Richie Allen and Dave Parker.

[jayshum]

Here's the article I was looking for, but it may be paywalled.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2025-cla...te-dick-allen/

From the article in case you can't get to it:

"Allen did nothing to deserve the racism and hatred he battled in Little Rock and Philadelphia, or the condescension of the lily-white, paternalistic media that refused to even call him by his correct name. To underplay the extent to which those forces shaped his conduct and his public persona thereafter is to hold him to an impossibly high standard; not everyone can be Jackie Robinson or Ernie Banks, nor should they have to be. The distortions that influenced the negative views of him — including Bill James’ crushing dismissal (“[Allen] did more to keep his teams from winning than anybody else who ever played major league baseball. And if that’s a Hall of Famer, I’m a lug nut.”) in The Politics of Glory — were damaging. To give them the upper hand is to reject honest inquiry into his career.

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."

[toppcat]

Dave Parker makes Harold Baines look like a first ballot HOF selection.

[Snapolit1]

I don’t think it would have taken much to convince the Dick Young’s of the world that Allen was some sort of violent black panther activist.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by toppcat

Dave Parker makes Harold Baines look like a first ballot HOF selection.

There were times when Parker was considered one of the top players in the game. I'm not sure the same was ever true about Baines.

[Bigdaddy]

Originally Posted by jayshum

There were times when Parker was considered one of the top players in the game. I'm not sure the same was ever true about Baines.

+1

Parker finished in the top 20 in MVP voting 9 times, Baines 4 times. Parker was in the top 10 6 times, winning once. Baines only made one appearance in the top 10 and that was a 9th place finish.

[jingram058]

Happy for Allen. Parker, not so sure. Once again, too many better ballplayers languishing in the Hall of Never Getting In, for whatever reasons.

But as others have said here, other than the HoF country club, and people on these forums, no one cares.

[Vintagedeputy]

Garvey snubbed again. Unreal.

[packs]

Pretty surprised Vic Harris got almost no support.

There needs to be another pre-integration vote for only pre-integration players to give proper focus and respect to this era of baseball. this committee does not take it seriously enough in its current iteration.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by Vintagedeputy

Garvey snubbed again. Unreal.

In my mind, Garvey’s mistake was all that BS with his personal life that caused his support on the writer’s ballot essentially to implode back in the 90’s and 00’s for a while when he was fresher in everyone’s collective memories. Once he moved on to the various iterations of the VC and “era” committees, sabermetrics had become a thing, and his shortcomings in certain career stats to me at least anyway seemed a lot more obvious.

For starters before you even get to that, he’s a 1B with less than 300 career HR. Most typical HOF 1B have power figures way beyond that. Only 38 career WAR and a .329 OBP don’t help him much either.

If it were up to me, I’d put him in; I’m for a (slightly anyway) “larger” Hall. Garvey certainly has the hardware accolades (An MVP, 10x AS, 4 GG, an AS MVP, an LCS MVP…) and there is at least a decent argument that he was the best 1B in the majors in the 1970’s. The problem though is now it’s been so long that he is getting that reputation as “best player not in the HOF” - which ironically before him seemed to be a distinction held forever by Gil Hodges. I don’t know if he overcomes that or not. It would seem to make sense that he would eventually, but who knows.


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[rats60]

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

+1

Parker finished in the top 20 in MVP voting 9 times, Baines 4 times. Parker was in the top 10 6 times, winning once. Baines only made one appearance in the top 10 and that was a 9th place finish.

Parker was top 5 five times and is 38th all time in MVP shares. Harold Baines is 673rd.

[brian1961]

The Baseball Hall of Fame had better put Dick Allen, and NOT Richie or Rich, on his plaque. That's the way Dick would want it. I know he's not around to say, but addressing him as Dick is what the man always wanted, in essentially the same way as Clemente always preferred Roberto.

I just wish Dick had lived long enough to see this day, and be at Cooperstown for his official enshrinement. Sadly, Dick's not the first, and won't be the last. --- Brian Powell

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by toppcat

Dave Parker makes Harold Baines look like a first ballot HOF selection.

My point, which could have been more elegant I guess, was to point out neither had a HOF career.

[Mungo Hungo]

Originally Posted by toppcat

My point, which could have been more elegant I guess, was to point out neither had a HOF career.

Maybe not, but Parker sure looked like a HOFer in the 70s. At the end of his first five seasons as a full-time starter, he was a superstar, right up there with Brett and the other players who broke in at around the same time.

I don't remember anyone every saying that Baines was a superstar ... because he just wasn't. If you take the best five individual years from the two players combined, arguably all five would be by Parker. Only one by Baines (1984) even merits consideration.

[bcbgcbrcb]

For all of the people who support Mattingly for election to the Hall (seems to me that at least as many as supported Parker) based on his peak 5 or so year run, Parker was only slightly less dominant during his mid-late 70's peak but following his ugly last few seasons in Pittsburgh, he went on to have nearly a decade of very productive numbers elsewhere while Mattingly pretty much fell off the face of the earth after his peak years. Yeah, he was injured, but that's part of his career as well.

The Cobra was my childhood favorite ballplayer and thrilled to finally see him get in after nearly 30 years of waiting.

[ALBB]

I think both were very good players. But neither HOF worthy

[jsfriedm]

There's no way they keep Andruw Jones or Jim Edmonds or even Dale Murphy out of the HOF if Dave Parker is in.