The Local Boys. Joe Heffron

      ETHAN ALLEN

      JANUARY 1, 1904–SEPTEMBER 15, 1993

      Major League Career

      1926–1938

      Time as a Red

      1926–1930

      Position

      OUTFIELD

      WITH A NAME LIKE “ETHAN ALLEN,” a boy has to meet pretty high expectations. And Ethan Allen (the ballplayer, not the Revolutionary War hero) did just that. Born in Cincinnati, he grew up on the east side of town, in the Mt. Washington area. He graduated from Withrow High School (called East High School at the time), where his outstanding athletic ability first began attracting the city’s attention. He then attended the University of Cincinnati, where his local fame quickly grew. Tall, handsome, and an excellent student, Allen would be tough to top if you were looking for an All-American Boy circa the 1920s. At UC, he starred in three sports—baseball, basketball, and track. In 1926, his senior year, he captained the baseball team and hit .473, which stood as the school record until, with the gradual addition of more games to the college season, his number of at-bats fell below the minimum required.

      The Reds knew a local star when they saw one and signed him that summer (giving him, according to Lee Allen’s The Cincinnati Reds, a signing bonus of $8,598.43) and placed him immediately on the major league roster, obviously feeling he needed no minor league seasoning. The move wasn’t a desperate effort by a struggling team; the Reds spent 75 days in first place in a close pennant race with the Cardinals that year, eventually finishing second by two games. After the season, the team thought highly enough of Allen that they traded Hall of Fame centerfielder Edd Roush, who had been their biggest star for a decade, and gave Allen the job.

      Though he lacked power, he quickly established himself as an excellent contact hitter and all-around polished player. Given his good looks, affable nature, and growing reputation as a smart player who rarely made mistakes, he became a fan favorite. Unfortunately, Reds owner Sidney Weil lost much of his fortune in the 1929 stock market crash, and had he to sell off or trade his best talent to pay the bills. He traded Allen and star pitcher Pete Donohue to the New York Giants for mediocre infielder Pat Crawford, who appeared in just 76 games for the Reds. Allen played eight more seasons, hitting an even .300 in a 13-year career. His lack of homerun power (he hit only 47) during that long-ball era kept him from being considered one of the top players in the game, but he was known as a tough out and often was slotted near the top of the batting order.

      While a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, he came back to town to become the second player ever to bat in a major league night game, held at Crosley Field on May 24, 1935. After retiring in 1938, Allen became the National League’s Director of Motion Pictures. He then coached Yale University’s team from 1946 to 1968, winning five Ivy League championships and twice reaching the national championship game (losing both, in 1947 and 1948). Future president George Herbert Walker Bush was his first baseman on those teams. Allen also wrote several highly respected baseball instructional books, including Major League Baseball (1938) and Baseball Play and Strategy (1964) and produced baseball instructional films.

      He is best known, however, for creating Ethan Allen’s All-Star Baseball, the most popular baseball tabletop game of the post-War decades. First issued in 1941, the game featured paper disks filled with what looked like pie charts breaking into sectors each player’s percentages of getting a hit or making an out, which would be determined by a flick of a spinner. Though Allen designed it as a game for kids, many adults played it, too, even creating leagues with friends.

      After retiring from Yale in 1968, Allen settled in North Carolina. In 1970, he was elected to the American Association of College Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame. He continued to refine his board game, adding new seasons of players, until his health began to decline. He then moved to Brookings, Oregon, to be near his son, and that’s where he died at the age of 89, having lived up to his heroic name.