Phillies retiring Dick Allen's #15

[bkox]

Dick Allen's No. 15 to be retired by Phillies

[California_Dreamin]

I had to respond to this thread. This honor is well deserved and indicates to me that the Phils have a sense that he is going to get elected into the HOF this year. I have pretty much seen every Phillie player since 1963 and Allen is the greatest Phillie player I ever saw. Yes, Mike Schmidt was incredible and his career was longer and calmer but Allen was absolutely amazing.

I still tell people when they ask that the most amazing moment I ever witnessed as a baseball phan was watching Ritchie Allen rounding the bases with a game winning triple in the 11th inning of the July 4, 1964 game against the Giants. Watching him rounding the bases was like watching it in slow motion, as a young phan it was exhilarating.

By the way, if the 1964 Phillies had won the pennant Richie Allen's inside the park home run on Friday night, Sept 25 would be celebrated like Sisler's homer in '50 and Schmidt's homer in Montreal in 1980. Phils, in a 4 game losing streak, trail the Milwaukee Braves 5-3 with two outs and two strikes on Allen in the bottom of the 10th. He proceeded to hit an inside the park home run and those that witnessed that game said it was one of the most memorable moments in their lives. Gene Mauch called it the most exciting game he was ever involved in.

Sadly, Phils lost in 12, 7-5 and Allen's homer is now just a footnote.

I am so pleased with this announcement.

[allentown]

It's certainly an overdue honor. Not a great defender, but just a superb offensive player. He suffered a lot from racism during his career, including not being able to eat with the team in restaurants when in the minors in Little Rock and being the Phillies' Medias main target for abuse. You would have thought he was advocating the violent overthrow of the United States government and Phillies ownership, given the media commotion when he simply asked to be called Dick Allen, rather than Richie Allen.

[California_Dreamin]

You had to be there to understand how scary the booing was against Allen...In 1964! I heard it and in a somewhat prophetic prediction, Houston reliever Hal Woodeschick said after an early September game that had witnessed Allen making several misplays and getting booed mercilessly that the Phillies phans might end up costing the team the pennant.

To show just tough mentally tough Allen was then, after the game he said the booing didn't bother him a bit and then proceeded to get on base 9 straight times after the booing in a key late season series against the Giants.

Sadly, the love affair with the Phillies and Allen pretty much ended when the team didn't support him in 1965 after his now infamous fight with Frank Thomas. Clearly Allen had done nothing wrong but the Phils told him not to talk about it and in many respects Allen was never quite the same player in Philadelphia. At the time of the fight, which occurred in July 1965, Allen was hitting almost .350 and was hitting even better than he had in his rookie year.

The 1.5 year Richie Allen [1964-July 1965] was an absolutely wondrous hitter.

[Philsmania]

It's certainly an overdue honor. Not a great defender, but just a superb offensive player. He suffered a lot from racism during his career, including not being able to eat with the team in restaurants when in the minors in Little Rock and being the Phillies' Medias main target for abuse. You would have thought he was advocating the violent overthrow of the United States government and Phillies ownership, given the media commotion when he simply asked to be called Dick Allen, rather than Richie Allen.

They are retiring his number completely on merit. And, I suspect, their reading of the tea leaves (or off-the-record polls of the folks who will vote this December) indicates that he will finally make it to Cooperstown next year. Having said that, I cannot help but wonder if the BLM movement and the current climate of racial reckoning helped put this decision over the top.

A friend of mine and I have always said that we would go to Cooperstown whenever a Phillie of note--or one who made a significant contribution to club history--gets in. Next summer will be an absolute zoo though with Jeter's delayed induction and all the hordes of Yankee fans being there (and probably a decent smattering of Canadians there to honor Walker). Honestly, I'm not sure if I want to be a part of that.

[Lawman]

You had to be there to understand how scary the booing was against Allen...In 1964!

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 pitched - “B-O-O” in great big letters in the dirt

Philly fans, they’ve been known to get nasty
When Joe must go, they’ll run him out of town
I saw Santa get hit by a snowball
And then get hit again when he was down

Me & you, we never booed Richie Allen - even if he did sometimes strike out
I was too young to read the papers - to know what all that booing was about
That big collapse of ‘64 was ugly - they blew a lead of 6 & 1/2 games with 12 to play
Some might say their fans were justifiably angry - World Series tickets printed up in vain

Philly fans, they’ve been known to get nasty
When Joe must go, they’ll run him out of town
I saw Santa get hit by a snowball
And then get hit again when he was down

This was before the days of the million dollar contracts - before the days of the artificial grass
He stood a bit outside the lines which made him fair game for those times - Richie Allen never kissed a white man’s ass
Me & you, we never booed Richie Allen - we’d pound our mitts & we’d yell, “We want a hit”
How could they call a guy a bum after he’d just hit a home run? That didn’t make any sense to a kid

Now I’ve since found out all these days later - now I know alot more than I did
And if back then you knew, Daddy, why all those other people booed...Thanks for letting me have my heroes as a kid

[zambonir]

I think all of the above (his likely induction, BLM), but since he has not yet been inducted it also officially ends the team's informal policy about that, thus also clearing the way for some of the '08ers (whose numbers are all still out of circulation).

[Philsmania]

They retired #1 sixteen years before Whitey got in. Perhaps they also mean "should be in the HOF"?

