Hall of Fame Passes on Dick Allen

Phillies 60's & 70's slugger Allen misses HOF by one vote

In results just announced, former Phillies star outfielder and 1st baseman Dick Allen has been passed over this time around in voting by the Veteran’s Committee on the Golden Era ballot for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

No one was elected by the Committee for enshrinement in 2015: Allen received 11 votes, falling just one short of enshrinement.

Allen was among 10 players being considered in ‘Golden Era’ voting by the Veteran’s Committee. The others were: Luis Tiant, Ken Boyer, Billy Pierce, Jim Kaat, Minnie Minoso, Gil Hodges, Tony Oliva, Maury Wills and Bob Howsam.

RESULTS: DICK ALLEN – 11, TONY OLIVA – 11, JIM KAAT – 10, MAURY WILLS – 9, MINNIE MINOSO – 8, ALL OTHERS 3 OR FEWER VOTES

The 16-member Veteran’s Committee consists of Hall of Famers, historians, media members, and baseball executives. Votes are required from 12 of the 16 voters in order to be elected for enshrinement in the Hall of Fame.

The current VC voters are Hall of Famers Jim Bunning, Pat Gillick, Joe Morgan, Rod Carew, Fergie Jenkins, Don Sutton, Al Kaline and Ozzie Smith. The executives are Bob Watson, Jim Frey, David Glass and Roland Hemond. The media/historian group are Tracy Ringolsby, Phil Pepe, Dick Kaegel and Steve Hirdt. 

Allen was elected to the Philadelphia Phillies Wall of Fame in 1994. He was the 16th of what are now 36 members of the organization’s historic past to be so honored. Each honoree has a plaque in a special team history section on Ashburn Alley in centerfield at Citizens Bank Park.

Allen signed with the Phillies as an amateur free agent in 1960 and broke into the Majors in 1963. He was a key member of the near-Pennant team in 1964 when he won the NL Rookie of the Year. He was an NL All-Star each of the next 3 years, and played from 1963-69 in Philly. Traded away, Allen returned for two final Phils seasons in 1975-76.

Outside of Philadelphia, Dick Allen was the American League Most Valuable Player with the Chicago White Sox in 1972. For his career, Allen was a 7x All-Star. He accumulated 351Homeruns, scored 1099 Runs, had 1119 RBI, had 750 Extra-base hits, and was a career .292 average hitter.

His career was covered in a recent entry “Philography: Dick Allen” as part of the ongoing exclusive “Philography” feature series of Phillies-of-the-past biographies.

On behalf of Phillies fans everywhere, we are disappointed in this result. Hopefully Dick Allen will be nominated again in the future, and eventually receive what we feel is a long-overdue and well-deserved honor.