Eagles DC Vic Fangio honors his favorite Phillie and Hall of Famer Dick Allen

CBS News

7 days ago

Before waxing coach talk about his players Tuesday at training camp, Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio opened his press conference unveiling a prized recent gift: a Philadelphia Phillies No. 15 Dick Allen jersey.
"The guys, I asked them to get me this for me," Fangio said. "And they came through. My all-time favorite Phillie right there. He was their best player when I was young, and he was obviously a great player."
Allen was posthumously inducted Sunday into the Baseball Hall of Fame after a far-too-long push by his former teammates, family and friends. The former Phillies and White Sox slugger was called to the Hall in December by the Classic Baseball Era committee.
The Phillies retired Allen's No. 15 in 2020, months before he died at the age of 78.
Allen was the first Black superstar to play for the Phillies, who were one of the last MLB teams pre-expansion to integrate. Last season, the Phils unveiled a "Pioneers in Pinstripes" display at Citizens Bank Park honoring Allen, John Irving Kennedy — the first Black player to play for the franchise — and other trailblazers in the organization's integration history.
Allen finished his MLB career with 351 home runs and a .912 OPS in 15 seasons. He won the NL Rookie of the Year in 1964 with the Phillies. After facing racism for years in Philadelphia, Allen demanded a trade in 1970 and was moved to the St. Louis Cardinals. He spent a year with the Cardinals, then was traded to the Dodgers in 1971 and then to the White Sox in 1972, where he won the AL MVP. He finished his career with a 58.8 bWAR in an era largely defined by pitching dominance.
"Dick was a sensitive Black man who refused to be treated as a second-class citizen," Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt, Allen's former teammate in Philadelphia, said during the 2020 ceremony. "He played in front of home fans that were products of that racist era (with) racist teammates and different rules for Whites and Blacks. Fans threw stuff at him, and thus Dick wore a batting helmet throughout the whole game.
"They yelled degrading racial slurs," Schmidt added. "They dumped trash in his front yard at his home. In general, he was tormented and it came from all directions. And Dick rebelled."
Fangio doesn't shy away from his Philadelphia sports fandom. The Dunmore, Pennsylvania, native is a die-hard Phillies fan — he wore a Phillies hat during his first press conference of training camp last week. In 2017, Fangio told The Athletic that he doesn't "sleep at night until I know whether the Phillies won or lost. Even if they're on the West Coast."
On Tuesday, Fangio recalled playing 18 rounds of golf with Hall of Fame pitcher Rich "Goose" Gossage a couple of years ago. Gossage was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008.
During his Cooperstown speech, Gossage said Allen was the "greatest player I ever played with."
While golfing with Fangio, Gossage, who played with Allen with the White Sox, echoed that sentiment to the Birds' D-coordinator.
"We played 18 holes. We rode the same cart, and obviously, I talked baseball with him," Fangio said. "Said [Allen] was the best teammate he had ever had."