Dick Allen Baseball Card Project: 1963 "call-up" card

Based on a suggestion from our friend deal at PHUNGO, I created a 1963 Topps Phillies Dick Allen "call up" card. For this project, I spent the time to colorize a clean "early career" photo I had found via the New York Times.

Late in the 1963 season, after enduring a brutal minor league season in which he broke the Arkansas baseball color barrier, the Phillies called up a 21 year old Dick Allen. His first game was in Milwaukee against the Braves on September 3rd, 1963. He started in left field. After striking out in his first major league AB and grounding into a 5-4-3 double play in his second AB -- Allen doubled to left in the 7th inning for his first career hit. The Phillies won 2-0.

He played in a total of 10 major league games that season, starting 5 of them in the outfield and one at third base. It was the first time he had ever played third in his professional career. They next season he was starting at third for the Phillies.

Edit: I was not 100% happy with the unused sky space at the top of the card, so I added a "future star" feature on an alternative version.

Dick Allen Baseball Card Project: 1977

This is the final entry for my Dick Allen Baseball Card Project. Topps did not produce a 1977 card, his one and only season with the Oakland Athletics. It wasn't a good fit. The A's were in decline. Allen was at the end of his career. He was signed in the middle of Spring Training, played 54 games, got pissed off because Charlie Finley was a dishonest scam artist and retired for good this time.

Dick Allen Baseball Card Project: 1976

This is the last of the Dick Allen official Topps cards. As I have said before in the past, this image presents an undignified end to a fantastic career.

1976 was a great year for the Phillies. The Bicentennial created a lot of excitement throughout the country and much of the attention was on the city of Philadelphia. They hosted the All Star game in July, drew almost 2.5 million people into the ballpark and delivered the franchises first playoff team since the 1950 Whiz Kids.

Dick Allen started just over half (83) of the games at first and delivered 15 HRs and 49 RBIs. These numbers are far below his career average of 33 HRs and 104 RBIs. The most important part of the year was the team won the NL East and got to play in the post season.

In honor of this great Phillies team, I decided to show DA celebrating scoring a run with one of his 1976 teammates, Garry Maddox.

Dick Allen Baseball Card Project: 1975

This is where things get a little confusing. Up until this point, Topps has been able to follow Dick Allen's career and match the correct teams with the correct year. In the world of baseball cards, this is not always an easy task. When a player is traded or moves from one team to another after the print deadline, you are basically out of luck. Now the card companies just release a "update set" and charge a lot of money for it. In 1975, it was not that simple.

Dick Allen "retired" from the Chicago White Sox with 2 weeks left in the 1974 season (I will write about this another time). His rights were traded to the Atlanta Braves during the off season. Haunted by how he was treated in Little Rock during the 1963 minor league season, DA refused to consider going to the Braves and playing again in the deep south. The 1975 MLB season started and Allen stayed "retired" until May, when the Braves traded his rights to the Phillies. With a little persuasion Mike Schmidt and Dave Cash, he returned to play first for the transformed Phillies.

I made two redux cards for the 1975 entry, one for the White Sox and one for the Phillies. Both recognize his place as a starting American League All Star. As you can tell, the 1975 set was very colorful. There was no single color template for each team. I chose the purple & pink combination in honor of DA's long time team mate Tony Taylor.

Dick Allen Baseball Card Project: 1974

The original 1974 Topps Dick Allen card holds a special place in my heart.

I was a young 8 year old boy when I first opened a baseball card wax pack with this card in it. Earlier that summer my Dad had taken me on the 100 mile drive to Comiskey Park to see his favorite team play. This same guy, the only one on the field with a shiny helmet, had hit a long HR that made the scoreboard explode with fireworks. 1974 was also the first year of the show "Happy Days" - and in my eyes, Dick Allen was baseball's version of the Fonz.

There is no reason to fix this card. It is perfect the way it is. But, I already used that bullet with the 1966 card, so instead I decided to turn the redux card into rare horizontal card. The game action image was taken during the 1974 All Star game in Pittsburgh. Johnny Bench is the NL catcher. In the AL dugout you can see uniforms (moving right to left) from the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, Oakland A's, and KC Royals.

Dick Allen Baseball Card Project: 1973

For 1973 Topps resisted the temptation to re-use the now infamous Dick Allen side profile mug shot. Maybe this had something to do with the fact he was the 1972 American League Most Valuable player. But in any case, this one is an improvement. The 1973 card was the first time in his career DA was shown in an action picture.

Considering what we have become used to, I have no legitimate complaints about this card. From a photography perspective, it is a difficult angle. Creating decent batter images from the camera wells on the inside of the dugouts is a tricky proposition. When I shoot baseball games from those positions, I focus on the pitcher and the infielders making defensive plays. My edition gives a nice clear view of the MVPs face, even if it happens to be from the wrong side of the plate.

Dick Allen Baseball Card Project: 1972

Another year, another team.

In 1971 Allen led the LA Dodgers in HRs, RBIs, and OPS (by a wide margin) and he hit .295. But again after one productive year in a new city, Dick Allen was again sent packing. This time it was to the American League and the Chicago White Sox. At least this time the trade was for a decent player, Tommy John.

The baseball card layout czars at Topps must have been jumping up and down when they heard the news that DA was headed to the White Sox. What luck!!! A year earlier the Sox had changed to red uniforms and now they could re-use the same old side view with a red hat mug shot image taken in the mid 1960s in Philadelphia and used for the 1970 set.

Dick Allen Baseball Card Project: 1971

After one season in St. Louis, DA was sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers. I am still not so sure why the Cardinals traded him away. He led the team in both HRs, RBIs, OPS, and hit a respectable .279. He also started at first base for the NL all star team. Regardless, the Cardinals finished in 4th place and they sent DA packing for Ted Sizemore and Bob Stinson.

