Phillies years
The Phillies finally had enough, and they sent him to the Cardinals in a trade before the 1970 season. Even this deal caused controversy, though not of Allen's making, since the outfielder Curt Flood refused to report to the Phillies as part of the trade. (Flood then sued baseball in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the reserve clause and to be declared a free agent.)
Allen earned another All-Star berth in St. Louis, and his personal problems seemed to abate. The Cardinals even acceded to his wishes regarding his name, as Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck made a point from game one of calling him Dick Allen.
Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst recalled that when he was asked, before Allen's acquisition, if he wanted Allen, he had said "no", he'd heard Allen had a bad attitude, and the team didn't need him. After the season, when Schoendienst was asked if Allen should be traded, he said "no", Allen had helped the team and his attitude was not a problem.
Decades before Mark McGwire, Dick Allen entertained the St. Louis fans with some long home runs, at least one of them landing in the seats above the club level in left field. As Jack Buck said at the time, "Some of the folks in the stadium club might have choked on a chicken leg when they saw that one coming!" Nevertheless the Cardinals traded Allen to the Los Angeles Dodgers before the 1971 season.

Quick stops in St. Louis and L.A.
After a relatively quiet year with the Dodgers, Allen was traded to the White Sox for Tommy John prior to the 1972 season. For various reasons, Allen's previous managers had shuffled him around on defense, playing him at first base, third base, and the outfield in no particular order - a practice which almost certainly weakened his defensive play and which may have contributed to his frequent injuries, not to mention his perceived bad attitude. Sox manager Chuck Tanner's low-key style of handling ballplayers made it possible for Allen to thrive, for awhile, on the South Side. He decided to play Allen exclusively at first base, which allowed him to concentrate on hitting. That first year, Allen almost single-handedly lifted the entire team to a division title, as he led the league in home runs (37) (setting a team record), RBI (113), walks (99), on base percentage (.422), slugging average (.603), and OPS (1.023), while winning a well-deserved MVP award. However, the Sox fell short at the end and finished 5 1/2 games behind the World Series-bound Oakland Athletics.
Allen continued his power hitting unabated, sending unlucky pitchers' fastballs to the upper deck, the roof, and even the distant (445 feet) center field bleachers, a rare feat at Comiskey Park.
Despite making the All-Star team in each of his three years with the team, he had once again outlived his welcome by 1974, when he walked out on September 14, with two weeks left in the season, after feuding with Third Baseman Ron Santo, who was playing his final year of big league ball after leaving the crosstown Chicago Cubs. The Sox sold Allen to the Atlanta Braves for only $5,000 despite the fact that he led the league in home runs, slugging (.563), and OPS (.938). Allen refused to report to the Braves, and he announced his retirement.

Chicago
The Phillies managed to coax Allen out of retirement for the 1975 season, and he spent two relatively unproductive seasons there, batting just .233 and .268. He moved to the Oakland Athletics for the 1977 season, where he left in his typical style - walking out on the A's when they considered making him a designated hitter.

Final playing years
After retirement, Allen had a string of bad fortune, with his uninsured house and horse stables burning down in October 1979. He subsequently left his wife for a younger woman; his wife took him to court and got everything he had left, even the rights to his baseball pension. He has written (with Tim Whitaker) an autobiography titled Crash: The Life and Times of Dick Allen, which Bill James has called "one of the best baseball books in recent years". For many years Allen held the distinction of the highest slugging percentage among players eligible for but not in the Hall of Fame. This only ended in 2006, when Albert Belle became eligible but was not elected. Whether Allen is worthy of the Hall of Fame has been hotly debated, with many people arguing he is the best player not in the hall of fame.[1] Their arguments usually center around his very high career averages, batting (.292), slugging (.534), and on-base (.378). They also point out that he played much of his career in the sixties, the decade when pitchers were most dominant, and he played some of his career in the pitcher friendly parks of Busch Stadium and Dodgers Stadium. Detractors of his Hall of Fame credentials argue that his career was not as long as most Hall of Famers, so he does not have the career cumulative numbers that others do. They also argue that his poor defense and bad clubhouse presence took away from his teams much of what his bat gave them.[2]

Retirement years
Allen is known to many tax law students as being the petitioner in the famous case Allen v. Commissioner, 50 T.C. 466 (1968). After receiving a US$70,000 bonus from the Philadelphia Phillies, he gave US$40,000 to his mother. Even though he attempted to avoid paying income tax on the $40,000, the court held he was both responsible for the taxes and not able to make a trade or business deduction for the amount.

Quotes

Top 500 home run hitters of all time
List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI
List of Major League Baseball RBI champions
List of Major League Baseball home run champions
List of Major League Baseball runs scored champions
Major League Baseball hitters with three home runs in one game
List of Los Angeles Dodgers Opening Day Starting Lineups
Los Angeles Dodgers all-time roster