Dick Allen, who should be in baseball's Hall of Fame, dies at 78

Dick Allen

Dick Allen, one of four players to win an American League MVP award in a White Sox uniform, died Monday at age 78.

The right-handed-hitting slugger played in the majors from 1963 to 1977, mostly with the Philadelphia Phillies. He played three seasons with the White Sox from 1972 to 1974, and his first year on the South Side was the best of his career.

Allen won the 1972 American League MVP award, batting .308/.420/.603 with 37 home runs, 113 RBIs and a ridiculous 199 OPS+. He led the league in home runs, RBIs, walks (99), on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS and OPS+ in what was without a doubt one of the best single seasons ever posted by a White Sox player.

In 1974, Allen's last year with the Sox, he again led the AL in home runs with 32. All total, Allen batted .307/.398/.589 with 85 home runs and 242 RBIs in three years on the South Side.

We mourn the loss of Allen, while also pointing out that this man was very clearly a Hall of Fame player. He should be in Cooperstown, but isn't, and while he still might get there one day, it's unfortunate that he won't be around to receive that honor.

Allen was a seven-time All-Star, who won the National League Rookie of the Year award with the Phillies in 1964. He finished in the top 10 of the MVP voting three times in his career, and during his 11-year peak from 1964 to 1974, he led the league in offensive categories 19 times.

During those 11 years, his offensive WAR was 68.5, better than any other player of that time. That's no small statement, because Allen's contemporaries included Hank Aaron (63.9), Frank Robinson (59.0), Carl Yastrzemski (56.3), Joe Morgan (55.4) and Pete Rose (52.4).

Allen's OPS+ of 165 was also best during that 11-year peak, meaning he was 65% above league average for players at his position.

During that same time period, Allen ranked fourth in baseball in runs created and on-base percentage, fifth in home runs (with 319), sixth in WAR, seventh in RBIs, ninth in walks, 11th in batting average and 12th in doubles. 

Allen probably isn't in the Hall because he wasn't a good defensive player, and he wasn't well-liked by writers. To which I ask, who cares? Allen had a period of dominance that lasted more than 10 years, during which he was one of the best hitters in the game by any measure. That, to me, makes him a Hall of Famer.

In 2014, Allen fell one vote short of being elected to the Hall by baseball's Golden Era Committee. The committee was to meet and vote again this winter, but that meeting was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. (You mean to tell me they couldn't have met on Zoom like everybody else does these days?)

There was a chance Allen could have gotten the call this year, had that meeting happened. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. It's a shame. 

Pete Rose, Ichiro and other people with more than 4,000 professional hits

Ichiro Suzuki

Miami Marlins outfielder Ichiro Suzuki now has 4,257 hits in his professional career -- if you combine his numbers in the major leagues with his totals from the Japanese League.

Pete Rose, of course, holds the record for hits in the majors with 4,256. Ichiro passing that figure with his combined total has provoked plenty of discussion of late, and Baseball Digest posted a graphic on its Facebook page that I thought was interesting enough to share here.

We normally think of Rose and Ty Cobb as the only two men in the 4,000-hit club, because they are the only two to achieve that milestone in the big leagues. But what if we included all the other professional leagues -- all the minor leagues in the U.S., the Japanese League, the Mexican League, the Cuban League, the Negro Leagues, so on and so forth?

Baseball Digest's research turned up nine men who achieved 4,000 professional hits. Here they are, from highest to lowest:

Julio Franco

1. Rose
Majors: 4,256
Minors: 427
Total: 4,683

2. Cobb
Majors: 4,189
Minors: 166
Total: 4,355

3. Ichiro
Majors: 2,979
Japanese League: 1,278
Total: 4,257

4. Julio Franco
Majors: 2,586
Minors: 618
Mexican League: 316
Japanese League: 286
Dominican Winter League: 267
Korean League: 156
United Baseball League: 6
Total: 4,235

Minnie Minoso

5. Hank Aaron
Majors: 3,771
Minors: 324
Total: 4,095

6. Jigger Statz
Majors: 737
Minors: 3,356
Total: 4,093

7. Minnie Minoso
Majors 1,963
Minors: 429
Cuban League: 838
Mexican League: 715
Negro League: 128
Total: 4,073

8. Derek Jeter
Majors: 3,465
Minors: 554
Total: 4,019

9. Stan Musial
Majors: 3,630
Minors: 471
Total: 4,001

Stan Musial

The first thought that comes to mind when looking at this list is, who the hell is Jigger Statz? Well, he was born in Waukegan in 1897 and played eight big-league seasons, including four with the Cubs from 1922-25. He played his last game in the majors with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1928, but he continued to play in the minors until 1942, retiring just before his 45th birthday. I guess that's how you accumulate more than 3,000 minor league hits.

There are two players with White Sox ties on the list, the first of which is Julio Franco. I remember Franco playing shortstop with the Cleveland Indians when I was a little kid in the early 1980s. He was the designated hitter for the Sox in the ill-fated, strike-shortened season of 1994. He hit .319 with 20 home runs and 98 RBIs -- and remember, that season ended the second week of August. Franco's last game in the majors came as a 48-year-old with the Atlanta Braves in 2007. He collected six hits as a 55-year-old playing in the United Baseball League two years ago. I don't know if there's a more traveled player in the history of the game than Julio Franco.

Lastly, Minoso, aka Mr. White Sox, appears at No. 7. The only thing I can say about Minnie is this: How the hell is that man still not in the Hall of Fame? That injustice needs to be corrected. 

Chad Curtis: Idiot and convicted sex offender

Remember Chad Curtis? He is most famous for refusing to talk to Jim Gray after hitting a game-winning home run in Game 3 of the 1999 World Series. Gray had previously conducted an interview with Pete Rose, during which he tried to get Rose to admit he bet on baseball. Rose, of course, lied through his teeth as Gray questioned him. America (and Curtis), however, thought Gray was being mean-spirited, which led to the interview snub you see in the video above.

But now, Curtis, 44, can be famous for something else. He faces up to 15 years in prison after being convicted Friday of touching teenage girls. Loser.

I wonder if he did that for his grandma too.