The 1971 Topps baseball card set is one of the most popular in history. The distinctive black border have made it a favorite for collectors for years. The DA card from this year is a joke. Not only does it look like the Dodger stadium grass was replaced with the dirt and rocks of Kabul... take a look at the photographer's knee in the lower left hand corner of the image. How hard is it to take a picture of someone without having one of your body parts in the frame?

Dick Allen Baseball Card Project: 1970

Goodbye Philadelphia. Hello St. Louis.

In October 1969, the Phillies finally agreed to set Dick Allen free, sending him to St. Louis in a seven player deal. One of the players sent from the Cardinals was Curt Flood. After what he had seen the Phillies fans do to DA, Flood was not interested in playing in Philadelphia and refused to report, setting into motion a chain of events that eventually led to the modern day era of free agency. Every player in major league baseball should get down on their knees and pray for the soul of Curt Flood every two weeks when they get their paychecks. WIthout Curt Flood, the majors would be a much different place than it is today.

The original Topps card from 1970 is simply pathetic. It reminds me of the side view of a police mug shot. They used this picture because it has him in a red hat, beyond that - basically has zero character. I used one of the original Dick Allen negative picture that I bought on eBay for this redux card.

Dick Allen Baseball Card Project: 1969

We will conclude Dick Allen's first run with the Philadelphia Phillies with the iconic bad-boy image of him looking uninterested and smoking in the dugout. After several years of ongoing strife, he was done with the Phillies and the Phillies were done with him. In my opinion, Topps also appeared to be uninterested and uninspired this year, simply combining elements from the 1967 and 1968 card design for the 1969 version. Not sure when they took the DA image they used for this card, because in 1969 he was wearing a batting helmet all the time to protect his head from flying object thrown by the hometown fans.

Originally shot in black & white, I love this image so much I decided to colorize it so I could include it in this project. Air brushing images to match a new uniform is something that was quite common in future baseball cards. Although not perfect, it isn't any worse than this attempt (or better yet this one) by Topps to alter the original shot.

Dick Allen Baseball Card Project: 1968

Now we can move onto something with a little more style. The 1968 Topps design brought a nice burlap texture to the party. Unfortunately, they delivered yet another posed picture for the DA card. Are we are starting to see a pattern here yet?

I guess I should not be that hard on them, at least they were consistent. I took a look at my collection, and it seems as if every card that year had the same photographer walking up to the player before a spring training game and saying "alright, stay still while I snap this photo" look to it. Check out a nice sample size of what I am talking about here.

I took a different approach with my redux, choosing to show off DA's legendary swing.

Dick Allen Baseball Card Project: 1967

In 1967 Topps went back to a boring spring training posed picture. I am not opposed to posed images, but when possible, the back ground should be an actual major league ballpark.

As I work through this project, I am discovering there really are not many color action shots from the late 1960's. Most of the action photos I have collected over the years are black and white. I actually did two versions of this card, the first one is a basic head shot with a seemingly annoyed DA looking back at press photographer in his locker. The second redux version of the 1967 card is not that much different from the original, except the background does not look like it was taken on a high school field.

Dick Allen Baseball Card Project: 1966

I am not going to touch this one, because the 1966 Topps Dick Allen card is a thing of beauty just the way it is. This picture perfectly captures the ongoing transformation of DA from a young rookie to a strong and self confident man. You need to keep in mind that Allen's arms looked like this without the benefit of scientific weight training, muscle-building dietary supplements, and anabolic steroids.

Every time I see this photo, I can't help thinking that DA is looking off at his loud mouthed racist teammate Frank Thomas punking Johnny Briggs outside the batting cage causing DA to seethe in anger. It was heartwarming to hear Dick Allen tell Bob Costas on the MLB Network this year that he and Frank Thomas are now good friends.

Dick Allen Baseball Card Project: 1965

There really isn't anything wrong with the original 1965 card. I love this pennant design and have used it for other custom photoshop projects recently. As a rule, I don't care for baseball card pictures obviously taken during spring training, In this photo you can see Clearwater's old Jack Russell Stadium in the background. I got to attend a couple of games there before the Phillies moved to their current spring training stadium.

The redesigned version has DA standing on deck at Connie Mack Stadium. Classic early career DA, complete with black rimmed glasses and no batting gloves. Although they are blurred out, I can't help but appreciate the dress code for the 1965 baseball fan. You can clearly see one man in a jacket and tie and there is not a single t-shirt or baseball hat in the group. Wow how things have changed.

Dick Allen Baseball Card Project: 1964

In the cabinets of my office, I have boxes and boxes of my old cards from the 1960s, 70s and 80s. I don't buy cards very often any more, but I still cherish and adore the ones I have saved.

One of my most prized possessions is the Dick Allen rookie card. I never had one as a kid and my wife bought it for me one birthday while we were dating. On that card, DA shares time with John Herrnstein. Like me, Herrnstein is a Michigan grad. Unlike me, he played parts of 5 seasons in the majors, mostly with the Phils. He had a .220 career average, accumulated 99 hits, 8 home runs, and 34 RBIs. He struck out four times as much as he walked (115:29). Finally, he was part of the infamous Fergie Jenkins to the Cubs trade in 1966, the same year his playing career ended with 18 plate appearances in Atlanta. That winter he was dealt to the Boston Red Sox and never heard from again.

No disrespect to John Herrnstein, but he has become the third wheel in this relationship. In my opinion, Dick Allen deserves his very own rookie card. As such I have decided to redesign almost every one of Dick Allen's baseball cards, starting with his rookie card of 1964. I have named this new venture the DICK ALLEN BASEBALL CARD PROJECT. Over the next couple of days I will share what I have come up with. Enjoy.