Dick Allen died earlier this month on December 7,2020 at the age of 78. Allen was the NL rookie of the year for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1964, the year I was born. He played for the White Sox form 1972 to 1974 and was a big part of the reason why I switched allegiances from the Chicago Cubs to their south side counterpart White Sox.
It transpired something like this. My sister was the grade ahead of me at school and achieved straight A's at school one year. Our school had a promotion with the White Sox that if you had straight A's or perfect attendance you would receive 2 vouchers for tickets to a White Sox game. My Dad took my sister to a game and I decided that the next year I would get perfect attendance and he could take me
Sure enough, the next year I had perfect attendance for the first and only time in my academic life. My Dad took me to a game in 1972 or out the roof shots and it was1973 against the Baltimore Orioles. He taught me how to keep score and Dick Allen hit a home run.
From that day on I was a White Sox fan. I watched games on T.V. and listened to the rest on the radio. I even became a country music fan as the White Sox games were broadcast on the local country station. The rest of the family remained Cubs fans (I still like the Cubs because no one told me other wise, ) but my exuberance was for the White Sox. Each year our family took a pilgrimage to Wrigley to watch a game. Each year my Dad found away usually near my birthday to take me to a White Sox game as well.
I liked all the players, Bucky Dent. Wilbur Wood, Jorge Orta, Bill Melton but Allen was by far my favorite. Over the years the players changed but my passion for the White Sox never ebbed. I have had many favorite White Sox players over the years Kessinger, Fisk, Thomas, Buehrle, and Konerko just to name a few, but those fond memories of watching Allen at first base or at the plate never did fully dissipate.
Click here to watch footage of Allen with commentary from teammate Bill Melton. I also have put some video and audio clips of Allen at my vlog, Dave Out Loud.
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