Kim Allen

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Kim Bryant Allen

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 175 lb.
• School University of California, Riverside
• High School Riverside Polytechnic High School
• Debut September 2, 1980
• Final Game September 29, 1981
• Born April 5, 1953 in Fontana, CA USA

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Biographical Information

Kim Allen was a second baseman-outfielder who, after a nondescript minor league career, briefly earned prospect status with the Seattle Mariners after a spectacular 1980 season for the Triple A Spokane Indians. Allen registered a 35-game hitting streak and stole 84 bases, the most in the Pacific Coast League since 1913. He was called up in September and swiped 10 bags in 23 games. Entering 1981, Allen was a dark horse Rookie of the Year candidate, as there was speculation that Mariners manager Maury Wills would embrace Allen's larcenous ways and would allow him to run wild. After breaking camp with the Mariners, Allen was used almost exclusively as a pinch-runner and sent down at the end of April.

After his big league career, Allen played in Japan. He spent the 1982 and 1983 seasons with the Hanshin Tigers. In 1982, he hit .260/.326/.358 and stole 22 bases in 28 tries and he batted .276/.340/.409 in 47 games in 1983. Surprisingly, he was caught in 8 of 20 steal attempts that year. In 1989, Allen played for the Fort Myers Sun Sox of the Senior Professional Baseball Association. He played in 59 games and batted .330 and led the league with 33 stolen bases. In 1990, Allen played for the SPBA's San Bernardino Pride and was batting .313 in 23 games before the league folded.

Allen came from a mixed race family, as his father was African-American. His father was a former sprinter who had competed against Jackie Robinson in track meets. He was a working jazz musician when Kim grew up, working nights, which gave him plenty of time after school to teach his son about sports and coach some of his youth teams. Mixed mariages weren't legal in California when his parents met, so they had to go to Mexico to get married.

Related Sites

• Kim Allen at the SABR Bio Project
• The following appeared on a baseball blog in March 2005:
  • Why didn't Kim Allen succeed in the Major Leagues?
  • Kim Allen Part II