The Phillies will wear a Dick Allen uniform patch, spotlighting his career as the Hall of Fame vote awaits

Allen, who died in December, is expected to be on the Hall of Fame's Golden Days Committee ballot in the fall of 2021.

Late Phillies great Dick Allen clapped during a retirement ceremony for his number 15 last year.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

Published March 8, 2021, 1:35 p.m. ET

The Phillies will play this season with Dick Allen on their sleeve, as they plan to wear a patch on their jerseys in memory of the late slugger.

Allen died in December, three months after the Phillies retired his No. 15. He played nine of his 15 major-league seasons with the Phillies, won the National League’s Rookie of the Year award in 1964, and was the franchise’s first Black star. Monday would have been Allen’s 79th birthday.

The patch will keep Allen’s career at the forefront ahead of his Hall of Fame vote in December. Allen is expected to be one of the 10 candidates on the Golden Days Committee ballot, which is reserved for candidates “whose primary contributions to the game came from 1950 to 1969.”

Allen missed election by one vote in 2014, the last time the committee met. If elected this year, Allen would be enshrined in the summer of 2022. The committee was scheduled to meet in December 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic forced the Hall of Fame to postpone the vote until 2021.

Allen’s Hall of Fame case failed to generate momentum with the baseball writers after he retired in 1977, but his credentials put him in the conversation for Cooperstown.

Allen’s 165 OPS+ from 1964 to 1973 led the majors, better than all-time greats such as Hank Aaron, Harmon Killebrew, and Willie McCovey. From 1880 to 1990, 24 players registered a slugging percentage of .510 or better over at least 6,300 plate appearances. Allen is the only one not in the Hall of Fame.

“If you go back in time and analyze Dick’s career and look at his career by applying the modern-day analytics, his numbers are far and above a lot of the guys who are in the Hall of Fame,” Mike Schmidt said. “That’s always one way to look at it: ‘Well, if he’s in the Hall of Fame, then he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.’ You’ll go nuts looking at things that way. You’ll also ruffle feathers if you do. But for me, it’s the simplest way to look at it.”

Allen was a seven-time All-Star, led his league in OPS four times, hit 30 or more homers six times, had six seasons of 90 or more RBIs, was the American League MVP with the Chicago White Sox in 1972 with a 199 OPS+, and finished his career with a .292 batting average.

Larry Bowa said Allen was a “great teammate and a great tutor for us” after Allen returned to the Phillies in 1975. Greg Luzinski said there’s “no question” Allen should be in the Hall of Fame. Hall of Famers Aaron, Willie Mays, and Goose Gossage all said Allen belongs in Cooperstown. Later this year, his career might finally get there. First, the Phillies will play a season with Allen on their sleeve.

“After a game, we would sit around and just talk baseball,” Bowa said. “Me, [Dave] Cash, [Garry] Maddox, Schmidty, Booney [Bob Boone], Bull [Luzinski]. We would just sit down, maybe have a beer or two. Win, lose or draw, it was always about baseball. The more you talked to him, the smarter he was. He would be like, ‘I would’ve done this.’ And you would say, ‘Wow.’ He was nine steps ahead of everybody. He reminded me a lot, baseball-wise as far as his mindset, of Pete Rose. Their baseball IQ not just hitting the baseball or catching it but going in between the lines and the strategy. An unbelievable mind.”