. . World News – CA – Column: Dick Allen was only 3 years with the Chicago White Sox, but his influence has been immeasurable for fans and teammates alike. « You shouldn’t even have a hall of fame if he’s not there. « . ’

Growing up in Comiskey Park in the late 1960s and early 1970s was like building a giant playground just for you and your friends.

The Chicago White Sox weren’t a good team, and the baseball field was usually empty. You could go anywhere you wanted, so we’d spend much of the game walking across the huge hall from the home plate to the stands or venturing to the upper deck. A trip to Comiskey included a Sox game, but watching the Sox wasn’t why we left.

The Sox suddenly started winning again, the baseball field was overcrowded and whenever Allen stepped on the plate with his 40-ounce bat, the moment seemed frozen in time. Everyone was paying attention because every blow brought the promise of something they had never seen before.

Perhaps that was why Allen’s death on Monday at the age of 78 was felt by so many Chicagoans of a certain age.

Allen’s career on the South Side was just one slip in our lives as baseball lovers, spanning just three seasons from 1972 to 1974. He had been gone for nearly five decades and rarely returned to Chicago. There are no memories of his Sox career painted on the walls of Guaranteed Rate Field, as is the case for Bo Jackson, another legend who has played in just 108 games in a Sox uniform.

The franchise that helped everyone save has never fully recognized his contributions. So it was up to the Sox fans to keep the stories alive.

Fortunately, Sox fans remembered Allen as he confirmed during a phone interview I had with him last month. He called his stay in Chicago the best time of his career, and he remembered fans giving him his place and treating him like royalty, in stark contrast to his Philadelphia years when Allen was forced to wear a flap helmet on the field to carry dodging batteries thrown on his head.

« The picture you print, I’m not that guy, » he told me at the beginning of our conversation. « I don’t sound like that to myself. ”

I never knew Allen, but those who knew him best agreed. Former Sox teammates Bill Melton and Rich « Goose » Gossage called him a great teammate and a respected leader in the clubhouse.

« He was a real man, » said Gossage. “There was no nonsense in him. And when it came to baseball and he was in the dugout, we listened. He once said, « Why don’t you guys watch the game? » You could learn something. ‘

« Boy, you could hear a pin drop. You’re talking about badasses. He was a real ass. ”

They didn’t measure exit velocity back then, so we can’t prove Allen’s line drives were the hardest hit balls of his or any other era.

Gossage loves to tell the story of a line drive that Allen drove past Mickey Lolich’s ear at Tiger Stadium and « took off » the Detroit Tigers’ mug. Mickey Stanley, the Tigers midfielder, stepped in and watched him sail over his head towards the wall.

Lolich stayed on the ground for a while and then reporters asked if the liner had hit him.

« Because I thought it would ricochet off the fence and come back and kill me, » Lolich replied dryly.

The 1972 Sox team was a great thing, especially if you were a kid who was used to seeing them lose. They competed in the American League West against Oakland A, which was in the first year of their three consecutive World Series championship seasons.

The A’s had stars like Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter and Ken Holtzman. The Sox had Allen, Melton, Wilbur Wood, Stan Bahnsen, and two promising child helpers at Gossage and Terry Forster.

On Aug. . 6, the Sox followed the A’s by 4½ games. But they won 14 of their next 18 and rose 1½. Allen struck . 349 with a 1. 179 OPS during this stretch, including his legendary home run to midfield at Comiskey ahead of New York Yankees pitcher Lindy McDaniel.

In the end, the Sox weren’t up to any of the biggest teams in 60 years.

« But we gave them a run for their money, » said Gossage. “Dick put us on his shoulders and carried us all season. ”

Gossage, a Hall of Famer, credited Allen, manager Chuck Tanner, and pitching coach Johnny Sain for teaching him how to pitch in major leagues.

« All the stars were aligned when I hit the big leagues with the Sox, » he said. “I could throw a ball through a car wash without it getting wet, but I had no idea what a breaking ball, an off-speed pitch, or a change was. Then to meet Johnny Sain and Dick Allen, who puts me under his wing … « 

Allen told Gossage to throw in more often and let the thugs know that the inner half of the plate was his. Gossage was afraid he was going to hit someone in the head.

« He said, » Well the best you can do is drill some of these (beeps). . They all watch over there in that shelter, « said Gossage. “Bob Gibson always said, ‘Half of this plate is mine. It’s up to you to guess which half I’m coming in. ‘

« I was just a newbie. I didn’t know I was seeing the greatest player I have ever seen. And that’s quite a statement. I’ve played with Dave Parker, Willie Stargell, but I’ve never seen balls hit that hard. He’s done so many things that I’ve never seen or done since. Dick was the smartest baseball man I ever met. Chuck Tanner told me this before I found out for myself. It was an education all the money in the world couldn’t pay for. ”

Gossage broke down and wept as he thought of the time when Allen and Tanner showed up unannounced at his induction into the Hall of Fame and drove together from Pennsylvania to Cooperstown to be there for him. He’s upset that Allen didn’t live long enough to join him in the hall.

« He should be in the bloody Hall of Fame, » said Gossage. « You shouldn’t even have a hall of fame if he’s not there. ”

This terrible year has been a tough year for baseball legends. We lost Gibson, Tom Seaver, Al Kaline, Whitey Ford, Lou Brock and Joe Morgan, among others. Hall of Fame or not, Allen belongs to this group and his place in Sox history is assured.

« We lost a really good person and a great White Sox player, » said Melton. “And he should be spoken of in the White Sox lore for many, many years. ”

Dick Allen, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago White Sox, American League, Oakland Athletics, St. . Louis Cardinals, MLB