Love him or hate him, Dick Allen was absolutely feared as a hitter in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Of course he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame — all you have to do is look at his his career OPS of .912, and compare it to contemporaries like Roberto Clemente, Ernie Banks and Carl Yastrzemski. He was simply a better hitter — the numbers don't lie. Also compare his numbers to another Southsider in Cooperstown, Harold Baines. The supposed knock on Allen, that he was a miserable person, came from the media, which can be terribly biased and unfair (I'm a newspaper reporter). For a better assessment of his character, I'll go with the opinions of his primary managers, Gene Mauch and Chuck Tanner, who each said he was a good teammate. Rest in peace.
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