This story was excerpted from Scott Merkin¡¯s White Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

DALLAS -- There were hugs. There were screams of joy. There were tears flowing from family and friends in a private banquet room at the Hilton Anatole on Sunday night during the Winter Meetings.

Hall of Fame hurler Rich ¡°Goose¡± Gossage, by phone, called the moment the best news he heard in a long time. And this celebration had nothing to do with Juan Soto agreeing to terms with the Mets.

Instead, it was many of those who truly love Dick Allen celebrating his Hall of Fame election, as voted on by the Classic Baseball Era Committee. Allen¡¯s name never really could be heard from the television broadcast into the room, as raucous emotion released as soon as Josh Rawitch, the president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, spoke of the electee who played from 1963-77.

Going by alphabetic order, as they have done in the past during these announcements, Allen comes before everybody else, so he was announced first.

¡°It was like a pimple being popped or something. I know that¡¯s a sick way to describe it,¡± said an emotional Richard Allen, Jr., the son of Dick Allen, who spoke for the family after the announcement. ¡°It¡¯s like all that time, all of this time, it boiled down -- that was a long five minutes, I¡¯ll tell you.

¡°Seeing the clips of him playing,¡± Allen Jr. added, while pointing to highlights of his dad on television. ¡°It was worth the wait. It just makes it that much more exciting. Just waiting that long. But man, this is a long time coming. It really, really was.¡±

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Dave Parker was named on 14 of 16 ballots, and Allen was named on 13 of 16 ballots as the only candidates to reach the 75-percent threshold necessary for election. The eight-person ballot was comprised of candidates whose primary contribution to the game came prior to 1980. As primarily a first baseman/third baseman, Allen initially appeared on the Baseball Writers' Association of America Hall of Fame ballot in 1983, and this was Allen¡¯s seventh appearance as part of the Veterans Committee review, missing election by one vote in 2015 and '22.

Going into the Hall of Fame with Parker means something to the family of Allen, who passed away on Dec. 7, 2020, at 78.

¡°Oh, my goodness, yeah. He really enjoyed him,¡± said Allen Jr. of Parker. ¡°Actually, Dave gave me a glove. I still have it. It has the 'Cobra 39' on it.

¡°We went down to the Vet for something, and the Pirates were in. So [his dad] wanted to see Chuck [Tanner], and yeah, they were close, good friends. He actually gave my father a huge autographed picture of himself and now I have that, so that's great. They'll go in at the same time."

Tanner was Allen¡¯s manager with the White Sox from 1972-74, when he basically resurrected baseball on the South Side of Chicago after being traded by the Dodgers for Steve Huntz and Tommy John, who received seven votes from the Classic Baseball Era Committee. The White Sox had a home attendance of 495,355 in 1970, boosted to 833,891 in ¡¯71 before topping 1,000,000 in each of Allen¡¯s three seasons with Chicago.

During the 1972 campaign, Allen won the American League Most Valuable Player honor while hitting .308 with 37 home runs and 113 RBIs to go with a 1.023 OPS and 19 stolen bases. He lost out on the Triple Crown by 10 points behind Rod Carew at .318 and Lou Piniella at .312.

Whether Allen¡¯s Hall of Fame plaque features a hat for the White Sox or Phillies (who retired his No. 15 jersey in September 2020), being part of the White Sox was a special time.

¡°Actually, in San Diego I was speaking with Roland [Hemond] and Roland told me himself, he said, ¡®Your father saved the franchise,¡¯¡± said Allen Jr. of his conversation with the beloved White Sox general manager.

¡°He loved Chicago. He said he had fun, the city was fun -- fun people, fans; he really really liked Chicago. Actually, I think that was, obviously the MVP, a turning point of his career. As he would say, it was fun to go to the ballpark. Chicago, great time.¡±