July 3, 1965: Teammates Dick Allen, Frank Thomas trade blows before Phillies’ loss to Reds

An ugly incident on July 3, 1965, between budding superstar Dick Allen and veteran bench player Frank Thomas threatened to tear the Philadelphia Phillies apart. It began with some verbal sparring during batting practice and quickly escalated. Allen punched Thomas, who responded by striking Allen on the shoulder with his bat.1 It took seven or eight teammates to separate them.2

The combatants put on a brave face while they faced the Cincinnati Reds that evening. The 23-year-old Allen went 3-for-4 with two triples and four RBIs, while the 36-year-old Thomas clubbed a pinch-hit solo homer in the eighth inning to tie the game. It was not enough. Reds right fielder Frank Robinson went 4-for-5 with a homer and four RBIs to lead Cincinnati to a 10-8 win, snapping the Phillies’ six-game winning streak.

Allen had burst onto the scene with a historic rookie season in 1964. He won the National League Rookie of the Year Award handily, hitting .318 with 29 homers and 91 RBIs.3 Allen amassed 8.8 Baseball-Reference Wins Above Replacement (bWAR), the most for a rookie hitter up to that point in NL/AL history.4 He also broke the NL rookie record with 352 total bases, a mark that held up until Albert Pujols surpassed it in 2001.5

Allen’s performance had helped the 1964 Phillies build a 6½-game lead in the NL standings with just 12 games remaining. But Philadelphia lost 10 in a row and its lead evaporated. The Phillies finished tied with the Reds for second place, one game behind the eventual World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals. Allen could hardly be blamed for the collapse: He batted .415 and slugged .634 during the 10-game skid.

The Phillies and Reds were two of the six teams expected to contend for the NL pennant in 1965.6 After sitting in seventh place on Memorial Day, Philadelphia caught fire in June. A six-game winning streak from June 27 to July 2 moved the Phillies into fourth place with a 40-34 record, 3½ games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers. Allen went 10-for-20 during the six-game surge, taking over the lead in the NL batting race with a .335 average. On the same day as the Thomas incident, he was named the NL’s starting third baseman for the All-Star Game.7

Cincinnati − the NL’s youngest team − had lost three in a row coming into its July 3 contest in Philadelphia. The Reds were in second place, two games out of first. Sammy Ellis, a 24-year-old righty, got the start for Cincinnati. Aided by generous run support from the league’s best offense, Ellis had compiled a 12-3 record and a 3.16 ERA.8

The fight between Thomas and Allen took place in front of the batting cage as hundreds of fans were entering the ballpark. Less than two hours later,9 the first pitch of the game from Phillies starter Ray Herbert (3-4, 2.93 ERA) was smacked by left fielder Tommy Harper into the left-field bleachers for a home run.

Philadelphia tied the game in the bottom of the first without hitting the ball out of the infield. After leadoff batter John Briggs reached on an infield single, he advanced to second on a groundout and to third on a wild pitch. With two out, Allen surprised the Reds with a bunt single, plating Briggs.

Phillies first baseman Dick Stuart led off the bottom of the second with a home run to left-center field.

Philadelphia extended its lead to 3-1 in the third on a 425-foot triple to center field by Allen and an RBI single by left fielder Tony González.10 Reds manager Dick Sisler, whose dramatic 1950 homer had clinched the Phillies’ most recent pennant, yanked Ellis after just 2 1/3 innings.11 Righty Jim Duffalo escaped the frame without any further damage.

Herbert settled down after the Harper homer, scattering three singles in the first five innings. The sixth was a different story. Second baseman Pete Rose reached on a one-out double and scored when the next batter, Vada Pinson, doubled off the left-field wall. Robinson followed with a two-run homer, a “tape-measure poke” off the center-field roof, and the Reds led, 4-3.12

Duffalo, who had limited the Phillies to a single in 3 2/3 innings of relief, ran into trouble in the seventh. Philadelphia loaded the bases on a bloop single, a walk, and a bunt single. Lefty Billy McCool relieved Duffalo and he induced Johnny Callison to hit a grounder to Leo Cárdenas. The Gold Glove shortstop threw home wildly, everyone was safe, and the game was tied. The next pitch from McCool was slammed by Allen off the right-field wall for a bases-clearing triple and the Phillies took a 7-4 lead.13

The Reds stormed back in the eighth off righty Jack Baldschun.14 Back-to-back singles by Rose and Pinson put runners on the corners with nobody out. After Rose scored on Robinson’s infield single, Gordy Coleman drove in two more runs with a double to left-center and advanced to third on shortstop Bobby Wine’s throwing error on the relay to the plate. Baldschun, who had given up a hit to all four batters he faced, was replaced by righty Ed Roebuck. Two batters later, Cárdenas put the Reds up 8-7 with a sacrifice fly.

Thomas pinch-hit with two out and nobody on in the bottom of the eighth. He victimized McCool for a home run to left field, tying the game, 8-8. It was Thomas’s first homer of the season in 77 at-bats. It turned out to be his final plate appearance with the Phillies.

