Allen’s totals don’t tell the story as well as some of the other stats. Allen had a 165 OPS+ from 1964 to 1974, the best mark of all qualified hitters during that stretch. His career 156 OPS+ ranks 25th in major-league history. Allen’s prime was fairly short and he didn’t play for the longest time, but those numbers show he produced as well as anybody during his day.
Still, Allen never came close to reaching the 75% threshold needed for Hall of Fame election in his 15 years on the BBWAA ballot. He received 3.7% of the vote in his first year on the ballot in 1983 and peaked at 18.9%. Allen was also on the Golden Era Committee ballot in December 2014 and December 2021, and he missed out on election by a single vote both times. It seemed that some of the negative characterizations of Allen from his career continued to follow him and affect his chances of making the Hall of Fame for years.
Schmidt pushed back against the criticisms of his former teammate in a speech at Allen’s number retirement ceremony held by the Phillies, describing him as “a sensitive Black man who refused to be treated as a second-class citizen.”
“My friends, these labels have kept Dick Allen out of the Hall of Fame,” Schmidt said in 2020. “Imagine what Dick could’ve accomplished as a player in another era, on another team, left alone to hone his skills, to be confident, to come to the ballpark every day and just play baseball.”
Although it took some time, nothing could ultimately keep Allen and his contributions to baseball out of Cooperstown.
“What a tremendous, well-deserved honor for my friend Dick who has always been a Hall of Famer to me,” former teammate Larry Bowa said in a statement. “He meant so much to the Phillies organization throughout the years. His experience and leadership were instrumental in the development of players like Schmidt, Bob Boone, Greg Luzinski, Gary Maddox and myself. He taught me how to play the game the right way. I am elated that he is finally going into the Hall of Fame.”
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