The
next player up in my on-going 1970 "In-Game Action" set is none other
than Richie Allen (Topps was still using "Rich" or "Richie" instead of "Dick"), who was coming off yet another marvelous season for
the Philadelphia Phillies in 1969:
Allen hit 32 homers in baseball's centennial season, along with 89 runs batted, 79 runs scored and a .288 batting average.
He
would find himself part of a blockbuster trade on October 7th of 1969
when he was shipped off to the St. Louis Cardinals with Jerry Johnson
and Cookie Rojas for Byron Brown, Joe Hoerner and Curt Flood.
Allen
would fare well for the Cardinals in 1970, hitting 34 homers while
driving in 101 runs in only 122 games, yet would be on the move again,
this time being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he'd suit up in
1971, driving in 90 while hitting 23 homers, hitting .295 over on the
West Coast.
The man was a beast at the plate, putting up numbers that were consistently up in the league-leaders year after year.
Needless
to say, he took home the Rookie of the Year in 1964, and in 1972
would take home the MVP trophy while with the White Sox when he paced
the American League with 37 homers and 113 RBI's, while just missing out
on the Triple Crown, batting .308, just ten points off the
league-leading mark by perennial winner Rod Carew.
By the time he left the game at the age of 35, Allen hit over 350 homers, batted .292 and scored 1099 runs with 1119 RBI's.
The seven-time all-star also led his league in triples once, walks once, on-base-percentage twice and slugging three times.
I'm
not saying the man is a lock-tight Hall of Fame candidate, but I do
think in light of some of the guys already in, HE should also be in
there.
The fact that the most support he got was an 18.9% showing in 1996 seems like a joke to me.
What do you all think?
