July 31, 1972: Dick Allen’s two inside-the-park home runs against Bert Blyleven spark White Sox win

Dick Allen joined the Chicago White Sox in a December 2, 1971, trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers.1 It was Allen’s third trade in three years.2 Despite telling the press that he was weary of moving to new teams, Allen joined the White Sox after encouragement from his mother, Era Allen. She knew Chicago manager Chuck Tanner when he played for a rival high school 10 miles from their Pennsylvania hometown. Dick Allen said his mother told him to “go help Chuck out.”3 After Allen signed with the White Sox, Tanner, who had managed Chicago since 1970, told the press that Allen was “the jewel in my Swiss watch.”4

When the 30-year-old Allen – commonly called “Richie” to this point in his career – showed up for spring training, he told reporters he wanted to be called Dick, the name his mother had given him.5 When the Chicago press complied with his request, Allen decided he “was going to pay back Chicago for the respect they were giving me.”6 Allen made an immediate mark on the team and was batting .298 with 21 home runs and 64 RBIs at the All-Star break.7

The White Sox were in second place in the American League West Division, six games behind the Oakland Athletics, when they arrived at Metropolitan Stadium for a three-game series with the Minnesota Twins on July 30. Minnesota had fired manager Bill Rigney on July 5, and 33-year-old Frank Quilici had taken the helm.8

The Twins, in third place in the AL West, took the first game, 1-0, on future Hall-of-Famer Harmon Killebrew’s solo home run and eight shutout innings by Jim Perry.

Another future Hall-of-Famer, Bert Blyleven, started for Minnesota in the series’ second game. The 21-year-old right-hander was in his third major-league season. He had started 1972 with four straight wins but slumped afterward. He had a 9-13 record when he took the mound on July 31.

Blyleven began the game by walking leadoff batter Pat Kelly, and Luis Alvarado singled. This brought up Allen, who hit a line drive to left-center. Center fielder Bobby Darwin tried to make a shoestring catch but slipped as he ran towards the ball. The ball landed in front of Darwin, bounced over his head, and rolled to the fence.

By the time Darwin retrieved the ball, 430 feet from home plate, Allen had reached third and was heading home to put the White Sox in front, 3-0.

“The ball was diving and sinking and the outfield grass was slippery from the rain early yesterday morning,” explained Darwin after the game.9

“Dick can run as well as Riva Ridge,” said Tanner, likening Allen to the 1972 Kentucky Derby winner.10

Right-hander Stan Bahnsen was on the mound for Chicago. Bahnsen, 27, had won the AL Rookie of the Year Award in 1968 when he was playing for the New York Yankees. Bahnsen joined the White Sox in a trade on the same day that they acquired Allen.11

Bahnsen entered the game with a 12-11 record and a 4.30 ERA. In his most recent outing, on July 27, he had pitched 7⅔ no-hit innings before the Kansas City Royals broke through for a 3-0 win.

At Metropolitan Stadium, Minnesota’s Danny Thompson singled with one out in the first but was thrown out by center fielder Jay Johnstone when he tried to stretch his hit into a double. After Darwin had a two-out single in the second, Bahnsen retired the next eight batters he faced.12

Blyleven set down nine straight White Sox after Allen’s first-inning inside-the-parker. It was still a 3-0 game when Kelly doubled with one out in the fifth and scored on Alvarado’s single to left field.

Allen then hit another line drive to center. Darwin tried to make a diving catch, but the ball got past him and rolled towards the center-field wall. Left fielder Rich Reese, running behind Darwin, tracked down the ball on the warning track.

By the time the Twins relayed the ball back to the infield, Allen had crossed the plate for his second inside-the-park home run. His two-run homer extended Chicago’s lead to 6-0.

“I’ll take him running the bases over any guy in the American or National League,” said Tanner. “I’m not talking about being faster, but how he turns the bases. He makes a perfect square.”13

Blyleven was replaced by Jim Strickland, who gave up a double to Carlos May before getting the final two outs.14

Darwin reached on an error by shortstop Alvarado in the bottom of the fifth.  After Bahnsen struck out Eric Soderholm, Glenn Borgmann singled. Jim Nettles, pinch-hitting for Strickland, singled to right, scoring Darwin for the Twins’ first run. César Tovar’s fly out ended the frame.

With Bob Gebhard pitching for the Twins, catcher Ed Herrmann led off the top of the sixth with a home run, making the score 7-1. He later joked with Allen that his homer “was a whole lot easier on the legs the way he did it.”15

After Allen reached on an error in the seventh, he was replaced by pinch-runner Tony Muser. May singled to center, and Muser scored when Darwin was charged with an error after he overran the ball, giving Chicago a seven-run lead.

