2015 Topps Heritage the Originals - 1966 Topps

We have slowly been putting together a series of posts looking at different aspects of 1966 Topps/2015 Heritage.

 1966 Topps #80 Richie Allen
 
I haven't seen 2015H live yet, so most of these links are to posts that related to 1966 Topps. A few of these are for upcoming features that we hope to hit in the feature

Base cards #506 Bo Belinsky
Team Combo Cards
League Leader Cards (Ks Sonny Siebert Mystery)
Variations  #104 Alex Johnson (Traded Variation)
Phillies Checker comparison

HoF RC Fergie Jenkins
HoF Card and Hero Number #100 Sandy Koufax 
HoF RC Sutton 

Sources and Links
Dick Allen Player Collection Index

Golden Era HoF Ballot Dick Allen 1967 Topps #450

The most prominent Phillies player on the Golden Era Ballot is Dick Allen. Today I would like to take a look at his chances of getting selected.

1967 Topps #450 Richie Allen
1967 Topps #450 Dick Allen

Rather than going into detail about Dick Allen's on the field credentials or his complex off the field issues I would like to dissect his chances by analyzing the Golden Era Committee.

The GEC consists of 16 members, 12 Yes Votes (75%) gets you into the Hall

There are seven Hall of Fame Players on the committee
Jim Bunning - YES: Curmudgeon but was a former teammate
Rod Carew - YES
Fergie Jenkins - YES: Former Teammate
Al Kaline - YES
Joe Morgan - no: According to his ESPN B-cast nobody was as good as Joe
Ozze Smith - YES
Don Sutton - no: Allen wasn't particulary successful vs Sutton BA=.257 1 HR in 41 AB

Five Executives
Pat Gillick - YES: Gillick back with Phillies, Undertands what it would mean to Organization
Jim Frey - no: I was too lazy to figure out which Jim Frey this was so penciled him as a no
David Glass - no: Royals Owner is former CEO of Walmart. The man is into cost-cutting = minimalist

Roland Hemond - YES: As GM of  White Sox Hemond acquired Dick Allen
Bob Watson - YES: former player repping exec branch.

Four Media Members
Steve Hirdt - YES: Stats Guy - he will surely see Dick Allen's numbers
Dick Kaegel - YES: Covers Royals, probably in good mood.
Phil Pepe - no: in 2008 Pepe didn't see Andre Dawson as HoF and the Hawk has similar credentials to Dick Allen
Tracy Ringolsby - no: President of the BBWAA in 1986 when Allen appeared on less than 10% of ballot 

The Verdict
YES = 10 votes, No = 6 Votes. Dick Allen gets passed over. Pains me to say it but I am thinking my very unscientific survey will end up being pretty close to the actual results.

1967 Topps #450
1967 is the first time that Dick Allen has his position listed as an outfielder - well partially anyway. Perhaps if Allen had spent his entire career at third base he would garner more serious consideration for the Hall. I think some voters view him as more of a first baseman or outfielder even if his most prolific years were at third.

Sources & Links
2015 HoF Ballot Index
Dick Allen Player Collection Index 
Philadelphia Inquirer
Baseball-ref
SABR
Royals Review
Yes Network
Hall of Fame

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 & Links

1965 Topps Rookie Cup Team
1964 Phillies Series 
Dick Allen Player Collection Index
Baseball-ref
Wrigley Wax
baseball Card Database