The Braves demanded a top prospect from the loaded Phillies' system, plus a player the White Sox would take to complete the Allen deal. The return of Richard Anthony Allen to the organization that had signed him out of Wampum High School for a $60,000 bonus cost Owens outfielder Barry Bonnell, the Phils' No. 1 pick in the special-phase January draft of previously drafted but unsigned amateur players. The player handed off by the Braves to the White Sox was hard-nosed backup catcher Jim Essian, who later was the coach who replaced manager Don Zimmer after he was fired by the Cubs in 1991. Owens pried backup catcher Johnny Oates from the Braves, but it cost him $150,000 in cash. Bonnell and Essian played a total of 22 big-league seasons.
Bill Conlin: A stroll down Allens lane
(Page 3 of 3)
Story continues below.
At age 33, Allen was what they call a "shot fighter" around boxing. He wound up hitting a career-low .233 in 119 games with 12 homers. He played in just 85 games in 1976 when the Phils won their first NL East title, but banged 15 homers and hit .268. But he landed in Danny Ozark's doghouse. Later, he briefly left the club without permission after the Phils clinched the division in the first game of a Sunday doubleheader in Montreal to protest his friend Tony Taylor being left off the postseason roster.
Allen flew home to Philly while his teammates formally celebrated their title in St. Louis that night. His absence was noticed and unappreciated. Dick declared free agency and spent an unhappy final season in Oakland.
Maybe you really can't go home again. Seven years had flown by since Allen last went to spring training in Clearwater - Crash didn't like practice, either. The owners had locked their players out of 1976 spring training and the Phillies were holding informal workouts at Dunedin's Grant Field. Dick arrived in Clearwater and, just as he had done every other spring, strode into the lobby of the Ft. Harrison Hotel, ready to check in. He was stopped by a guard toting a shotgun. "Isn't this the headquarters of the Philadelphia Phillies?" Dick asked.
"No," the security guard replied, "It's the Eastern headquarters of the Church of Scientology."
Who knew? *
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