To Absent Friends - Richie Allen

Richie Allen

1942 - 2020

One of the great baseball players of the 1960's and 1970's, and certainly one of the greatest to ever come from western Pennsylvania, Richie Allen from Wampum, PA (Beaver County), died today at the age of 78.

One of the yardsticks that I use in judging how great a player is is "Who would I least want to see coming up to bat against the Pirates in a close game in the ninth inning?"  By that measure, Richie, or Dick, as he preferred to be called, ranks high on any Great-Players-of-the-Era lists.  Over a fifteen year career, mainly with the Phillies and White Sox, Allen hit .292, hit 351 home runs and drove in 1,119 runs and had a career OPS of .912.  He was the American League MVP in 1972.  Pro-rated per 162 games, Allen hit 33 HR with 104 RBI.  He had an OPS over 1.000 in three different seasons, and five other seasons over .900.  Would you be interested in that to anchor your line-up?

Allen was also controversial.  He was branded a "militant" and a "trouble maker."  And who can forget his famous opinion of artificial turf?  "If a horse can't eat it" said avid racetrack aficionado Allen "then I don't want to play on it."  He was an iconoclast to be sure, as exemplified by the Sports Illustrated cover:

He had his enemies and his defenders.  At two different SABR meetings in Pittsburgh over the years, I heard both sides.  Chuck Tanner, who managed him in Chicago, defended him to the highest, and said he was one of the best players, on and off the field, that he ever managed, a great guy.  On the other hand, Nellie Briles, who played with him on the Cardinals, said he was one of the worst teammates that he ever had, and almost shuddered when he even mentioned his name.

Regardless of the truth, which no doubt lies somewhere in the middle here, Allen was one of the true stars of the times in which he played.

RIP Dick Allen.

Allen at Three Rivers Stadium with 

another well known star of the era.