[zambonir]

Yeah the "policy" didn't really take hold until the '90s, neither Carlton nor Schmidt were in yet either. So all the more reason it shouldn't matter. I still think Roy is a marginal choice as well, but I get it.

The story behind the Phillies' longstanding rule on retired numbers: Will they...

[schillingfan]

My husband said Allen was the best player he ever saw. He was a kid in Chestnut Hill hanging at at a gas station where Allen had his car serviced. He would hit fly balls for them. He had a well-earned chip on his shoulder. He was a definitely a victim of his times.

[VoteForKalas]

Overdue by the Phillies, but glad they are retiring Allen's number and honoring the player.

I never saw him play, but if CD and SF's husband say he was the best they ever saw, that speaks volumes to me.

If only we had Allen on this year's club....

[California_Dreamin]

Good to see you again, VFK! Yes, its unfortunate that Allen played before we had ESPN on a nightly basis, to watch him play was truly awe inspiring. He used a 40 ounce bat and hit some of the longest home runs in baseball history. Many actually thought it was Allen, and not Callison, who was the MVP of that '64 club. I wouldn't go that far but it was thisclose.

And, along with that inside the park home run that has been largely forgotten because of the ultimate loss to the Braves during the middle of the 10 game losing streak, it is worth noting that during that final 12 game stretch [Phils did win their final two games thanks to a key triple to end the losing streak and the 2 homer game to end the season] its worth noting that Allen hit .420...21-50. He had 3 three hit games and a four hit game during those agonizing final two weeks.

I loved Callison, revered Schmidt, thought Thome was sublime, and went Phillie Phanatic over Utley, Rollins and Howard.

But Richie Allen? Ahh, now there was a Philadelphia legend, his 1964 season one of the best seasons in Phillie history.

[zambonir]

My stepfather always told me "Richie" was a great waste of potential, a malcontent who didn't work hard enough. In other words he (who fancies himself a liberal) was one of those fans.

[LoneStarPhan]

Back in those days, we didn't get anywhere close to the information on the team and especially on the minors that we have at our computer screen today. Normally, the info I got on the minors came from the Sporting News and its reports on the minor leagues each week.

In the case of Allen, however, I knew who he was from his success in high school basketball. State tournament games were shown on one of our TV stations and the Wampum HS basketball team played in and won a couple state titles when Allen was playing for them. Wampum became a favorite team for me and I knew who Allen was when he showed up in the Phillies system and then in Philadelphia itself.

[RTaylor]

He was my favorite player. It was very hard to be a fan after the fateful Curt Flood trade, but I was thrilled when he came back to play with Schmidt and Luzinski. Those towering shots into the night at Connie Mack were sheer poetry.

[BostonRoss]

I started following the Phillies as a six-year-old in 1965 (good timing). Allen was my first favorite player, a natural chocie since he was clearly the bets player on the team. I had the proof right on the back of the baseball cards.

So I couldn't understand when people booed him. My suburb was almost completely white, and I had no idea about racism.

When I was nine, I went to Woolworth's to buy a pack of baseball cards. I only had a dime; so I could get only one pack. I told the cashier that II hoped I would get a Richie Allen card. When I opened the pack and it did have an Allen card, I was so happy. The cashier seemed so genuine in sharing my joy that I would have married her right on the spot if she had asked me; the 10 year or so age difference would not have been an obstacle for me.

[fish]

Has anyone seen highlight video of Dick Allen out there somewhere? I've never seen anything besides video perspective either zoomed in on him at the plate or from behind him at the plate.

[California_Dreamin]

fish...I mentioned this yesterday. Its unfortunate that there is so little tape on Allen's exploits, you had to see him play to appreciate his offensive brilliance. There was nothing offensively that he could not do...he was an outstanding base runner, was am exceptionally intelligent player, and amazingly for this day in age, was an outstanding bunter. Hard to believe but true...Allen occasionally batted 2nd during his rookie year and Mauch on several occasions had him bunt a runner to second base early in a game, something he did well. In retrospect this seems crazy but you had to be there to understand...Mauch was a master and getting an early lead, tried to get runs wherever he could, and played small ball as well as any manager east of Whitey Herzog that I ever witnessed.

Boston Ross said he became a phan in 1965...how unfortunate. That 1965 team [Dick Stuart? Bo Belinsky? Lou Burdette? Ray Herbert?] was as far removed from the '64 team as Hostess cream filling is to mayonnaise. You missed by one year my friend, though the Allen you witnessed till the Thomas fight in mid 1965 was every bit as exciting as the rookie Allen of 1964.

[julio]

[Allen] was an outstanding base runner, was am exceptionally intelligent player, and amazingly for this day [and] age, was an outstanding bunter. Hard to believe but true.

Well, except of course it wasn't this day and age, it was the 1960s, and being a good bunter wasn't particularly unusual back then. If you have the speed to beat out a bunt, even as a power hitter, it's a way to keep pitchers and infielders honest. Guys today who confront a shift (LH pull hitters in particular) could do a lot worse than laying one down the third base line now and then.

[gmwannabe]

RT, i was fortunate enough to see 2 of Richie's blasts that went over the Coke sign, on top of Connie Mack's left field roof. as you day, they did disappear into the night. i also saw one when he came back to the phils. A laser that went into the left field stands at the Vet. Probably one of the fastest, if not the fastest ball that got out that I've ever seen. you wonder what kind of career he would have had with the phils, had there not been any trouble. Awesome power.
gm