Dick Allen Is a Rich Tapestry of Human Emotions

As I noted in these pages yesterday while discussing D.J. Dayn Perry’s book on Reggie Jackson, former Phillie and Outspoken Black Man Dick Allen posted career numbers either on-par with, or slightly better than, recent Hall of Fame inductees Andre Dawson and Jim Rice — and, yet, never received even as much as 19% of the BBWA’s votes for said honor.

Since my last dispatch to these pages, at least five or six minutes of my life have been dedicated to the better understanding of Dick Allen and his contributions to society.

A place to start, for example, is with this curious note on Allen’s Wikipedia page:

In 2010, Brazilian pop star Ana Volans rerecorded Echoes of November. Her rendition of Echoes of November sold briskly in Brazil, and the CD’s jacket contains a dedication to Dick Allen and his Hall of Fame candidacy.

“Say wha-?” is a totally appropriate reaction to said note. And yet, as always, the internet is 110% accurate, as the video at the top of this post proves.

“What relevance might this have to Allen?” is maybe a second reaction-slash-question you’re having. And to that, I offer you the following — i.e. a recording of Allen himself singing the same song, circa the late-1960s.

Allen’s contributions to the public imagination have not gone unnoticed by Kris Liakos, who celebrated the man, the myth this past summer at Walkoff Walk. Nor has his Hall of Fame case been entirely abandoned, as blogger “Andy”‘s Dick Allen Hall of Fame makes clear.