Alvin Dark, 92, Is Dead; Led Giants to 3 Pennants

Alvin Dark, 92, Is Dead; Led Giants to 3 Pennants

Dark also led off the inning that lead to Bobby Thompson's famous pennant-winning home run in 1951. Dark singled to start the rally, and scored the first of the four runs the Giants needed to make it to the World Series. Dark certainly made the most of his two World Series appearances as a NY Giant. He batted .417 in the 1951 fall classic, and followed that up with .412 in 1954, when his Giants swept the favored Indians, who were coming off the greatest season in the history of their franchise (111-43).

Although Dark did not really have a spectacular career as a player, it once seemed that he was headed that way. He was the Rookie of the Year in 1948, and finished third in the MVP balloting, as he energized the Boston Braves to their first World Series appearance in 34 years. He batted .322 with 39 doubles that year, and later had three consecutive .300 seasons (1951-53) with the Giants, in one of which he led the league in doubles, and in another accumulated 41 doubles and 23 homers. He had another excellent year in 1954, finishing 5th in the MVP balloting while batting .293 with 20 homers. Those were great offensive numbers for a shortstop in that era.

He did experience a significant drop-off in offensive production after that season, whereupon the Giants waved good-bye. Dark kicked around for years as a utility player with the Cardinals, Cubs and Braves, thus allowing him to become a teammate of most of the greatest National Leaguers of the post-war generation. He had already played with Willie Mays on the Giants, then later got to be a teammate of Warren Spahn, Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Stan Musial and Ernie Banks.

As a manager, he won pennants in each league!