While I was too young to ever see him play, I have seen video footage and his statlines over my lifetime of being a casual baseball fan.
Dick Allen accomplished a lot in his 15 year career.
He won the Rookie of Year in 1964
He won the MVP in 1972
He was a 7 time All-Star
And he received MVP votes in all but 3 seasons which he played 100+ games
Many consider him a borderline Hall of Famer with his 1,848 hits and .912 OPS. He finished with 1,099 runs scored and 1,119 RBI and 351 HR. Him and Tony Oliva both fell 1 vote shy for the Hall of Fame in 2015 by the Veterans Committee.
His number 15 was retired September 3rd, 2020 by the Phillies. Unfortunately due to this past season no fans were able to give Dick a proper cheering and goodbye.
Many Hall of Famers have said many kind words of Allen both in his life and his untimely death. Mike Schmidt has gone on to say that Allen was a mentor to him. Goose Gossage had said he was the strongest hitter he ever had to face.
The only interaction I ever had with Dick Allen was liking a tweet he made over the summer.
I showed off my Uncle Larry collection of Cutch only a few weeks ago, which you can revisit here.
In that post there was a few other customs I forgot to show off.
I showed off some tobacco style cards custom cards here.
I also got a sticker by Daniel Champion (who makes some of the most amazing comic art baseball themed prints you will ever find). His website is popflypopshop.com/. He currently has a limited edition Dave "The Cobra" Parker print for sale which I am showing below.
The post where I showed off the gold sticker is here.
And I have this custom 1988 Donruss inspired card that someone on Twitter sent me.
I also have these gold stickers.
Needless to say I have a good collection of this image of Cutch, which the great Dick Allen said is the "coolest baseball card ever".
I have to agree with the original 1-5, number 15 Dick Allen.
I don't want to sound too morbid, but if there were ever a year to field a baseball team of former players who passed away, this year has a heck of a squad ready to roll out.
Lou Brock
Joe Morgan
AL Kaline
Richie Allen
Tony Fernandez
Jimmy Wynn
Pitching: Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Whitey Ford, Don Larsen, and Mike McCormick
Very nice tribute. That sticker is super cool!
ReplyDeleteThe guys on local radio were honoring Dick today... which was really cool. That Parker comic book print is awesome. Wish I had known about the Gwynn, Rickey, and Ichiro prints. I probably would have bought them.
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