Philadelphia Phillies legend Dick Allen would have turned 79 on Monday. To honor his legacy and celebrate his accomplishments, the team announced that its players will wear a commemorative patch on their jerseys throughout the 2021 season.
In 2020, the Phillies took the step of retiring Allen’s No. 15. In doing so he became the first player in franchise history, not yet inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, to have his number retired.
This season, the team will continue to honor Allen’s legacy and impact with their uniform patch. Hopefully, this move will also continue to help them garner the necessary support to finally elect him into the Hall of Fame.
Phillies legend Dick Allen has always belonged in the Hall of Fame.
Allen was nothing short of an absolute star for the Phillies. He donned red pinstripes for nine seasons — including two separate stints (1963-1969 and 1975-1976) — and had a powerful right-handed swing. In Philadelphia, he combined to hit .290/.371/.530 with 204 home runs, 655 RBI and racked up a WAR of 35.4 over 1,070 games. He won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 1964, earning 18 of the 20 votes, and was named an NL All-Star with the Phillies three times.
Allen would go on to spend time playing with the St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, and Oakland Athletics. In 1972, he won the AL MVP as a member of the White Sox.
Over 15 years, Allen was an All-Star seven times and hit a combined .292/.378/.534 with 351 home runs and 1,119 RBI. He also had a cumulative career WAR of 58.8. He led his league in OPS four times, in slugging percentage three different times, and paced his circuit in home runs and on-base percentage twice. There was a high-powered stretch from 1964-1974 when Allen was second to only Hank Arron in OPS.
While Allen was not elected during his traditional candidacy on the hall’s ballot, he was eligible last season through the Hall of Fame’s Golden Days committee. However, the group was unable to meet due to the COVID-19 pandemic and they rescheduled their meeting to this December. It’s truly a tragedy that Allen was not elected while he was alive, but there is hope he could still posthumously get the call.
Allen is one of the greatest eligible players in the history of baseball to not yet be inducted into Cooperstown — regardless of his era. It’s great to see the Phillies try to do everything they can to continue to bolster the legacy of a player who has long gone under-recognized and has so clearly deserved the call for so long. This year they will quite literally be “wearing that on their sleeves.”