Conlin: A stroll down Allens lane

Ezail to Ezbail…Conlin looks into Dick Allen Iverson.

I have been asked by a number of fans if the returns of the two Allens 34 years apart are deja vu all over again.

The easy answer is yes and no.

Yes, because Dick Allen and Allen Iverson not only are two of the most gifted athletes in Philadelphia history, but they rank No. 1 and 2 as lightning rods for controversy. Make Charles Barkley, Wilt Chamberlain and Eric Lindros a distant 3, 4 and 5. Bill James, the baseball stat maven who sometimes strays into behavior analysis, once called Allen the No. 2 most controversial ballplayer in history behind Rogers Hornsby. His stinging comment: “[Allen] did more to keep his teams from winning than anybody else who ever played major league baseball.” James apparently missed 1964, when Allen’s epic rookie season helped propel the Phillies to that unblowable lead in one of the strongest National Leagues of all time. During the final 12 games, when the 6 1/2-game lead vanished, Allen batted .429 with 11 RBI.

But no, because the circumstances driving the returns of the prodigal sons were totally different.

Unlike the floundering Sixers - a bad young team - the 1975 Phillies were about to embark on a 9-year run that would see them win two pennants, five division titles and their first World Series crown. And despite the limbo he entered when he walked on the White Sox, Allen didn’t come for the pittance Sixers general manager Ed Stefanski is shelling out to rent Iverson - a prorated non-guaranteed, 1-year contract for the NBA minimum of $1.3 million for players with 10 years experience. In the NBA, that’s chump change.

After the 1974 season, the exasperated White Sox sold Allen to the Atlanta Braves for $5,000 and a player to be named. Allen said he had no intention to play for the Braves and announced his retirement.