Dick Allen, who was among baseball’s leading sluggers of the 1960s and early ’70s, playing mostly with the Phillies and Chicago White Sox, but who found himself a target of Philadelphia fans in his early years with the club, an outgrowth of racial animosity, died on Monday in Wampum, Pa. He was 78.

The Phillies announced his death.

Allen, who hit 351 home runs in his 15 major league seasons, was a seven-time All-Star: three times with the Phillies, once with the St. Louis Cardinals and three times with the White Sox. He was named the National League’s rookie of the year in 1964, with the Phillies, and the American League’s most valuable player in 1972, with the White Sox. He batted over .300 seven times.

The Phillies retired his uniform number, 15, in September.

“Dick will be remembered as not just one of the greatest and most popular players in our franchise’s history, but also as a courageous warrior who had to overcome far too many obstacles to reach the level he did,” the Phillies said in a statement.

Mike Schmidt, the Phillies’ Hall of Fame third baseman, said in a speech at a team ceremony honoring Allen in September that “Dick was a sensitive Black man who refused to be treated as a second-class citizen.”

Source: New York Times

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