by Mark Langill
The timing of Dick Allen’s lone season in Los Angeles in 1971 left Dodger fans wondering what might’ve been. And his posthumous election to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday adds to the intrigue of Allen’s potential long-term impact on the Dodgers in the early 1970s.
Coming off a second-place season in 1970 in which the Dodgers (87–74) finished 14 1/2 games behind Cincinnati in the National League West, the Dodgers coveted Allen’s power after watching infielder Billy Grabarkewitz lead the team with 17 home runs.
Allen won NL Rookie of the Year honors with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1964, and he became one of the game’s most feared hitters. Between 1964 and 1969, Allen batted .300 in 856 games with the Phillies. He averaged 30 home runs and 90 RBI with a .555 slugging percentage.
The Dodgers acquired Allen in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals on Oct. 5, 1970, in exchange for infielder Ted Sizemore and catcher Bob Stinson.
With the 1971 Dodgers, Allen slashed .295/395/.468/.863 in 155 games with 23 home runs and 90 RBI.
But the Dodgers decided they needed more starting pitching after finishing one game behind San Francisco in the National League West. On Dec. 2, 1971, Los Angeles dealt Allen to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for left-hander Tommy John.
The trade worked well for both teams. Allen won American League MVP honors with Chicago in 1972, slashing .308/.420/.603/1.023 in 148 games with in 37 home runs and 113 RBI.
Between 1972 and 1978, John went 87–42 with a 2.97 ERA in 174 games for the Dodgers, including a 20-win season in 1977, two years after he underwent elbow ligament transplant surgery — an experimental procedure that today bears his name.
Allen spent three seasons with the White Sox and returned to the Phillies (1975–76), making his only career Postseason appearance in the 1976 NL Championship Series against Cincinnati. He retired after batting .240 in 54 games with the Oakland A’s in 1977.
Allen passed away in 2020 at age 78.
Overall, Allen was a seven-time All-Star who slashed .292/378/.534/.912 in 1,749 games with 351 home runs and 1,119 RBI.
Both John and Allen were on the Hall of Fame’s eight-player Classic Era Ballot that included former Dodger infielders Steve Garvey and Ken Boyer.
Allen and former outfielder Dave Parker received at least 75 percent of the votes required for election from the 16-member committee.
Dick Allen’s Hall of Fame career had a brief, powerful stop with the Dodgers was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.