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Dick Allen, Dave Parker Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
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- Dick Allen, Dave Parker Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
DALLAS –The late Dick Allen was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame along with Dave Parker on Sunday as the Classic Era Committee met to determine the outcome at the annual Winter Meetings.
On the third try, the 16-member committee, which changes annually, elected Allen.
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The ballot, made of all players whose careers began prior to 1980, also included Ken Boyer, John Donaldson, Steve Garvey, Vic Harris, Tommy John and Luis Tiant.
Allen had missed twice on earlier Era Committee ballots by a single vote after finishing a career with a .292 batting average, 351 homers and 1,119 RBIs. This time his name appeared on 13 of the 16 ballots, while Parker had 14 votes.
Allen's adjusted OPS+ of 156 wasn't a recognized stat when he played for five teams during a 15-year career from 1963 to 1977. OPS+ is a statistic that quantifies a player's offensive output by combining on-base percentage and slugging percentage, adjusting it to different leagues, eras and ballparks.
Allen's supporters hung his Hall of Fame credentials on the modern metric, noting that his OPS+ is 25th of all-time– tied with Hall of Famer Frank Thomas and just ahead of other Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays and Mel Ott, whom all tallied 155.
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Allen's career also had a number of off-field problems during his tenures in Philadelphia , St. Louis , Los Angeles and Chicago , where he actually walked out on the White Sox for good with two weeks to go in the 1974 season.
Allen marched to the beat of his own drummer, at times skipping batting practice, arriving late to or missing games. He had a cantankerous relationship with the media, which may or may not explain why eligible members of the Baseball Writers' of America Association never gave him any higher than 18.9% of the vote in his 14 years on their ballot. Anyone elected to the Hall must reach a 75% threshold.
He died at 78 in 2020, shortly after the Phillies retired his No. 15.
Parker played 19 years in the big leagues for six different teams, 11 of them with the Pittsburgh Pirates , hitting .290 with 339 home runs and 1,493 RBIs.
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Donaldson and Harris were black players who were barred by Major League Baseball until Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. Garvey's appearance was his sixth on either the Veterans Committee or Era Committee ballots after 15 years on the BBWAA ballot, where he never garnered more than 42.6 percent. He found similar approval with the voters of California, earning 41.1% of the vote in a loss to U.S. Senator Adam Schiff in November's election.
Donaldson was a left-handed pitcher who won 413 games, struck out 5,091 batters and pitched 14 no-hitters — two of them perfect games, during the early 20th century before the Negro Leagues were born.
Harris was a player/manager with the Homestead Grays who had a .305 lifetime average and a 114 OPS+.
Ichiro Suzuki and CC Sabathia headline the first-time candidates on the most recent writers' ballot. BBWAA voters will have until Dec. 31 to submit their ballots; results will be announced Jan. 21 in Cooperstown, N.Y. The winners will join Parker and Allen's family for the annual induction ceremony on July 17 on the stage behind the Clark Sports Center.
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Ichiro and Sabathia are the top contending candidates for election on the first ballot. They will be joined by Felix Hernandez , Dustin Pedroia , Troy Tulowitzki and Hanley Ramirez , none of whom figures to get close to the 75% threshold needed to be elected.
The one returning candidate with a good chance of making it is reliever Billy Wagner, who is in his 10th and final year on the BBWAA ballot and missed the threshold earlier this year by only five votes. Andruw Jones, Carlos Beltran , Jimmy Rollins , Chase Utley , Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez are among the more notable returning candidates, the last two tainted by their performance-enhancing drug suspensions from Major League Baseball.
Ichiro should be a slam dunk thanks to 3,089 hits in 19 MLB seasons and his record combined 4,367 hits, including nine seasons playing in Japan. Pete Rose had 4,256 in 24 Major League seasons. Suzuki amassed 200 or more hits for the Seattle Marines during his first 10 seasons in the U.S., a record 262 in 2004. He'd be the first Japanese player elected to the Hall.
A first-ballot case can also be made for Sabathia with his 251 wins and 3,093 strikeouts in 19 seasons, the last 11 for the New York Yankees . But the BBWAA electorate has been stingy before about electing pitchers, taking six years to enshrine Mike Mussina, who had 270 wins, but a 3.68 ERA pitching his entire 18-year career in the tough American League East for the Yankees and Baltimore Orioles .
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