He struck out, they hated him, he homered, they loved him. Richie, Dick, whatever you called him, it seemed that it was always the wrong thing. America was trying to deal with race riots, Martin Luther King, black ghettos, high unemployment in the black community.
When we look at Allen, you see he had excellant years, but there was the thought he was under achieving. That he had more to give, but why should he, the "man" didn't appreciate his talents, and the world was against him.
He moved on to St.Louis, Chicago and Oakland...ever trying to find a spot where tolerance, acceptance were not just preached, but a way of life. He felt it sporadically, but never walked in a club house and felt comfortable. He was always wearing tight shoes, and therefore never seemed happy, and therefore was an outsider in a club house of baseball players. Trying to blend in, but never accomplishing that goal.
Allen sometimes clashed with teammates, though his celebrated 1965 fight with slugger Frank Thomas appears to have been justified. After Thomas repeatedly called his African-American teammate Johnny Briggs “boy” and compared Allen to “Muhammad Clay” (a cutting reference to Muhammad Ali), Allen exchanged angry words with the veteran slugger. For this, Allen deserves applause, not ridicule. Later on, as the Phillies took batting practice, Allen and Thomas grappled near the batting cage, and Thomas hit Allen in the shoulder with his bat. Although his shoulder bothered him from time to time that season, Allen escaped serious injury.
Some of Allen’s problems were self-inflicted; others were created by a 1960s American culture that was still plagued by deep-seated racism and segregation. After signing with the Phillies, the youthful Richie Allen reported to the team’s minor-league affiliate in Little Rock, Ark. A number of fans greeted him by marching in a protest parade, furious that he was about to become the first black ballplayer in the city’s minor-league history. During the interview with Costas, Allen revealed that after one game he returned to his car to find that vandals had spray-painted the words “N**** Go Home” on the vehicle. Although he was treated by many citizens of Little Rock as an outcast (or less), he led the league in total bases and earned a fast promotion to the parent Phillies.
Sometimes history lessons are painful, sometimes it is no one's fault, but the American experience of white versus black was never more evident than with Rich, donèt call me Dick Allen.
We should remember Allen for being an exceptional player, but the colour barrier and they both Philly and he handled things leave us wondering.
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