Quick Facts
Biography
Harold Andrew "Hank" Allen (born July 23, 1940 in Wampum, Pennsylvania) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder for the Washington Senators (1966-1970), Milwaukee Brewers (1970) and Chicago White Sox (1972-1973).
In his Major League career, Allen also played third base, second base, and first base, and even made one appearance as a catcher.As an outfielder he was just fair defensively, making 16 errors in 374 total chances for a .957 fielding percentage.His most productive season came in 1969 for the Senators, when he posted career highs in batting average (.277), runs (42), hits (75) and RBI (17).
In a seven-season career, Allen was a .241 hitter with 6 home runs, 57 RBI, and 104 runs in 389 games played. Allen led several leagues in his time, including the Pioneer League in RBIs (140) and batting average (.346), the Pacific Coast League with 288 total bases while playing for the Hawaii Islanders in 1966, and tied for the league lead in hits (176) and home runs (37) while playing for the Magic Valley Cowboys in 1962.
He is the brother of Dick Allen and Ron Allen, and as of September 2006, the Allen brothers rank 11th in the MLB brother-combination, home run list with 358 dingers (out of more than 350 combinations all-time).
Thoroughbred racing
After his baseball playing career, Hank Allen became involved as a trainer/owner in Thoroughbred horse racing, based at Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Courses in Maryland. In 1989, he became the first African-American trainer in seventy-eight years to saddle a horse in the Kentucky Derby when Northern Wolf ran sixth to winner Sunday Silence. [1] In June 1990, he conditioned Northern Wolf when the horse set a new Laurel Park track record of 1:08 4/5 for six furlongs while winning the Duck Dance Handicap. [2] Two months later Northern Wolf set a new Pimlico track record of 1:09 flat for the same six furlong distance in winning the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash Stakes. [3]
Allen remains in baseball as a scout, currently serving the Houston Astros at the professional level and based in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.