Quote:
Originally Posted by jayshum
I can't find the recent article I was reading about this, but here's a link to an older one. Also, one of the reasons he didn't get along with the media (at least in Philly) is because they refused to use his preferred name when writing about him which was Dick not Richie.
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/...21g1mm49z9wvnr |
Dick Allen is certainly a controversial figure.
Here is another article, which was written in SABR magazine in 1995 and reposted here about the subject:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190411...ory=11&id=2065
Gene Mauch managed Allen longer than any other manager, and had this to say about Allen:
"I've never been in contact with a greater talent. He was held in absolute awe by every player in the league. He had tremendous power. He had a great feel for the game, and he was one of the finest base runners -- which is different from base stealing -- that I ever saw. If I was managing California today and Allen was in his prime, I'd take him in a minute."
James' basic complaint against Allen is that he was a divisive presence on his teams, that: "Every team that he played for degenerated into warring camps of pro-Dick Allen and anti-Dick Allen factions." When Mauch was asked if that was true with any of his teams, he was emphatic in his denial, "Never. His teammates always liked him. You could go forever and not meet a more charming fellow." Later in the interview he came back to this topic to make the following point:
"He wasn't doing anything to hurt [his teammates] play of the game, and he didn't involve his teammates in his problems. When he was personally rebellious, he didn't try to bring other players into it."
Chuck Tanner, his coach while with with the White Sox had this to say: "Dick was the leader of our team, the captain, the manager on the field. He took care of the young kids, took them under his wing. And he played every game as if it was his last day on earth."
Manager Red Schoendienst who coached him in St. Louis remembered Dick this way:
"He did a real fine job for me. He had a great year, led our team in RBIs, and he never gave me any trouble. ... I planned on using him at first base, but with [Mike] Shannon's illness, I had to use him some at third base, and I played him a few games in the outfield, too. He was good about that."
When asked if Allen was a divisive presence among his teammates, Red said, "Absolutely not. He was great in our clubhouse. He got along with everybody. He wasn't a rah-rah guy, but he came to play. They respected him, and they liked him."
When White Sox GM Roland Holland was asked whether the team ever divided into pro-Allen and anti-Allen groups, he said, "No, there was none of that" and when Tanner was asked the same question about Bill James' criticism of Allen as a disruptive presence on a team Tanner said, "He's full of #@#@#@#@, and you be sure to tell him that."
In his biography Clearing Bases, Mike Schmidt credited Dick Allen in as his mentor. According to Schmidt "
The baseball writers used to claim that Dick would divide the clubhouse along racial lines. That was a lie. The truth is that Dick never divided any clubhouse."
Perhaps some of this is revisionist history, but I am glad Allen finally got in, and think he was deserving.