Article:Overlooked for the Hall of Fame, or just not good enough?

Simultaneous to this thread on the Retrosheet was another conversation regarding the merits of two Veteran's Committee candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. One player spent his entire fifteen year career in the Windy City, fourteen of them on the North Side, that being Ron Santo.

Santo is often mentioned as one of the more over-looked Hall of Fame candidates. He finished his career with a lifetime average of .277, with 342 homers and 1331 RBI's, was a nine time All-Star and won five (consecutively) Gold Gloves while manning third base for a usually poor Chicago Cubs. Santo, I believe, was hurt by two primary factors. First, for whatever reason, third baseman historically do not fare well on the Hall of Fame ballots. There are 13 Hall of Famers enshrined in Cooperstown, with three of them elected by the Negro Leagues Committee. So there are really only nine actual full-time thirdbaseman in the Hall. Santo does compare favorably to some of the third baseman in the Hall, but there are others, such as Greg Nettles and Darrell Evans, who compare even more so who received less voting support than Santo. In his first season on the ballot, Santo received just 15 votes, which totaled 3.9% of the total votes cast, thus he was permanently removed from further consideration until becoming eligible for the Vet's Committee vote in 1996.

The second reason which I believe hurt Santo was, despite spending his career with poor teams, (at or below .500 in eight of his fourteen seasons, with no postseason appearances) was the fact he actually played most of his career with three Hall of Fame teammates. Ernie Banks, Ferguson Jenkins and Billy Williams. From Banks' rookie year in 1955, until 1974, when all three had moved on, the Cubs had only seven .500 seasons and only two with finishes above third place. It is hard to envision three HOFers coming from such a downtrodden organization much less four, and with Jenkins, Banks and Williams qualifications being undeniable, Santo, rightly or not, has been left on the outside.

The other player in the discussion spent only three of his fifteen seasons in Chicago, all on the South Side. The National League Rookie of the Year in 1964 with the Philadelphia Phillies and the 1972 American League MVP in 1972 with the Sox, he was a seven time All-Star (at two different positions), with a .292 lifetime average, 351 homers and 1119 RBI's. This player? Dick Allen]

Allen broke in with the infamous 1964 Phillies. That season he played in all 162 games and led the NL in runs, total bases, triples and extra base hits while amassing 201 hits and finishing with a .318 average. Allen went on to hit over .300 in each of his first four seasons and seven times overall during his career. Allen also led both leagues in slugging percentage, (the AL twice), the AL twice in homers, playing in an era sometimes referred to as the "second deadball era." Allen's career slugging percentage of .534 places him 42nd all-time, at the time of his retirement in 1977 he ranked 19th. Of all the players ahead of him on the list, only Mark McGwire is not in the Hall of Fame who is eligible.

Compared to his power, Allen was relatively small at 5'11, 190 pounds, yet swung a 40 ounce bat, (sometimes going up to 44 ounces). He was widely considered to be the best pure fastball hitter in baseball, combining great timing with natural strength. Allen is the only player ever to hit a ball over the left-field double decked grandstand at old Shibe Park] and routinely hit balls into the upper deck, a feat rarely accomplished in its sixty one year history. He was also the only righthanded hitter to clear the rightfield bleachers at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, and he holds the record for the longest homer to left field at old Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Allen was also less than enthusiastic about the defensive side of the game, twice leading the National League in errors at both first and third base.

Hurting Allen the most, however, what would be considered erratic behavior. In th early 1960's, African-American players had yet to be fully accepted across the Major Leagues, behavior which would have been considered acceptable by a white player was deemed to be "disruptive" when done by a black player. Allen had an infamous fight with Phillies teammate Frank Thomas in which Thomas was injured and missed time on the field. In 1967, he reported to a game with his arm heavily bandaged, his story was he had been pushing his car up a hill when his hand and arm went through the headlight. He was suspended multiple times during his time in Philadelphia, most of these occurrences the result of not knowing how to deal with his different approach then actual wrong doing.

Allen was a quiet, independent man, and when given the respect he felt he earned, played exceedingly well. After brief stops in St. Louis and Los Angeles, Allen thrived in Chicago under the relaxed managerial style of manager Chuck Tanner. His first season in Chicago, Allen almost singlehandedly got the Chisox into the postseason, taking a team which had won 79 games in 1971 to 87 wins in '72, finishing second, five and a half games behind the division winning Oakland Athletics. Allen was rewarded with his first MVP Award after leading the league in several offensive categories including homers (37). The following season the Sox again were in contention with Allen leading the way. On June 30th, in a game against the A's in Oakland, Allen suffered a broken left leg and missed the remainder of the season. At the time, the Sox were in third place in the AL West, one game behind the A's, with Allen leading the league in doubles and slugging percentage, second in homers and fourth in average. At the time of his injury, the Sox had a record of 38-33, without their offensive leader, they finished the season in a spin, falling to fifth place and ending the season with a 77-85 record.

Allen returned healthy in 1974 and again led the AL in homers and slugging, but his season ended on September 14th, ironically, after an altercation with none other than Ron Santo, who himself was in the final year of his career with the Sox after leaving the Cubs after the 1973 season. Following the season, the Sox sold Allen to the Atlanta Braves but Allen instead retired.

His old team, the Phillies, talked Allen into returning in 1975, and after two mediocre seasons there moved onto Oakland in 1977, where he again disappeared during the season after being told he was being made the team's full time DH, this time he left for good.

Like Santo, Allen himself was voted off the Hall of Fame island his first year of eligibility, receiving just 14 votes (3.7%). Both players have remained on the Veteran's Committee ballot, with Santo recently receiving a bit more support, likely sympathy votes due to his losing both his legs due to diabetes.

There has been support here on the 'Chair for Santo in the past, but not much, if anything, has been said about Dick Allen. Having seen him play, he was certainly a formidable player and if active today would be an ideal DH and would undoubtedly put up numbers equal to or better than David Ortiz and Travis Hafner, two other power hitting, defensively challenged players.

Being that the guy who started the discussion is from Chicago and by consensus feels Allen, and not Santo, is the most overlooked ex-Chicago player not in Cooperstown, the question is....what do you guys think?

(And as a reference, the hall of fame monitor on Baseball-Reference lists Santo as not quite good enough, with Allen just on the fence.)