Letters in the Dirt

By 1969 Dick Allen had basically reached the end of his rope with the Phillies -- and the Phillies with him. In August he wrote "Oct 2" into the dirt by 1st base, which happened to be the last day of the NL season, and the day he would be "free" from the Phils. The next day he scratched "Coke" in the dirt later explaining that the nearby home-team fans were "getting on me and I wanted to hit a home run over the Coca-Cola sign to shut them up...". The next night he scratched "Boo", and of course the Phillie fans obliged him. He continued to scratch messages over the next 6 games. MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn told him to stop, prompting DA to scratch "Why ?" and "No" into the dirt. The next day, an umpire stopped the game and told him to stop, and erased the message and played on, later responding with "Mom" because she was "the only one that could tell me what to do..."

On October 7, 1969 -- five days after the 1969 season had ended, Dick Allen was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Chuck Brodsky is a musician and a friend of this site. A couple of years ago he wrote a song about Dick Allen called "Letters in the Dirt". It touched my soul and inspired me to create and maintain the original version of this site. You can sample much of Chuck's music here. You can also download his music on ITunes.


Letters in the Dirt by Chuck Brodsky
Me & you, we never booed Richie Allen - I never understood why people did
He hit a homer every time he stepped up to the plate - that's what I remember as a kid
Richie in the field out there by first base - the target of some mighty foul words
With his shoes he'd scrawl between the pitches - "B-O-O" in great big letters in the dirt

The greatest player I ever played with...

... In 1972, I had the privilege of playing with Dick Allen. I didn't know it at the time, but in retrospect, he was the greatest player I ever played with. That's quite a statement because I played with a lot of great ones. He taught me how to pitch from a hitter's perspective. He took me under his wing and we would talk for hours on end about pitching. It was amazing....

~ Goose Gossage, 2008 Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech.

Here is a link to a NYTimes Baseball Blog entry with more information about Dick Allen helped coach Goose Gossage early in his career.

For the record, Goose Gossage played on the same teams with Hall of Famers : Dave Winfield, Willie Stargell, Nolan Ryan, Tony Gwynn, Ryne Sandberg, Reggie Jackson, Gaylord Perry, Catfish Hunter, and Dennis Eckersley and 2009 inductee Rickey Henderson. He also played with potential future Hall of Famers: Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Steve Garvey, Harold Baines, Dave Parker, Will Clark, Thurman Munson, and Pudge Rodriguez.

Best White Sox #15 ever

This week the Chicago Tribune has prepared an all-time White Sox by jersey numbers list.

Guess who is #15 ?

Number: 15
Player: Richie Allen, 1B, 1972-74
Comment: Lobbying by "Iowans For Jerry McNertney" kept this from being an automatic pick. Allen was something of a legend in his time, with his 40-ounce bats and line drive homers up "Allen's Alley." Ask Ed Farmer about the one he hit off him on May 28, 1973.

He was never "Richie" when he played in Chicago... Why the the Tribune insists on calling him Richie is beyond my comprehension.

Exclusive Photo : 1970 Cardinals with Bobby Bonds

I am always on the look out for original Dick Allen stuff. One of the best sources for uniques items is EBay. Recently I won an auction for this original slide taken during Allen's 1970 season in St. Louis.

The baserunner is Barry Bonds father, Bobby with the San Francisco Giants. It looks like there are a couple of open seats int he first row at Busch Stadium. It is interesting that Dick Allen has a helmet on, while the baserunner does not. You don't see that anymore.

I am going to put prints of this image, along with all of my other "copyright owned" pictures available for purchase on my on-line store.

1972 AL MVP

I like to change the wallpaper on my computer every once in a while. I really don't have any great Dick Allen wallpapers, so I decided to play around with an drawing/image I found on the 1992 White Sox Upper Deck Heroes give-away.

Enjoy.

1978 Oakland A's card

Here is version #1 on my fantasy 1978 Topps Oakland Athletics card for Dick Allen. I have a couple of other 1977 A's images that might look better, but I was bored today and wanted to make a attempt. I will post the others as I get some time to play around with photoshop.

The concept is this: The last Dick Allen active MLB baseball card was from the Topps 1976 set. This always seemed unjust to me -- because he finished his major league career during the 1977 season with the Oakland Athletics. Typically the baseball cards for the next season (in this case 1978) featured players from the previous year. I know that DA "retired" during the season. But did Topps really need to produce a Pablo Torreabla or Tim Hosley card instead ?

Happy Birthday DA !!!

Richard Anthony Allen was born on March 8th, 1942 in Wampum, Pennsylvania. He was one of Era Allen's five boys. Each of them went on to become All-State Basketball players at Wampum High School. In 1960 Dick Allen led the team to the State Championship. Many people that saw him play at the time say he could of been an NBA basketball star if he did not decide to play baseball.

He may never make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but he will always be my favorite player.

Happy Birthday Big Fella !!!!!

Baseball card time machine

<--- It always bothered me that the last "active" Dick Allen baseball card was this 1976 Topps card. As far as baseball cards go, this has to be one of the most boring photos and undignified end of career card ever. Why Topps never created a 1977 card for him, I have no idea ?

At the time, baseball cards featured images and were based on the rosters from the previous season -- so by all rights there should have been a 1977 card of Dick Allen produced by Topps in a 1976 Phils uniform.

In an effort to right this wrong, I started playing around in photoshop this morning looking to create a 1977 Phillies card for Dick Allen. Here is my result. I honestly think this is a much more fitting "last Phillies" card to one of the best players to ever wear a Philadelphia uniform. As far as photoshop projects go, this process was pretty easy. My next baseball card time machine project will be to produce a a 1978 Topps card featuring Allen on the Oakland Athletics.

1964

Here is a video clip about Dick Allen starting with the 1964 Phillies from the Centennial: 100 Years of Philadelphia Phillies Baseball.

I posted it on YouTube in August of 2006 and it has been viewed almost 9000 time by people across the internet.

I am always on the lookout for more DA videos. If you have anything you want to share, please let me know.

Smoking

This photo used to bother me.

When I looked at it the photo re-enforced all the negative stereotypes it conveyed in the minds of people:

Dick Allen was a rebel.

Dick Allen was a clubhouse cancer.

Dick Allen was too much of an individual in a team sport.

Dick Allen was selfish.

However, over the years I have come to love it. It encapsulates the free-minded spirit of Dick Allen. He didn't care about what others thought about him. He refused to follow the rules that he thought were unfair. He just wanted to play ball and let all the other stuff go.

That free-minded spirit came with a price tag. From what I understand about the man, I think Dick Allen is OK with that cost.