The National Baseball Hall of Fame is getting ready to add some new faces to the walls in Cooperstown when ballots are revealed to the public on Jan. 21, 2025. Members of the Baseball Writers of America will have some interesting choices this year, with Ichiro Suzuki and C.C. Sabathia joining a crowded field of worthy candidates spread across the ballot.
Like the previous year, the Philadelphia Phillies will once again be well represented on the ballot with Billy Wagner (10th year), Chase Utley (2nd year), Jimmy Rollins (4th year), and Bobby Abreu (6th year) all earning enough votes to remain eligible for induction. This ballot will also be the last for former Phillies closer Wagner, who came up just short of induction with 73.8 percent of the vote last year and will be hoping to reach the 75 percent vote total required on his 10th and final ballot.
While the BBWAA's vote will soon be in the mail, The Classic Baseball Era Committee will be tasked with deciding the cases for Hall of Fame induction for an impressive list of baseball stars who primarily played during the 1960s and 1970s, and whose eligibility on the traditional ballot has long since expired.
Phillies legend Dick Allen on the Hall of Fame's Classic Era Ballot
The Classic Baseball Era Committee has eight candidates on this years ballot, with seven former players and one former manager with Dick Allen, Ken Boyer, John Donaldson, Steve Garvey, Vic Harris, Tommy John, Dave Parker and Luis Tiant among the names being considered for induction.
This isn't the first time former Phillies great Dick Allen has appeared on a committee ballot, having lost out on the honor first in 2014 with the Veterans Committee, and again in 2021 when Allen fell one vote shy of induction when the Golden Eras committee staged their last vote. With no clear-cut favorites on this year's list, Allen seems to have a reasonable shot at gaining induction when the committee meets in December.
There's little doubt that Allen was a feared slugger during his 15-year MLB career, as the eight-time All-Star put together a Hall of Fame worthy résumé with a .292 career batting average, 351 home runs, 1,119 RBI and 58.7 WAR while playing for the Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, and Chicago White Sox. It's clear from those numbers that Allen was a hitter not to be messed with.
Allen is no stranger to being honored in Philadelphia. The team inducted him into the Phillies Wall of Fame in 1994, and as recently as earlier this year, when Mural Arts Philadelphia, the City of Philadelphia and the Phillies organization dedicated a new mural in Allen's honor around the corner from the former location of The Vet at 2221 S. Broad Street.
Could this be the year Allen posthumously gets inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame? Let's hope so.