Ethan Allen

Who was Ethan Allen?

Ethan Nathan Allen was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball from 1926 to 1938. He played for the Cincinnati Reds, New York Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Browns.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio and an alumnus of the University of Cincinnati, in 1,123 games he compiled 1,325 hits and 47 home runs, with a batting average of .300, on-base percentage of .336 and slugging average of .410. In 1935, he finished 17th in MVP voting with a batting average of .307 and a league-leading 156 games played.

Allen remained well-known long after his retirement as a player as the inventor of the Cadaco-Ellis board game All Star Baseball, which entered production in the early 1940s and remains available, with few changes, today. All Star Baseball and Strat-o-Matic Baseball are the two most popular baseball board games of the second half of the 20th century.

Allen also became the baseball coach at Yale University, serving from 1946 until 1968. Reaching the College World Series finals in both 1947 and 1948, his players included future U.S. president George H. W. Bush.