The young whippersnappers here at The Citizen were stone cold blank-faced as I recounted listening to John Middleton’s emotional address during last weekend’s Hall of Fame Induction of the late Phillies star Dick Allen — at once the most talented baseball player Philly had seen and its most reviled, his character and skill lost to a barrage of boos, racist taunts and assaults, not to mention a steady stream of Inquirer and Daily News “othering” in the turbulent 60s.

Case in point: Bill Conlin, the late, legendary Daily News columnist whom I essentially fired in 2011 amid horrific allegations of child molestation. He once called Allen “baseball’s No. 1 Rebel, a title he holds unchallenged. Amid a growing crowd of athletes who attract more notice for grousing than playing, Allen eme

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