A Man Named Mays

Alvin Ralph Dark (January 7, 1922 – November 13, 2014), nicknamed "Blackie" and "the Swamp Fox", was an American professional baseball shortstop and manager. He played fourteen years in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston/Milwaukee Braves (1946, 1948–49, 1960), the New York Giants (1950–1956), the St. Louis Cardinals (1956–1958), the Chicago Cubs (1958–59), and the Philadelphia Phillies (1960). Later, he managed the San Francisco Giants (1961–1964), the Kansas City/Oakland Athletics (1966–67, 1974–75), the Cleveland Indians (1968–1971), and the San Diego Padres (1977). He was a three-time All-Star and a two-time World Series champion, once as a player (1954) and once as a manager (1974).
Born in Oklahoma, Dark grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He played baseball, basketball, and football at Louisiana State University before transferring to Southwestern Louisiana Institute to engage in officer training for the United States Marine Corps. After serving in the Marines in 1945 and 1946, he signed with the Braves, debuting with them later that year. He spent 1947 in the minor leagues, then was named the major leagues' 1948 Rookie of the Year after batting .322 for the Boston Braves. Following the 1949 season, he was traded to the Giants, who were looking to improve their speed and fielding. Named the captain by Giants manager Leo Durocher, he hit .300 or more three times while playing for the Giants, and became the first National League (NL) shortstop to hit 20 home runs more than once. He batted over .400 in the 1951 World Series and the 1954 World Series, the latter of which New York won by sweeping the Cleveland Indians. Traded to the Cardinals in 1956, Dark served as their starting shortstop through the beginning of the 1958 season, when his diminished range caused him to be shifted to third base. He spent most of 1958 and all of 1959 with the Cubs, then played for the Phillies and Braves in 1960 before retiring as a player. Dark had 2,089 hits in his career. Of the three shortstops in New York following World War II, Dark had a higher batting average and more home runs than Phil Rizzuto or Pee Wee Reese, despite the fact that he is the only one not in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Traded to the Giants after the 1960 season, Dark was named the team manager for 1961. Now playing in San Francisco, the Giants had a winning record each of Dark's four years with them and reached the World Series in 1962, losing to the New York Yankees in a close seven-game contest. Dark became embroiled in controversy in 1964 after a Newsday article accused him of making racist comments, a claim denied by Dark, whose character was vouched for by Jackie Robinson. He was fired following the 1964 season, in which the Giants narrowly missed the pennant. After a year as the Cubs’ third base coach, he was hired to manage the Athletics in 1966. He only lasted two years with Kansas City before getting dismissed over a dispute with Charlie Finley about a player suspension. Hired to manage the Indians for 1968, Dark took on the dual role of general manager and field manager in 1969. The Indians finished third place in the American League (AL) in 1968 but had losing seasons the next three years, and Dark was fired in mid-1971 even though there were still two years remaining on his contract. Rehired to manage the Athletics in 1974, Dark became the third manager to win pennants in the NL and the AL. He led the team to its third straight World Series win and another playoff berth in 1975. During a church talk in 1975, he mentioned that Finley would be going to Hell if he did not accept Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, and the owner fired Dark after the season, saying he was "too busy with church activities." Dark was hired one last time as a manager for San Diego in the middle of 1977. Finishing out the year with them, he hoped to be retained for 1978, but new general manager Bob Fontaine Sr. elected to go with Roger Craig, firing Dark in the middle of 1978 spring training. Following his managerial career, Dark held jobs as a minor league director for the Cubs and Chicago White Sox in the 1980s. He moved to Easley, South Carolina, in 1983, where he lived before dying of Alzheimer's disease in 2014.

Alvin Dark

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A Man Named Mays