Cincinnati put a runner on third in the ninth on a single, a sacrifice, and a groundout. Rather than intentionally walk the dangerous Frank Robinson, the Phillies chose to pitch to him. Robinson lined a two-out single – his fourth hit of the game − into left field, scoring Harper with the go-ahead run. The Reds later added an insurance run on a single by Deron Johnson.15

Veteran righty Roger Craig came in for the bottom of the ninth. After Allen drew a leadoff walk, Craig retired the next three batters to preserve a messy 10-8 victory.

After the game, the Phillies announced that Thomas had been placed on “irrevocable” waivers “for the best interest of the club.”16 News of Thomas’s release made the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer even though he had just 220 at-bats in his 11 months as a Phillie.17 The Inquirer’s coverage described Allen as “sensitive,” noting that his only friend on the team was Wes Covington.18

Larry Merchant of the Philadelphia Daily News was supportive of Thomas and highly critical of Allen. Merchant reported that Allen called the 6-foot-3 Thomas “Lurch,” the Frankenstein-like character on the Addams Family TV show, and Thomas responded by saying Allen was like “Muhammed Clay [Muhammad Ali], always running off at the mouth.” Merchant implied that the comment triggered Allen to throw the first punch, writing that “his skin wasn’t so tough after all.” According to Merchant, “no racial remarks were exchanged.”19

Thomas said he regretted the incident and gave his side of the story in an exclusive interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer.20 But Phillies manager Gene Mauch had threatened to levy a large fine against any player who spoke about the incident, preventing Allen from telling his version of events.21

Allen knew there would be “big trouble” immediately after Thomas’s release. “Mother had always taught me to tell the truth, and now the Phillies were telling me not to,” he disclosed in his 1989 autobiography.22

But his mother, Era Allen, was free to speak. The Allen matriarch was in Philadelphia the night of the fight and she spoke to her son − a celebrated athlete in Western Pennsylvania − after the game.23 In a conversation with Al Abrams of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Era Allen said Dick told her that “he was within his rights to punch Thomas because he called Dick an awful dirty name.”24 She was not comfortable disclosing the insult to Abrams.

Era Allen was more candid when she spoke to a reporter from a Black newspaper. She told Eric Roberts of the Pittsburgh Courier that she had advised Dick to “[l]et the booing Philadelphia fans know that Frank Thomas twice called you ‘Black bastard’ before you found it impossible not to strike back.”25 Her disclosure was reprinted in the Philadelphia Tribune, but not in the newspapers read by White Phillies fans.26 Allen took the high road and apologized in a TV interview with Pittsburgh Pirates broadcaster Bob Prince.27

Many Phillies fans blamed Allen for Thomas’s release and from that point on he was vigorously booed at Connie Mack Stadium.28 His performance dropped off significantly with the hostile treatment.29 Before Thomas’s release, Allen’s slash line was .341/.426/.570. For the rest of the season, it was .271/.331/.432 – a 233-point drop in on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS).30

The Phillies treaded water for a week and then lost 8 of 10 games from July 10 to 23 to fall out of the race. They finished in sixth place with an 85-76-1 record, 11½ games behind the eventual World Series champion Dodgers.31

Allen soared to new heights in 1966, hitting 40 homers with 110 RBIs and leading the NL in slugging percentage (.632) and OPS (1.027). Perhaps his best season came in 1972 when he won the AL MVP Award with the Chicago White Sox.32 From 1964 to 1974, Allen led all major-league hitters with an adjusted OPS (OPS+) of 165.33

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mike Huber and copy-edited by Len Levin. The author thanks John Fredland and Kurt Blumenau for providing valuable feedback on an earlier version of this article.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, Retrosheet.org, and the SABR biography of Dick Allen. Unless otherwise noted, all detailed play-by-play information for this game was taken from the article “Quaker Win Streak Ends Despite 4 RBIs by Allen” in the July 4, 1965, edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI196507030.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1965/B07030PHI1965.htm   

Photo credit

Dick Allen, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

Notes

1 The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Thomas swung his bat and hit Allen with a “glancing blow.” In Allen’s 1989 autobiography, he disclosed that his shoulder “hurt like hell” after the July 3 game and was twice its normal size. “Thomas Goes to Bat in Fight,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 4, 1965: 1; Dick Allen and Tom Whitaker, Crash: The Life and Times of Dick Allen (New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1989), 7.

2 United Press International, “Thomas Waived After Fist Fight with Rich Allen,” Pittsburgh Press, July 4, 1965: 4-1

3 Allen played in all 162 games and led the league in runs scored (125), total bases (352), and triples (13). (Ron Santo also had 13 triples.) Allen led the NL by a wide margin in Championship Win Probability Added (cWPA). Allen compiled 19.1 cWPA; Willie Mays was second with 12.9 cWPA. He also led the league with 138 strikeouts and 41 errors.

4 As of the end of the 2024 season, the only NL or AL hitter to record more bWAR in his rookie season was Mike Trout in 2012 (10.5 bWAR). Allen still held the NL record.

