The Baseball Hall of Fame will be inducting two new members from the Classic Era at next July’s induction ceremony.
Dick Allen and Dave Parker were announced as the newest Hall of Fame inductees on Sunday night. They received at least 12 votes from the 16-person committee. The Classic Era ballot featured players, managers, umpires an executives whose primary contribution to the game came before 1980.
Allen was on 13 of 16 ballots on Sunday. Parker was on 14 of 16 ballots. They were the only two players on the ballot who hit the 75% threshold necessary to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
This year’s Classic Era committee included six Hall of Fame players, five former executives, and five historians or media members. Ozzie Smith, Lee Smith, Paul Molitor, Eddie Murray, Joe Torre and Tony Pérez were appointed as the six players. Sandy Alderson, Terry McGuirk, Dayton Moore, Arte Moreno and Brian Sabean were appointed as former executives, and Bob Elliot, Leslie Heaphy, Steve Hirdt, Dick Kaegel and Larry Lester.
Parker spent 19 years in the league before he retired. He earned seven All-Star nods and won back-to-back NL batting titles in both 1977 and 1978, which was the same year he was named the NL MVP. He won two World Series titles throughout his career, too, first with the Pittsburgh Pirates and then again with the Oakland A’s.
Allen has been close to immortality two other times. He fell one vote short when he was considered for induction in 2015, and again was one vote short when he was considered 2021, just over a year after his death. But this time, there won’t be a next time. Allen, whose exclusion from the Hall has long been a glaring omission, has finally gotten the call.
The 1964 National League Rookie of the Year and 1972 American League MVP, Allen came up with the Philadelphia Phillies (famously the last NL team to integrate) and was their first Black star. Despite his stellar play, the Phillies maintained an acrimonious relationship with Allen, insisting on calling him “Richie” when his preferred name was Dick and refusing to support him in the media. He asked the Phillies to trade him before the 1970 season and got his wish. The Phillies traded him to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for Curt Flood, who famously refused to report to the Phillies after the trade, which eventually led to the creation of free agency. (Flood…