Dick Allen Belongs In The Hall Of Fame

There is no denying what an honor it is for a baseball player to be named into the Hall of Fame and there is probably no feeling like it. However, for some players who think they deserve to be in Cooperstown will never what that feeling is like and that is due to the outdated voting procedures and writers holding grudges. A player who is a victim of this is one of the Philadelphia Phillies’ greatest and misunderstood players, Dick Allen.

Allen first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2014 as a candidate on the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Golden ERA Committee election ballot for possible Hall of Fame consideration in 2015. Neither of the 10 candidates was selected by the committee and Dick Allen ended up being one short of the 12 required votes needed for election. As a result of this, his chances of ever being a Hall of Famer grow ever slimmer and it shouldn’t be that way, especially when you have the numbers to get in.

 
Measuring Up To Other Hall Of Fame Third Basemen

 
In the National Baseball of Fame’s 80 years of existence, 15 third basemen have been elected to the Hall of Fame such as Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Brooks Robinson, Wade Boggs, and Eddie Matthews. One thing that jumps out comparing Dick Allen to these 15 Hall of Famers is Allen has a better slugging percentage than all of them at .534 and the only one close to him is Mike Schmidt with a .527 slugging percentage. Allen also ranks third in home runs with 351 among the third basemen in the Hall of Fame. Another interesting stat is if you take a look at the list of players over the last 136 years who led their decade(s) in OPS+, all of them are in the Hall of Fame except for Dick Allen. Dick Allen not only led his decade in OPS+. but his .912 OPS+ is better than any third basemen in the Hall of Fame.

 
Pure Power

 
If you’re looking at Dick Allen’s 351 career home runs and thinking that’s not that impressive then here’s something that is. Throughout his career, Dick Allen crushed twenty home runs over 500 feet and there was a study conducted from 2000 to 2013 where only one player in that span hit a homerun over 500 feet. Allen’s power capabilities were off the charts and fans would stay to see him bat even if the Phillies were losing because there was always a possibility of him doing something special. Bill Jenkinson, a baseball historian, wrote a book called “Baseball’s Ultimate Power: Ranking The All-Time Greatest Distance home Run Hitters.” In the book, Jenkinson ranked Dick Allen as the fourth best all-time home run hitter behind Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle, and Babe Ruth. Also after extensive research, Jenkinson has concluded that Dick Allen is second only to Babe Ruth as a slugger in the history of baseball, which some pretty good company to be in.

 
Misconception

 
There has been a lot of things about Dick Allen throughout his career and even now as he Allen his rated one of the most controversial players in baseball history. There was a thought that Dick Allen was a terrible teammate and he would divide the clubhouse along racial lines, which was simply not true at all. Dick Allen was a great teammate who played every game like it was his last and took the young players under his wing and looked out for them. One of those young players was Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt, who Dick Allen mentored and Schmidt even credited Dick Allen in his book Clearing the Bases as a thanks for being there for him all those years. Dick Allen’s bad reputation also comes from the fact he didn’t get along with the media and rarely wanted to talk to them because he dealt with a lot on the field with all the cursing at him and things being thrown, he just didn’t want to draw more attention to himself. Allen not talking to the media is also one of the things that made him more comfortable a day-to-day basis in the time he was in and when Dick Allen was comfortable, balls left the yard. Dick Allen’s bad relationship with baseball writers is probably one of the driving forces keeping him out of Cooperstown because some of those writers from his day vote on who gets into the Hall of Fame and writers do hold grudges.

 
Conclusion

 
There is no doubt Dick Allen belongs in the Hall of Fame and what he accomplished and did for Philadelphia should not be forgotten and it won’t be. People have been becoming more and more aware of Dick Allen’s situation and a main contributor to that is Mark “Froggy” Carfagno. Carfagno is the campaign manager for Dick Allen belongs in the Hall of Fame and you can follow him on twitter @markcarf. He has worked tirelessly along with Dick Allen Jr. to find a way to get Dick Allen into the Hall of Fame, collecting all sorts of stats and information.

If you feel Dick Allen belongs in the Hall of Fame, join the Dick Allen Belongs in the Hall of Fame group on Facebook and check out https://dickallenbelongs.wordpress.com/ for other information on his Hall of Fame case.