Lloyd Cecil Allen (born May 8, 1950) is a former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

, who played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) for the

California Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ha ...

(-), Texas Rangers (-), and

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

(-). He was the first big league player born in the 1950s to appear in a regular-season game.

Early life

Allen was born in

Merced, California Merced (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Mercy") is a city in, and the county seat of, Merced County, California, Merced County, California, United States, in the San Joaquin Valley. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 86,333, up ...

. He attended Selma High School in

Selma, California Selma is a city in Fresno County, California. The population was 23,319 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, up from 19,240 at the 2000 United States Census, 2000 census. Selma is located southeast of Fresno, California, Fresno, at an ...

and

Fresno City College Fresno City College (FCC or "Fresno City") is a public community college in Fresno, California. It is part of the State Center Community College District within the California Community Colleges system. Fresno City College operates on a semester ...

Baseball career

Allen was selected by the California Angels with its first round (12th overall pick) of the 1968 amateur draft. In 1969, Allen was the youngest player in the American League (AL). In 1971, his 15 saves ranked seventh in the AL. He was traded along with

Jim Spencer James Lloyd Spencer (July 30, 1947 – February 10, 2002) was a Major League Baseball first baseman. Born in Hanover, Pennsylvania, the left-handed Spencer was recognized for his excellent fielding ability, but also served in later years as a de ...

from the Angels to the Texas Rangers for

Mike Epstein Michael Peter Epstein (born April 4, 1943), nicknamed "Superjew", is an American former professional baseball player for the Baltimore Orioles, Washington Senators / Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, and California Angels of Major League Bas ...

Rich Hand Richard Allen Hand (born July 10, 1948) is an American retired professional baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, he played for four seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers and California Angels. Born ...

and

Rick Stelmaszek Richard Francis Stelmaszek (October 8, 1948 – November 6, 2017) was an American Major League Baseball catcher, and bullpen coach for the Minnesota Twins. Stelmaszek spent 32 consecutive seasons (–) on the Twins' coaching staff and was the lon ...

on May 20, 1973. Arm problems led to him retiring from baseball, in 1979. In seven MLB seasons, Allen had an 8-25 win–loss record, in 159 games, with 19 games started, 22 saves, innings pitched, 291 hits allowed, 183 runs allowed, 155 earned runs allowed, 19 home runs allowed, 196 walks, 194 strikeouts, 11 hit batsmen, 27 wild pitches, 18 intentional walks, and a 4.69

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA).

References

External links

1950 births Baseball players from California California Angels players Chicago White Sox players Denver Bears players El Paso Sun Kings players Hawaii Islanders players Idaho Falls Angels players Iowa Oaks players Jewish American baseball players Jewish Major League Baseball players Living people Major League Baseball pitchers People from Merced, California San Jose Bees players Texas Rangers players Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players 21st-century American Jews {{US-baseball-pitcher-1950s-stub