Dick Allen Will Be Posthumously Inducted Into the Baseball Hall of Fame

Dick Allen (Photo Credit: National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum/X).

Former Chicago White Sox slugger Dick Allen has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Though Allen had only spent three of his 15 Major League Baseball seasons on the South Side, he left an indelible mark on the franchise. 

Thanks to the Classic Baseball Era Committee, Allen and fellow slugger Dave Parker will be bestowed baseball’s most hallowed honor. This 16-member body considered eight players whose primary contributions to the game occurred before 1980. 

It’s a posthumous honor for Allen, who passed away in 2020 at 78.  

Legend ✨

Former Chicago White Sox Most Valuable Player Dick Allen, a seven-time Major League Baseball All-Star, has been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Classic Era Committee. pic.twitter.com/VKcJXnOOVy

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) December 9, 2024

 

The birthplace of this seven-time All-Star and two-time home run champion was in a small town just northwest of Pittsburgh in Wampum, Pennsylvania, but he grew up in nearby Chewton. 

Allen grew up idolizing Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers and starred on the diamond and hardwood in high school, the latter as an All-State basketball player. However, he chose baseball over basketball because, at the time, it paid better. 

That turned out to be the right decision. 

During his career, Allen established himself as one of baseball’s most prolific sluggers in the 1960s and 70s, blasting monstrous home runs in an era dominated by pitching. Yet, despite his reputation, he wasn’t fully appreciated by fans and was the subject of racial discrimination in the minors, especially during his time with the Philadelphia Phillies. Allen also spoke his mind and didn’t get along easily with managers or fans.  

But that didn’t stop him from excelling at the plate. As a model of consistency, Allen put together nine straight seasons of 20 home runs or more, achieving 10 such years overall. 

He spent his first nine seasons with the Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, and Los Angeles Dodgers of the National League. Yet, when he was traded to the White Sox in 1972, he had one of the best seasons of his career. 

“An outcast in the National League where he was shuffled around like a hot potato, Allen set the American League on fire in 1972 while playing with his fourth team in the last four seasons,” read a Nov. 1972 article from the Chicago Daily Defender. 

In his first season with Chicago, Allen won the MVP Award and is credited with reviving White Sox baseball. 

The season before he arrived, the team drew 833,891 fans to Comiskey Park. In Allen’s first year with the club, attendance surged to 1,177,318. In each of his three years with the Sox, the team consistently drew over a million fans each season. He was rewarded handsomely by Chicago, who signed him to a three-year contract with an estimated value of $700,000, believed to be the richest deal at the time for a baseball player. 

The Sox never advanced to the postseason but came close in Allen’s first year, finishing second in the AL West. Despite an injury-shortened second year, he still distinguished himself as the best player on the club during his Sox tenure. 

Chicago traded Allen to the Atlanta Braves, but after enduring relentless racism during his minor league days in Little Rock, Arkansas, he no longer desired to play in the South. He eventually rejoined the Phillies in 1975. 

Allen was known by two nicknames: “The Wampum Whammer” and “Crash.” The latter came from “Crash Helmet,” a nod to his habit of wearing a helmet in the field to shield himself from projectiles being thrown at his head from unruly Phillies fans.

Between 1963 and 1977, Allen batted .292 with 351 home runs and 1,119 RBIs, playing for the Phillies (1963–69, 1975–76), Cardinals (1970), Dodgers (1971), White Sox (1972–74), and Athletics (1977).

Early in his career, he was called Richie Allen, but he later requested to be known as Dick. Allen also earned the 1964 National League Rookie of the Year award.

He and Parker will be honored during Hall of Fame Weekend 2025, held July 25-28 in Cooperstown, N.Y. Their induction into the Hall of Fame is slated for Sunday, July 27.