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You must be a tremendous athlete to play Major League Baseball. In the history of MLB, many athletes are remarkable enough to play two sports and have done so. Four players came to me immediately: Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, Brian Jordan, and Danny Ainge.
But there are plenty of others. Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson also played one year for the Harlem Globetrotters. Who remembers that former Vikings running back DJ Dozier made it to MLB with the Mets in 1992? The Twins famously employed Hall of Famers Dave Winfield and Joe Mauer, who had tremendous ability in other sports. Today, I want to remember former Twins second baseman Bernie Allen,who also played another sport at a very high level.
Bernard Keith Allen was born in East Liverpool, Ohio, on April 16, 1939. Like Winfield and Mauer, Allen was a three-sport star in high school. He always wanted to be a professional baseball player, but he also wanted to get an education. So, he considered playing football to get a scholarship because baseball scholarships in that era were rare.
Being from Ohio, he visited Ohio State University on a football recruiting visit, but legendary coach Woody Hayes thought Allen was too small – 6’0” and 180 pounds – to play Big Ten football. Purdue University thought otherwise, and he went there to play football. In those days, freshmen were ineligible for varsity sports. In his sophom*ore season (1958), he started the season as a defensive back but was playing quarterback by the end of the year. In 1959, Allen began the football season as the backup quarterback, but the starter broke his collar bone in the second game, so Bernie Allen started the remainder of his junior season and all of his senior season.
In that senior season of 1960, Allen, the team’s kicker and punter, kicked the winning field goal against the heavily favored Buckeyes and Woody Hayes. Later that season, Allen led the Boilermakers to another upset, this time against the number one team in the country who would be voted the national champs. Sports fans of this era won’t believe it, but that number one team was, yes, your Minnesota Gophers!
After college, Allen had no interest in professional football; he had always wanted to be a baseball player. In this era, before the Major League Baseball Draft, players signed with whichever team they wanted. Allen’s decision came down to Minnesota, the soon-to-be New York Mets, the Detroit Tigers, and others. Allen says one of the reasons he signed with the Twins was that the Minnesota fans were so gracious and complimentary after his Boilermakers had upset the football Gophers in 1960.
The Twins signed Bernie Allen before the 1961 season as an amateur free agent. He played a single year in the minor leagues with the Twins class-A affiliate in Charlotte. In 80 games, he hit .241/.327/.320 with little power but played excellent defense.
The Twins had an opening at second base in 1962. In 1961, future Twins managers Billy Martin and Billy Gardner had received the lion’s share of the playing time at second base, but both had careers winding down at that point. So, despite Allen’s relatively low production in the minor leagues, the Twins saw enough to make him the opening-day second baseman in 1962. They were impressed with his defense and thought he would hit. Allen stayed in the lineup all year. Little-knownJim Snyder was the only other player to receive plate appearances as a second baseman in 1962. Snyder had one hit in ten at-bats.
Allen’s first career hit, an RBI triple, came in his first game against Ed Rakow of the Kansas City Athletics. Unfortunately, the Twins lost 4-2. Bernie’s first home run came later that April in a 9-7 win over the Angels against Jim Donohue.
Bernie Allen had a promising rookie year in 1962, batting .269/.338/.403 with 12 home runs and 64 runs batted in. He posted career highs in every single offensive category except walks and on-base percentage. It was probably his best year in Minnesota. He was impressed enough to finish third in the Rookie of the Year voting and received one first-place vote. (Tom Tresh of the Yankees won the award.)
The 1962 season was the only time he had more than 500 at-bats in his career. In 1964, Allen suffered a severe injury in a collision at second base when an aggressive Don Zimmer (another former manager!) took out Allen with a hard slide. Allen did not know it immediately, but he had torn multiple knee ligaments in his left knee. In those days, before modern surgical techniques, this type of injury could end a career, but Allen tried to continue. In 1965, he was still injured, started the season on the disabled list, played only 19 games, and did not appear on the World Series roster. After the 1965 season, Allen was seen by the Vikings’ orthopedic surgeon, who found both the MCL and ACL ligaments had been torn in the 1964 injury. He finally had surgery but would never be the same player.
On December 3, 1966, the Twins traded Allen and Camilo Pascual to the new Washington Senatorsfor Ron Kline. That trade did not turn out as the Twins would have hoped. Allen played five years for the Senators, with numbers remarkably similar to his five seasons with the Twins. Pascual was an average starting pitcher for three years with these new Senators. Kline was a relief pitcher with a below-average 93 ERA+ in a single season with Minnesota before being traded to Pittsburgh for Bob Oliver,who never played a single game for the Twins. Later in his career, Allen played two more seasons – first with the Yankees and then finished his career with the Montreal Expos.
Bernie Allen’s career statistics are .239/.314/.357 for an OPS of .671. His OPS+ was 91. He had 73 home runs and 352 RBI. He was the stereotypical second baseman with a good glove and a little pop in his bat.
Bernie Allen strikes me as the player who should have had a better career. He was unlucky. He started so strong in 1962, and he had that football career. He was, without a doubt, a good athlete. But he never replicated his first-year numbers, largely because of the knee injury. He has said the knee still bothers him to this day, especially in cold weather. Despite the injury, he was able to carve out a 12-year career in Major League Baseball, which is more than most can say.
After his playing career, Bernie had multiple businesses in Florida and the Midwest. He has been selected to the East Liverpool High School Hall of Fame, the Purdue Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame (where he earned six varsity letters for football and baseball), and the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame. He currently resides in Indiana.
[The Society for American Baseball Research provided detail for parts of this article, especially regarding Allen’s football prowess.]
Who are some other multi-sport athletes who have played for the Twins? Leave a comment and start the discussion.
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