Richard Anthony Allen, among baseball’s most powerful sluggers of his generation, died Monday, Dec. 7, 2020.

He was 78 and living in his hometown of Wampum, Penn.

Known as “Dick” and “Richie” at various stages of his career, Mr. Allen hit 351 home runs and drove in 1,119 runs with seven different teams from 1963 to 1977.

Primarily a first baseman and left fielder, Mr. Allen was the 1964 National League Rookie of the Year with the Philadelphia Phillies and the 1972 American League MVP with the Chicago White Sox.

He was a seven-time All-Star and American League home run leader in 1972 and 1974.

In 1965, Mr. Allen hit what many considered the longest homer at Philadelphia’s Connie Mack Stadium, a prodigious 529-foot blast off the Chicago Cubs’ Larry Jackson.

Mr. Allen was signed by the Phillies in 1960 by veteran scout John Ogden, who had played against Babe Ruth in the 1920s. Mr. Ogden said Mr. Allen was the only player he ever saw who could hit a ball as hard as The Babe.

Mr. Allen was among the first Black standouts with the Phillies. He wasn’t always well received by the fans, despite his talents.

At times playing the outfield, he was sprayed with ice cubes, debris and even batteries. As a safety precaution, he took to wearing a batter’s helmet in the field that he called his “Crash Helmet.”

He had a similar hateful experiences playing for the Phillies’ minor league affiliate in Little Rock, Ark., in 1963, where he was the team’s first African-American player.

Despite the harassment, he was among the International League’s leaders, with 33 homers and 97 runs batted, and was named an All-Star.

Mr. Allen’s younger brother, Hank, played seven big league seasons and was a teammate with the White Sox.

Off the field, Mr. Allen was an accomplished singer with a tenor voice. He was the lead singer for an R&B group called Rich Allen & The Ebonistics. They recorded a fairly popular song on the Groovy Grooves label in 1968 called “Echoes of November.”

Mr. Allen’s No. 15 was retired by the Phillies.