PHILADELPHIA — Jim Kenney watched the Phillies after church every Sunday afternoon at his grandfather’s house in South Philadelphia on a black-and-white television, listening to By Saam and Bill Campbell call the game from Connie Mack Stadium. Kenney, like most Philadelphia kids in the 1960s, loved Dick Allen. But the city’s future mayor couldn’t understand every Sunday why No. 15 was being booed on that old TV. “I kept asking him ‘Pop, why are the Phillies fans booing a Phillie?,’ ” said Kenney, whose second term as mayor ends next month. “I could never figure it out.” Allen became the team’s first Black superstar after emerging in 1964 as the National League’s Rookie of the Year, an award he received just weeks after the team’s September heartbreak. He was one of the most productive hitters of his generation — his OPS from 1964-1974 is the best in baseball — but he also proved to be polarizing.
He was jeered enough that Allen wore a batting helmet while playing the field at Connie Mack as a way to protect himself if something came hurling from the stands. His home runs often soared over the Coca-Cola sign on the left-field roof. But a fight with Frank Thomas, a white teammate, further split an already divided fan base on Allen. He wrote “Boo” in the dirt near first base because that’s the sound he heard so much. Allen requested a trade in 1969 and kissed the ground after the final game, knowing the Phillies would soon grant his wish. “I mean, who has to wear a batting helmet in their own field?” Kenney said. “That’s crazy.” Kenney, like many of his generation, remained a fan of Allen, who returned to the Phils in 1975. The city, Kenney said, owes Allen “an apology and a debt of gratitude for even wanting to come back here after what he went through.” So the mayor did not need much swaying last summer when Garry Maddox — Allen’s teammate with the Phils in the 1970s — had an idea. Philadelphia, Maddox said, should celebrate Allen with a mural. That would work. “I figured, let’s do something,” Kenney said. The ultimate compliment
