Voting Station

Dick Allen

Please vote to return to collections.

Baseball Player

The Resume

    (March 8, 1942-December 7, 2020)
    Born in Wampum, Pennsylvania
    First baseman, third baseman, and outfielder
    Played for the Philadelphia Phillies (1963-69,1975-76), St. Louis Cardinals (1970), Los Angeles Dodgers (1971), Chicago White Sox (1972-74), and Oakland Athletics (1977)
    .292 batting average
    351 home runs
    1,119 RBIs
    Seven-time All-Star (1965-67,1970,1972-74)
    NL Rookie of the Year (1964)
    AL MVP (1972)

Why he might be annoying:

    He twice led the NL in errors (1964,1967).
    He twice led the NL in strikeouts (1964-65).
    When he was named Rookie of the Year, he said, ‘So what? No money goes along with that award, does it? If they put ten or eleven thousand dollars in a pot and gave it to the Rookie of the Year, I might be interested.’
    He got into a fight before a game with Frank Thomas (July 3, 1965) that resulted in Thomas being traded and enduring fan hostility towards Allen.
    He was one of the first players to wear his batting helmet while in the field due to the frequent barrages of projectiles thrown at him by Phillies fans.
    He was suspended after failing to show up at a doubleheader against the Mets (June 24, 1969), then disappeared for 26 days, finally ending his holdout when the Phillies agreed to trade him at the end of the season.
    He fell one vote short of being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee (2014).

Why he might not be annoying:

    Local residents held protest marches against him when he became the first black player on the Phillies’ minor league affiliate in Little Rock (1964).
    Phillies scout John Ogden said that Allen was the only player he ever saw who could hit the ball as hard as Babe Ruth.
    The Phillies ignored his personal wishes and referred to him as ‘Richie’ in their promotional materials. (‘It makes me sound like I’m ten years old…. Anyone who knows me well calls me Dick.’)
    He became the first player of the modern era to hit two inside-the-park home runs in one game (July 31, 1972).
    His arrival in Chicago boosted White Sox attendance by 300,000 over the previous season and was credited with keeping the franchise from moving.
    His autobiography ‘Crash’ was called ‘one of the best baseball books in recent years’ by Bill James.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 6 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 39 Votes: 17.95% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 210 Votes: 42.86% Annoying