Tuesday, June 30, 2015

no. 427 - bernie allen


Who is the man: Bernie Allen had completed his fourth season with the Senators when this card was issued. He shared time at second base with Tim Cullen in 1970.

Can ya dig it: I'm guessing the dude in yellow shirt and brown pants is a sportswriter. He has that sportswriter feel (and he's holding what could be a notebook).

Right on: Allen is one of those people who doesn't dot the "I" in his name. I don't know how you keep yourself from doing that.

You see that cat Allen is a bad mother: Allen finished third in the AL Rookie of the Year voting in 1962 while playing for the Twins.

Shut your mouth: Allen was a quarterback for Purdue in the late '50s/early '60s. He also kicked field goals and in 1960, his field goal beat No. 3 Ohio State. After the game, Allen went looking for Ohio State coach Woody Hayes, who had told him he was too small to play in the Big Ten. "I just wanted to ask him if I was too small to play, but he just took off and ran away from me," Allen said.

No one understands him but his woman: Allen is kind of the forgotten man at second base for the Twins in the 1960s. He took over for Billy Martin at second in 1962. And Allen relinquished the second base job to Rod Carew in 1967.


(A word about the back): Very odd that Topps is mentioning that Allen is the team's player rep. I wonder how many times that's appeared on the back of a baseball card?

1 comment:

  1. Topps was on a run of uninspiring players at this part of the set. I can just imagine opening packs from this series and being disappointed time and time again.

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