Former Chicago White Sox first baseman Dick Allen, credited by many for saving the franchise from relocation, died Monday after a long illness. He was 78.
Allen, a seven-time All-Star with the Philadelphia Phillies and the White Sox, arrived on the South Side after the 1971 season following a trade from the Los Angeles Dodgers and made Comiskey Park the place to be.
Attendance at Comiskey had fallen below 500,000 in 1970 and was barely over 830,000 when Allen joined a team that hadn’t won a pennant since 1959 and finished 22½ games out of first place in ’71.