Allen, "Dick" (Richard A.)
Baseball
b. March 8, 1942, Wampum, PA
Proud, outspoken, and independent, Allen was one of the first black professional athletes who was willing to be controversial. Partly as a result of that attitude, he was traded five times during his fifteen-year major league career.
Called "Richie" by sportswriters when he joined the Philadelphia Phillies at the end of the 1963 season, Allen soon insisted on being known as "Dick," and he won his point. He led the NL in triples with 13 and runs scored with 125 in 1964, his first full season in the majors.
The right-handed, 5-foot-11, 190-pound Allen was a fine hitter with power. His best year with the Phillies was 1966, when he batted .317 with 40 home runs, 110 RBI, and 112 runs scored, leading the league in slugging percentage at .632.
Late in the 1967 season, Allen began a campaign to get the Phillies to trade him by creating disciplinary problems. The front office wanted him to stay with the team and wouldn't allow managers to discipline him. As a result, manager Gene Mauch was fired and his successor, Bob Skinner, resigned.
Allen failed to show up for a doubleheader in June of 1969. He was suspended without pay for twenty-six days and then returned with an agreement that the Phillies would release him when the season was over.
He signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1970, then spent a season with the Los Angeles Dodgers before going to the AL with the Chicago White Sox in 1972. He was named the league's most valuable player after hitting .308 and leading the league in home runs with 37, in RBI with 113, and in slugging percentage with .603.
Allen was rewarded with a $225,000 contract in 1973, making him baseball's highest-paid player. Injuries limited him to just 72 games that season, but in 1974 he again led the AL in home runs with 32 and in slugging percentage with .563.
He returned to Phillies in 1975 and was a part-time player on the team that won the NL Eastern Division in 1976. Allen finished his career by playing in 54 games with the 1977 Oakland Athletics.
In 15 major league seasons, Allen batted .292 with 1,848 hits, including 320 doubles, 79 triples, and 351 home runs. He scored 1,099 runs and drove 1,119.