Well, another week, another Dick Allen post!
Seems like I always have something new to say about the "quirky" superstar from my wife's home state of Pennsylvania.
As I've stated many times before, I'm a HUGE Dick Allen fan, and
love delving deeper into his career every chance I get, even if it's
through baseball cards.
Today's topic is a "do-over", which I usually reserve for Hall of Fame players from the decade of the 1970's.
But today I wanted to tackle a card I always thought did a
disservice to the player depicted, not because of a bad action shot or
strange cropping job, but because of a god-awful photo that made him
look like some Sunday softball "beer-league" dude!
Look at Dick Allens original Topps card (#455) from my favorite set, 1976:
Good Lord man! Allen looks like someones uncle in a leisure suit, not a Major
League star (even if that star was dimming pretty quick when this card
came out).
It didn't take long for me to find a bunch of nice shots of Allen
during his second tenure with the Phillies, and I used one of them here
for my redesign. Take a look:
Much better, no?
I think this does Allen and his bad-ass career some justice…
Long live the "Wampum Walloper"!!!
