HOF Results

[jingram058]

For all the talk about Dick Allen quitting on various teams, hard to get along with, etc., I would be okay with him going in. He must have lost whatever chip he was carrying as time went by. He was known after hanging up the spikes as being quite fan friendly. I used to go to a forum back in the early 2000s that had numerous threads detailing how to contact ballplayers including old-timers. That was how I began a lengthy period of correspondence with Tommy Henrich. Well one of the threads listed info for Dick Allen. Many people commented that he happily signed photos, cards, what have you, and mailed them back. At no cost for signing. That says he must have been an okay guy to me.

[jayshum]

From Jay Jaffe's write-up on Dick Allen:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2022-gol...te-dick-allen/

"Sabermetrician Don Malcolm called that passage “the absolute nadir of Bill James’ career, a summary statement so blatantly biased that his long-time friend and associate Craig Wright felt compelled to write an essay refuting Bill’s perspective… Everyone knows that Dick Allen was a great hitter; there’s just all that other baggage that they’re afraid to open.” Having opened it, well, it’s not pretty, but by now it’s abundantly clear that it wasn’t all Allen’s baggage to begin with. Wright’s work, which featured interviews with all but one of Allen’s big league managers (the late Dodgers skipper Walter Alston) as well as several teammates, strongly refutes the notion that Allen was a divisive clubhouse presence or a particular problem for his managers aside from his early-career tardiness (and his extreme behavior in 1969). “His teammates always liked him,” said Mauch. “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.”

Even Skinner and Ozark, the two managers portrayed as the most openly critical of him, told Wright that Allen wasn’t the problem with their teams and that they’d have him back again if given the chance."

[Tabe]

Originally Posted by jingram058

For all the talk about Dick Allen quitting on various teams, hard to get along with, etc., I would be okay with him going in. He must have lost whatever chip he was carrying as time went by. He was known after hanging up the spikes as being quite fan friendly. I used to go to a forum back in the early 2000s that had numerous threads detailing how to contact ballplayers including old-timers. That was how I began a lengthy period of correspondence with Tommy Henrich. Well one of the threads listed info for Dick Allen. Many people commented that he happily signed photos, cards, what have you, and mailed them back. At no cost for signing. That says he must have been an okay guy to me.

He seems to be a complicated guy. He no-showed games in 1969 and walked away from his team in 1974 while feuding with Ron Santo but also clearly had some friends.