{"id":104660,"date":"2025-07-23T20:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T00:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=104660"},"modified":"2025-07-23T20:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T00:47:10","slug":"dick-allen-chili-dog-home-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/07\/23\/dick-allen-chili-dog-home-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Dick Allen\u2019s \u201cChili Dog Home Run\u201d Remembered"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dick Allen<\/a> had a 1972 season for the ages, and nothing was more magical than the \u201cChili Dog Home Run.\u201d That year, Allen hit .308\/.420\/.603, 37 HR, and 113 RBI for the Chicago White Sox while winning the American League Most Valuable Player Award and leading the AL or the majors in several offensive categories. With Allen being posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame<\/a> on Sunday, let\u2019s revisit June 4, 1972.<\/p>\n

June 4, 1972: Dick Allen Hits the \u201cChili Dog Home Run\u201d<\/h2>\n

Allen didn\u2019t even want to play for the White Sox. Playing as Richie Allen, he had spent six tumultuous seasons<\/a> from 1963-69 in Philadelphia, where he was the center of controversy and a frequent target of harassment from so-called fans. The Phillies traded him to the St. Louis Cardinals for the 1970 season. Allen enjoyed his season there but was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 1971 campaign. He was disappointed to read that the Cardinals\u2019 reasoning for the trade was to \u201cimprove team morale.\u201d He didn\u2019t like playing for the Dodgers. Too many guys for whom baseball was secondary, Allen told Dave Nightengale of The Chicago Daily News<\/em> in 1972. \u201cIt was everything but baseball for the Dodgers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI Really Feel Wanted\u201d<\/h3>\n

When the Dodgers traded him to the White Sox in December 1971, Allen didn\u2019t want to play professional baseball any longer. In 1971, the White Sox finished the season 79-83, in third place in the AL West Division. There wasn\u2019t much excitement over the team on Chicago\u2019s South Side. From 1968-70, they lost 295 games. Manager Chuck Tanner<\/a> and general manager Stuart Holcomb thought that a hitter of Allen\u2019s caliber could put them over the top. However, after spending four months trying to convince Allen to join the White Sox, Tanner did an end run. Tanner knew Allen\u2019s family. Tanner was a lifelong resident of New Castle, a town 53 miles from Pittsburgh and nine miles from Allen\u2019s hometown, Wampum. He placed a call to Allen\u2019s mother, who convinced her son to go to Chicago.<\/p>\n

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Aug 1974; Cleveland, OH, USA; FILE PHOTO; Chicago White Sox first baseman Dick Allen (15) at bat against the Cleveland Indians at Cleveland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Allen had been notorious for skipping batting practice and arriving late for games. Tanner told him he could make his own schedule. Allen could decide whether to take batting practice or ask for a day off if he was tired. The White Sox would let him be known as Dick. That\u2019s what they called him in Wampum. It was the Phillies’ publicity department that felt he should be known as Richie. \u201cI really feel wanted,\u201d Allen told Nightengale about Chicago.<\/p>\n

The Favorite Season<\/h3>\n

Although the White Sox would finish second in the division to the eventual World Series champion Oakland Athletics<\/a> in 1972, and would win the World Series in 2005, their first since 1917, many White Sox fans old enough to remember will tell you that 1972 was their favorite baseball season. The White Sox entered the June 4, 1972 Sunday doubleheader with the New York Yankees at Comiskey Park at 23-17, 3 \u00bd games behind the division-leading A\u2019s.<\/p>\n

On June 3, knuckleball specialist Wilbur Wood<\/a>, consistently starting on two days’ rest, was 8-3 with a 1.84 ERA. Sophomore reliever Terry Forster<\/a> was turning in solid work with a 1.96 ERA and six saves. Oh \u2013 and the right-handed hitting Allen was the AL\u2019s most dangerous hitter, slashing .322\/.425\/.555, 8 HR, and 33 RBI while playing in all 40 games. A week after the Chili Dog Home Run, Dick Allen was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated<\/em>, walking along the Comiskey Park dugout in his home white-with-red-pinstripes uniform, juggling three baseballs as a cigarette dangled from his lips. With his thick sideburns almost meeting his mustache, he looked like somebody you\u2019d want to hang out with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Not Hitting\u201d<\/h3>\n

