Tuesday, February 25, 2014

1964 Phillies @ 50: Dick Allen 1965 Topps #460

In 1964 the then 22 year old Dick Allen was the starting third baseman for every one of the '64 Phillies 162 games. He batted .318 with 29 Homers and 91 RBI and led the league in both Runs scored (125) and total bases (352).


1965 Topps #460 Richie Allen

Not only was Allen a member of the Topps All-Rookie team, He was also the overwhelming NL selection for Rookie of the Year, receiving 18 of the 20 RoY votes cast. His rookie numbers were so good that he finished 7th in the MVP voting and likely deserved better finishing 3rd in the league in WAR(8.8) trailing only Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Ron Santo.

The 64 Phillies may have collapsed in September, but none of that can be blamed on Dick Allen. Even during their 10 game losing streak he batted .415, slugged .634 - good enough for an OPS of 1.076.  

For various reasons Dick Allen wore out his welcome in Philadelphia and in 1969 he was traded. Allen and the Phillies eventually resolved their differences and he returned to the Phillies in 1975. A year later he helped the Phillies to make the playoffs, it was Allen's only appearance in the Postseason.

I believe that someday Dick Allen will get in the Hall of Fame. In addition to his Rookie of the Year award he took home MVP hardware in 1972 (White Sox).  For his career Allen hit 351 Homers and racked up 1119 RBI. He led the league multiple times in several key offensive categories: Home Runs (twice), OBP (twice 2), Slugging (3 times), OPS (4). His MVP was earned as he led the league in oWAR that season, the second time that he had done so (1966).  

Today Dick Allen is 71 and near as I can tell he is based out of Western Pennsylvania and maintains a fairly active Twitter account. He is a regular at Phillies Alumni events and always appears to be enjoying the festivities. 

1965 Topps
This card is doing double duty, in addition to being part of the 1964 Phillies retrospective, we are also using it as part of our 1965 Topps series. On this card we see the Rookie Cup Trophy icon which was in use for the 6th time in 1965.  The 64 Topps Rookie team is well represented in the 1965T set with members including Bert Campaneris, Rico Carty, Tony Conigliaro, and Tony Oliva.

In 2014 Heritage the Rookie Cup third baseman will be Nolan Arenado of the Rockies who we have seen already in flagship.  Since Dick Allen is #460 in 65T that means his card number will fall in the short print series in Heritage. It will be interesting to see what route Topps takes with the #460 card, They could put in current Phillies rookie 3B Cody Asche. or match the RC trophy with Arenado or more likely ignore Dick Allen altogether. 

Richie Allen
Early in his career Dick Allen played under the name Richie, which is his Topps On card name through 1969. In 1970 Topps he becomes Rich Allen, He finally becomes Dick Allen in 1973 Topps  

2014 Topps Heritage the Originals Index
Base Cards (John Herrnstein)
Rookie Cup (Dick Allen)


Sources
1964 Phillies Series 
Dick Allen Player Collection Index

Baseball-ref
Wrigley Wax
baseball Card Database

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