DALLAS — Dick Allen was one of the most prolific sluggers of his era. He oozed swag and cool, marched to a beat of his own percussion and famously graced a cover of Sports Illustrated in 1972 juggling baseballs and smoking a cigarette in the White Sox’ dugout at Comiskey Park.
It was a season that saw him win the American League Most Valuable Player Award after he carried a rejuvenated White Sox team through a division pennant race with the three-time World Series champion Oakland Athletics, one that went a long way to getting Allen, who died in 2020, voted into the Hall of Fame Sunday by the Classic Baseball Era Committee.
Pirates outfielder Dave Parker was also elected Sunday night at the Winter Meetings in Dallas.
Family members and friends joined in a jubilant embrace after the selection was announced.
From 1964-74, among players with 2,000 or more plate appearances, Allen produced a 165 OPS+. That number topped a Hall of Fame list that includes Willie McCovey, Frank Robinson, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Willie Stargell, Reggie Jackson, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays and Harmon Killebrew below him.
OPS+ takes a player’s on-base plus slugging percentage and normalizes the number across the entire league, accounting for external factors such as ballparks.
Allen played for five teams from 1963-77, spending nine seasons with the Phillies while collecting 351 home runs, 1,119 RBI and a .292/.378/.534 batting line with a .912 OPS. He was named the 1972 AL Most Valuable Player and the 1964 NL Rookie of the Year, with seven career All-Star selections. In addition to the MVP honor, he won NL Rookie of the Year honors with the Phillies in 1964 and made seven All-Star teams.
A corner infielder, and while not a base stealer, Allen was a superb baserunner.
Only two seasons removed from the Sox going 56-106 before 495,355 home fans, the Sox acquired Allen in a trade with the Dodgers for John, creating a prosperous pairing Sox manager Chuck Tanner. Allen was lauded for his professionalism and for a being a good teammate.
Allen, who played 15 seasons for the Sox, Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers and Athletics, was one of eight finalists considered by a 16-person committee of managers, umpires, executives and long-retired players The other candidates on the Golden Era Committee ballot were former Sox Ken Boyer and Tommy John, Steve Garvey, Dave Parker and Luis Tiant, and Negro League stars John Donaldson and Vic Harris.
In 14 tries on the Hall of Fame ballot, Allen never got more than 18.9% of the vote from the Baseball Writers Association of America. He finished one vote shy of induction the last two times he was on the committee ballots. He needed 75% of the vote from the 16-member committee.