In front of a Bat Day crowd of 51,904, the White Sox won the first game, 6-1. Allen was 2-for-4 with a double and a steal of home. He\u2019d now played in every inning of all 41 of his team\u2019s games. Tanner gave him the second game off.<\/p>\n

But in that second game, with the Yankees leading, 4-2, in the bottom of the seventh, Tanner anticipated Yankees relief ace Sparky Lyle<\/a>, a left-hander, entering the game, and he wanted his right-handed slugger. He sent outfielder Jay Johnstone<\/a> into the clubhouse to tell Allen to get in the dugout. When he got there, Johnstone could hear Allen singing. In God Almighty Hisself: The Life and Legend of Dick Allen<\/em>, Johnstone told Allen biographer Mitchell Nathanson, \u201c[I]\u2019m thinking, \u2018He\u2019s really happy. I wonder what\u2019s making him so happy. Well, later I found out. He\u2019s sitting in the whirlpool, buck naked, drinking J&B [Scotch Whisky] right out of the bottle. . .\u201d Johnstone and teammate Ed Hermann tried to coax him into getting ready. Allen told them, \u201cI\u2019m not hitting. Chuck gave me the game off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTell Him I\u2019m Eating a Chili Dog\u201d<\/h3>\n

In the bottom of the ninth, Allen was still in the clubhouse, where clubhouse attendant Jim O\u2019Keefe had whipped up a large vat of chili. Allen was sitting at his locker, wearing nothing but his uniform jersey and shower slippers, eating a chili dog<\/a>. Outside, the Yankees still led, 4-2, but the White Sox were rallying. With one out, Bill Melton<\/a> walked, and Allen\u2019s replacement, Mike Andrews<\/a>, singled. Yankees manager Ralph Houk<\/a> strode to the mound to remove starter Mike Kekich<\/a> (who would become famous in a bizarre way<\/a> the next spring), signaling to the bullpen for Lyle, he of the 0.95 ERA and 10 saves. Now Tanner wanted Allen.<\/p>\n

Tanner dispatched batboy Rory Clark to the clubhouse to retrieve Allen. As Clark relayed it to authors John Owen and David J. Fletcher in Chili Dog MVP: Dick Allen, the \u201972 White Sox and a Transforming Chicago<\/em>, \u201cI said, \u2018Dick, Chuck wants you to pinch-hit.\u2019 And he looked at me like I was a Martian. He said, \u2018Tell him I\u2019m eating a chili dog.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Can you imagine being a batboy and telling that to a major league manager? Neither could Clark. He urged Allen to get dressed. Allen had spilled chili all over his jersey. He had to get into a full uniform, including a clean jersey, quickly. Allen went out to bat with no underclothes.<\/p>\n

At Last, the Chili Dog Home Run<\/h3>\n

The constant retellings make it seem like there was a delay while Allen dressed. However, listening to the Yankees radio broadcast, one finds that Allen is on deck as soon as Lyle is announced. Yankees play-by-play broadcaster Phil Rizzuto<\/a> called it \u201ca very dramatic moment in this game . . . the top relief pitcher in the American League, Sparky Lyle, [and] the top hitter in the American League, Richie Allen.\u201d Apparently, \u201cthe Scooter\u201d didn\u2019t get the memo about Allen\u2019s name change.<\/p>\n

\n

RIP Bill Melton. Pictured below: my 1972 Bill Melton mug and my 1972 Bill Melton home run king bat day bat from the Dick Allen Chili Dog Home Run walk off game. Also, Bill and Wilbur Wood with @played41<\/a> .
\nHe was the 1st White Sox power hitter in my lifetime. \ud83d\udc94 pic.twitter.com\/Ol1dtOIXwD<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 peter wilt – @pwilt1.bsky.social (@PeterWilt1) December 5, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n