Bahnsen allowed just two more hits, singles in the sixth and the ninth, as he earned his first complete game win since May 20. “I’m usually a second-half pitcher. I hope I still am,” said Bahnsen who went 8-5 with a 2.75 ERA through the rest of 1972, winning five of his last six starts.16

Allen became the first player in American or National League history to hit two inside-the-park home runs in one game since Ben Chapman of the Yankees on July 9, 1932; Chapman hit three homers against the Tigers in that game, with only one leaving the park. As of 2025, the only player with two inside-the-park home runs since Allen was Greg Gagne of the Twins, coincidentally playing against the White Sox on October 4, 1986. 17

Allen’s two homers gave him 13 for a single month, breaking the White Sox record of 12, set by Bill Melton in June 1971.18 I’m hitting and enjoying every minute of it,” said Allen after the game.19

“Dick is the best player in the majors. Without him, we wouldn’t be anywhere. If anyone deserves to win the Triple Crown, it would be him,” said Tanner. Allen was leading the league in home runs and RBIs and was fourth in batting average after the game.20

Allen eventually earned the American League MVP Award in 1972. He finished the season with a league-leading 37 home runs and 113 RBIs. His .308 batting average was third in the AL.21

Chicago finished the season 87-67. Despite having the second-best record in the AL, they finished in second place behind the Athletics, who won the first of their three consecutive World Series titles.

Allen played two more years with Chicago, with whom he led the league in home runs and slugging percentage in 1974. The White Sox traded him to the Atlanta Braves after that season. When Allen refused to play in Atlanta, he was traded back to Philadelphia. Allen played two years in the city where he started his career.

When Philadelphia granted him free agency, he signed with Oakland. After one year with the Athletics, Allen retired in March 1978. He was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2025. Besides winning the 1964 Rookie of the Year and 1972 AL MVP, Allen was a seven-time All-Star. He led his league in homers twice, OPS four times, and finished with 58.8 WAR.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Thomas Merrick and copy-edited by Mike Eisenbath.

Photo credit: Dick Allen, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for the box score and other material. Additional thanks to Rich D’Ambrosio for his SABR biography of Dick Allen.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN197207310.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1972/B07310MIN1972.htm

Notes

1 Los Angeles’s main return in the Allen trade was veteran left-hander Tommy John.

2 His original franchise, the Philadelphia Phillies, had traded Allen to the St. Louis Cardinals on October 7, 1969. Allen was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1964 but by 1969, he was frustrated with how he was treated by the Phillies. Allen eventually requested a trade and the Phillies sent him to St. Louis at the end of the 1969 season. The Cardinals dealt him to the Dodgers on October 5, 1970.

3 Edgar Munzel, “Allen’s Mom Prime Mover in Chisox Surge,” The Sporting News, August 26, 1972: 3.

4 Richard Dozer, “Allen Hits 2, Sox Romp,” Chicago Tribune, August 1, 1972: 47.

5 Prior to this time, the press had called him Richie Allen.

6 Dick Allen and Tim Whitaker, Crash: The Life and Times of Dick Allen (New York: Ticknor & Fields. 1989), 51.

7 Allen was the starting first baseman for the American League in the 1972 All-Star Game. It was his fifth All-Star game. He appeared in two more for the White Sox.

8 Quilici retired at the end of the 1970 season. The following year, he was made a coach without portfolio in order to keep his positive influence in the Twins clubhouse. After two years as a coach under Billy Martin and then Rigney, Quilici was named the Twins manager on July 5, 1972, when Bill Rigney was fired. Quilici managed Minnesota through the end of the 1975 season. His managerial record was 280-287.

9 Tom Briere, “Allen’s 2 Inside-park Homers Subdue Twins,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, August 1, 1972: 1C.

10 Dan Stoneking, “Which Crown for Allen,” Minneapolis Star, August 1, 1972: 39.

11 The White Sox traded Rich McKinney to the Yankees for Bahnsen.

12 Minnesota’s lineup was weakened by the absence of two future Hall of Famers: right fielder Tony Oliva (season-ending knee surgery on July 5) and second baseman Rod Carew (rib injury). Dan Stoneking, “Harmonizing Killebrew Back in Homer Tune,” Minneapolis Star, July 29, 1972: 14A.

13 Pat Thompson, “Twins Victims of Allen’s Record HRs.”

14 Blyleven gave up 22 home runs in 1972, tying him for sixth most in the American League with Bahnsen. If Darwin had not misplayed Allen’s two hits in this game, Blyleven would not have been in the top 10.

15 Doerr, “Allen Hits 2, Sox Romp.”

16 “Allen Hits 2, Sox Romp.”

17 “Inside The Park Home Run Records,” Baseball Almanac, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_isphr.shtml, accessed December 2025.

18 As of 2025, Albert Belle holds the White Sox record for most home runs in the month of July. He hit 16 home runs in July 1998.

19 Briere, “Allen’s 2 Inside-park Homers Subdue Twins.” Allen hit seven inside-the-park home runs in his career. He hit five with the Phillies and two with the White Sox. Since 1946, only Willie Wilson (13), Lou Brock (9), Roberto Clemente (9), Hank Bauer (8), and Willie Mays (8) have hit more than seven inside-the-park home runs.

20 Stoneking, “Which Crown for Allen.”

21 Carew was first with a .318 batting average.