37: Bob Allison-MLB

Sports' Forgotten Heroes

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5+ y ago 1:27:29

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Bob Allison was one of the best players for the Minnesota Twins during the 1960s. The Twins moved to Minnesota from Washington, D.C. for the 1961 season. However, before getting to Minnesota, Allison won the Rookie of the Year for Washington (known as the Senators) in 1959 by clubbing 30 Home Runs and knocking in 85 and batting .261. After the team moved to Minnesota is when Allison did most of his damage and, in fact, during the stretch of 1961 through 1964, Allison averaged 29 Home Runs a year. But, playing in the shadow of the great Harmon Killebrew and alongside such stars as Tony Oliva, Jim Kaat and Rod Carew certainly affected Bob Allison's popularity - especially outside of Minnesota. But inside the game, everyone knew who Bob Allison was, and he was not an easy out for opposing pitchers. He also possessed speed and that helped him track down fly balls others couldn't get to. In fact, Minnesota Twins fans voted Bob Allison the team's greatest left fielder during its first 25 years of existence. Joining SFH once again to talk about one of baseball's forgotten heroes is Gregory H. Wolf, the director of the BioProject for SABR. Gregory has written over 150 biographies forthe project and also authored the books, "A Pennant for the Twin Cities" and "Winning on the North Side, the 1929 Chicago Cubs".

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