The Case for Dick Allen

By: Carlos Marcano (@camarcano)

The previous times I’ve written about Mr. Dick Allen I’ve been full of rage, to put it mildly. Not against Mr. Allen, of course, but against those that have had the responsibility to vote for the players that would be inducted into the Hall of Fame, let it be via the direct ballots or by any of the committees that work for those not elected in the former.

A blinding rage, that’s how I would describe it, honestly. In my mind, in my thought process, I can’t fathom nor understand why Mr. Allen wasn’t inducted before his death, and even after it. And I still have it in me, but I’ve decided to just celebrate his prowess on the field and out of it, to outlive tough times and opponents, to the point of turning into one of the best sluggers that our favorite game has ever seen. So today, I want you to join me in the splendid numbers that Mr. Dick Allen left as part of his legacy in this world.

Mr. Allen played from 1963 (only 10 games that year) through 1977 (only 142 games in his last three seasons) in a career that by, all accounts, was shortened because of the circumstances he endured. Still, for instance, I have two numbers for you: 155 and 3.

155

That’s the calculated wRC+ for his complete career; it means that he was 55% better at creating runs than the average player during that span, after accounting for the era, league and ballpark. This is just one of the initial numbers, but it is one that should blow your mind because…

3

Or better said, third. That’s the place he ranks during his whole career (1963-1977) among his peers (minimum, 2000 plate appearances) in said wRC+ rankings. The first two guys on that list? Some fellows called Mickey Mantle and Frank Robinson. Actually, let’s look at the top 15 players in wRC+ for that period:

Out of the 15 players in this chart, there are only 3 that have not been inducted to the HOF: Frank Howard, Gene Tenace and Mr. Allen. And the former are placed in the final spots, more than 10 points behind him.

Here is another number…

156

That’s his career OPS+. OPS means On-base percentage Plus Slugging, a quick’n’dirty but extremely effective metric to measure the offensive part of a player’s game. The plus at the end, as with wRC+, means that the result is adjusted for era, park, and league, and normalized to mean that 100 would be the average hitter, so Mr. Allen was a whopping 56% better in OPS during his career than said average player. To give you an idea of how crazy this is, let’s look at the all-time leaders in OPS+ (min. 6000 plate appearances).

This is probably one of the most loaded lists of baseball superstars, in which only a few of the players in it aren’t in the HoF and that’s because of non-field performance related issues, mostly. Just like Mr. Allen.

Dave Winfield, Andre Dawson, Ryne Sandberg, Tony Pérez, Billy Williams, Hank Greenberg

Do you know what these fine gentlemen have in common?

For starters, they are all Hall of Fame inductees, belonging to one of the most exclusive clubs in the world, and very deservingly.

Do you know what else they have in common? 

They all have a smaller fWAR than the 61.3 that Mr. Allen produced over his career. And if you measure it by bWAR you could add the names Kirby Puckett and Ralph Kiner to that list.

If you prefer more traditional stats, you can be sure that during the time he played, the analysis that led to receiving any accolade in baseball was mostly traditional stats oriented. In that regard, even after being pretty much maligned by precisely those in charge of granting the awards, Mr. Allen was able to, through his outstanding displays with the bat, achieve being the 1964 N.L. Rookie of the Year, 7-time All-Star, and the 1972 A.L. MVP. That’s a lot of black ink there for him, in my opinion.

Oh, by the way, he also led the league in homers. Twice.

.292/.378/.534

That’s Mr. Allen’s career batting average/ on-base percentage / slugging line, which is great but it’s even greater if we realize that…

Only 27…

…players during more than 100 years of game have produced a line of at least .290/.375/.530 in a minimum of 7000 plate appearances. 27!

For your curiosity, here is that list:

Dick Allen was a man that was forced to be larger than life out of the ballpark when he only wanted to be that between the chalk lines. He was mistreated by many, but he is fondly remembered as one of the greatest by many more. Let’s hope the members of The Golden Days Era Committee make things right when they consider candidates in 2026 for the 2027 induction and, finally, enshrine him in the place he has always belonged to.