This was one of the star players of the previous ten years, albeit somewhat under appreciated and misunderstood to say the least, but he wasn't exactly "done" as a player yet.
1976 was a somewhat productive year for a guy who had 298 at-bats, good enough for 15 homers, 49 RBI's and a .268 average. In an era where 38 homers lead the N.L., that's pretty decent output over the course of a full season.
Anyway, I never did hear a reason why Allen was not included in the 1977 set, but I went ahead and created one here.
Since I have the gift of hindsight all these years later, I created an Oakland A's version, even though this wouldn't have been the case back then since as I stated earlier, he didn't sign with them until about Spring Training.
The Oakland choice was too easy since I still love that uniform, and he famously had "Wampum" (his home town) as his name across the back above his number, which is visible in the image I used for the recreated card.
By the way, if any of you out there have never read his book: "Crash-The Life and Times of Dick Allen", you really should pick up a copy and do so. One of my favorite baseball books and some incredible insight into the "character" that was Allen as well as some of the behind the scenes crap that goes on in the sport. As with Allen the player, his book is also grossly underrated.
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| One of baseball's most controversial players in his final season. |