5 As of the end of the 2024 season, Pujols was the only NL rookie to record more total bases (360) than Allen.

6 Jack Hand (Associated Press), “9 Tilts Today Open Major League Play,” Vicksburg (Mississippi) Post, April 12, 1965: 7.

7 The starting position players for the July 13, 1965, All-Star Game were selected in a vote by players, coaches, and managers. Allen received 137 votes at third base; Ron Santo was second with 85 votes. It was the first of seven All-Star selections in Allen’s 15 years in the big leagues. Associated Press, “Allen Is NL’s All-Star at Third Base,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 4, 1965: 5-1.

8 Ellis was one of six Cincinnati Reds named to the All-Star team in 1965. He finished the season 22-10 despite tying for the major-league lead in earned runs allowed (111) and compiling a mediocre 3.79 ERA. The Reds averaged 5.7 runs per game in his starts. He went 29-43 with a 4.52 ERA for the remainder of his major-league career.

9 “Thomas Goes to Bat in Fight.”

10 Associated Press, “Redlegs Edge Phils, 10-8 to Halt Skein,” Idaho Statesman (Boise), July 4, 1965: B-2.

11 Ellis gave up three earned runs on seven hits, no walks, and two strikeouts. Ellis’s previous two outings went into extra innings; he had tossed 25 innings in the eight days prior to this outing.

12 Lou Smith, “Robby’s 4th Hit Decides It in 9th,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 4, 1965: C-1.

13 Smith, “Robby’s 4th Hit Decides It in 9th.”

14 Baldschun entered the game in the eighth. Rookie Gary Wagner, who had pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings, took over from Herbert with two out in the sixth.

15 Marty Keough, who ran for Coleman in the eighth inning and took over at first base, singled prior to Johnson’s run-scoring hit.

16 “Thomas Goes to Bat in Fight.”

17 Thomas was traded to the Phillies by the New York Mets for Wayne Graham, Gary Kroll, and cash on August 7, 1964. The Houston Astros purchased Thomas’s contract on July 10, 1965. He appeared in only 43 more major-league games after the fight with Allen.

18 “Thomas Goes to Bat in Fight.”

19 Larry Merchant, “Fighting Phil Waived Goodbye,” Philadelphia Daily News, July 6, 1965: 62.

20 Allen Lewis, “Thomas Regrets Fight, Calls Waiver Unfair,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 5, 1965: 20.

21 According to Allen’s SABR biography, he was subject to a $2,000 fine for speaking about the incident. The rest of the Phillies were subject to a $1,000 fine. According to Allen’s 1989 autobiography, those figures were $2,500 and $1,500 respectively. Rich D’Ambrosio, “Dick Allen,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/dick-allen, accessed November 21, 2024; Allen and Whitaker, 8.

22 Allen and Whitaker, 10.

23 The Allens were from Wampum, Pennsylvania, which is about 40 miles from downtown Pittsburgh. Dick had been a baseball and basketball star at Wampum High School.

24 Al Abrams, “Sidelight on Sports,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 8, 1965: 23.

25 “Thomas Used Racial Insult,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 10, 1965: 1; Chris J. Perry Jr., “Frank Thomas Called Dick, ‘A Black B…..d’!” Philadelphia Tribune, July 10, 1965: 1; Mitchell Nathanson, God Almighty Hisself: The Life and Legacy of Dick Allen (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), 81.

26 Perry, “Frank Thomas Called Dick, ‘A Black B…..d’!”

27 Prince interviewed Allen after a July 7 game between the Phillies and Pirates in Philadelphia. Allen declined to give his version of events. He said the published reports of the incident were inaccurate “but I won’t say anything that might hurt [Thomas] to get a job.” Larry Merchant, “Two Games and an Apology at Richie Allen Dell,” Philadelphia Daily News, July 8, 1965: 52.

28 It was by no means the first time Allen had been booed by Phillies fans. Claude E. Harrison Jr., “R. Allen Has No Competition for NL Rookie Award,” Philadelphia Tribune, September 1, 1964: 11.

29 The hostility went far beyond boos and pro-Thomas banners at Connie Mack Stadium. Philadelphia fans hurled racist slurs at him and one fan sucker-punched him as he walked from the dugout to the clubhouse. He received racist and threatening letters and phone calls at home. One night someone drove a car on his front lawn and tore up the grass. Another time someone spread garbage on his front lawn. Allen and Whitaker, 58-60.

30 The three figures in a slash line are batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage.

31 The Reds finished in fourth place with an 89-73 record.

32 The Phillies traded Allen to the Cardinals on October 7, 1969, as part of the landmark trade of Curt Flood. Allen was traded to the Dodgers after the 1970 season and to the White Sox after the 1971 season. In 1972 Allen hit .308 with 37 homers and 113 RBIs. He amassed 8.6 bWAR and led the majors with a 1.023 OPS.

33 Players with at least 2,500 plate appearances between 1964 and 1974 were included. An OPS+ of 165 means that Allen’s OPS was 65 percent above average after adjusting for park effects. The closest hitters to Allen in this period were Willie McCovey (161 OPS+), Frank Robinson (159), Henry Aaron (159), Willie Stargell (154), Reggie Jackson (152), and Roberto Clemente (151).