It's sad that Dick Allen's career was already coming to a close by 1976 at the age of 34.
He still saw some time in 1977 with the Oakland A's, but his last
card as an active player was the year before, so I went and designed a
"Then and Now" card for him in a Phillies uniform for '76.
Take a look:
The man was a beast at the plate, as evidenced by his 351 homers and 1119 runs batted in, in only 6332 at-bats!
A Rookie of the Year in 1964, and an M.V.P. in 1972, he easily could
have put up Hall of Fame worthy numbers had injuries and personality
clashes not gotten in the way.
Some argue that he did in fact warrant Hall induction actually,
especially since he did all of his offensive damage during the modern
"dead-ball" era of the mid-60's to early-70's.
Not my argument to make here, but not something so easily dismissed.
Anyway, it would have been cool to see him still playing by the time I was avidly watching games in the late-70's/early-80's.
Weird to think that if he hung around to the 20-year mark for a Major League career, he could have had baseball cards into the mid-80's!
