Allen mural a fitting tribute
Many thanks to reporter Mark Zimmaro for capturing the inspirational story of one of our city’s greatest professional athletes, Phillies star batter Richie Allen (“Dick Allen mural coming to South Broad,” Dec. 13).
As the report states, Dick Allen’s incredible baseball career, including an historic batting record with the Philadelphia Phillies, will be honored by a 2,000-square-foot mural near Broad and Wolf.
Zimmaro suggests in the piece that this mural is partly intended to make up to Allen’s family for some of the mistreatment he suffered as the first black baseball superstar in Philadelphia sports history. Even Mayor Kenney is quoted as mystified by such treatment of a truly gifted athlete.
I was especially impressed with the tribute paid to Mural Arts Philadelphia for initiating this project as a way to honor an athlete who was repeatedly denied induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Artist Ernel Martinez, with a string of arts degrees, was chosen to design the mural.
It was also sweet that members of Allen’s own family got to paint some of the mural’s first brush strokes. This is more than art; it is way overdo art.
Gloria C. Endres
