The Baseball Hall of Fame will be inducting two new members from the Classic Era at next July’s induction ceremony.
Dick Allen and Dave Parker were announced as the newest Hall of Fame inductees on Sunday night. They received at least 12 votes from the 16-person committee. The Classic Era ballot featured players, managers, umpires and executives whose primary contribution to the game came before 1980.
Allen was on 13 of 16 ballots on Sunday. Parker was on 14 of 16 ballots. They were the only two players on the ballot who hit the 75% threshold necessary to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
This year’s Classic Era committee included six Hall of Fame players, five former executives and five historians or media members. Ozzie Smith, Lee Smith, Paul Molitor, Eddie Murray, Joe Torre and Tony Pérez were appointed as the six players. Sandy Alderson, Terry McGuirk, Dayton Moore, Arte Moreno and Brian Sabean were appointed as former executives, and Bob Elliot, Leslie Heaphy, Steve Hirdt, Dick Kaegel and Larry Lester were the media/historian contributors.
Parker spent 19 years in the league. He earned seven All-Star nods and won back-to-back NL batting titles in 1977 and 1978, which was the same year he was named NL MVP. He won two World Series titles throughout his career, too, first with the Pittsburgh Pirates and then again with the Oakland A’s.
Allen has been close to immortality two other times. He fell one vote short when he was considered for induction in 2015, and again was one vote short when he was considered 2021, just over a year after his death. This time, there won’t be a next time. Allen, whose exclusion from the Hall has long been a glaring omission, has finally gotten the call.
The 1964 National League Rookie of the Year and 1972 American League MVP, Allen came up with the Philadelphia Phillies (famously the last NL team to integrate) and was their first Black star. Despite his stellar play, the Phillies maintained an acrimonious relationship with Allen, insisting on calling him “Richie” when his preferred name was Dick and refusing to support him in the media. He asked the Phillies to trade him before the 1970 season and got his wish. The Phillies traded him to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for Curt Flood, who famously refused to report to the Phillies after the trade, which eventually led to the creation of free agency.
Allen landed with the Dodgers after a season with the Cards, and was traded to the Chicago White Sox in 1972. He spent just three seasons on the South Side, but between his MVP award and his signature look (big sideburns, big glasses, and a big Fu Manchu mustache), he made a huge impression and remains beloved by White Sox fans.
It was a longer road to “beloved” status for Allen and Phillies fans. He returned to the team for the 1975 and 1976 seasons, but didn’t have a career renaissance. He retired following the 1977 season with a career .292/.378/.534 batting line, with 351 home runs and 320 doubles. Many of Allen’s White Sox teammates continue to speak glowingly of him, and have actively campaigned for his Hall of Fame election. The Phillies retired his number, just the sixth ever retired in the history of the franchise, in September 2020, just two months before his death.
There were six other players on the Classic Era ballot that didn’t make it in on Sunday. Tommy John was the closest, though he received just seven votes. Ken Boyer, John Donaldson, Steve Garvey, Vic Harris and Luis Tiant all received five votes or fewer.
