1955 Bowman: #2 Al Dark - New York Giants

Alvin Ralph Dark / New York Giants / Shortstop
Bats: Right Throws: Right Height: 5'11" Weight: 185
Born: January 7, 1922, Comanche, OK
Signed: Signed by the Boston Braves as an amateur free agent, July 4, 1946
As a Player: Boston Braves 1946, 1948-49; New York Giants 1950-56; St. Louis Cardinals 1956-58; Chicago Cubs 1958-59; Philadelphia Phillies 1960; Milwaukee Braves 1960
World Series Appearances: Boston Braves 1948; New York Giants 1951, 1954
As a Manager: San Francisco Giants 1961-64; Kansas City Athletics 1966-67; Cleveland Indians 1968-71; Oakland Athletics 1974-75; San Diego Padres 1977
As a Coach: Chicago Cubs 1965, 1977
Died: November 13, 2014, Easley, SC (age 92)

Al Dark spent 27 years in the majors first as an All-Star shortstop between 1946 and 1960 and then as a successful manager between 1961 and 1977. Dark was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1948, batting .322 with 48 RBIs. He was a three-time All-Star (1951, 1952 and 1954) and earned MVP votes in six different seasons. Dark led the league in doubles with 41 in 1951, the year he helped the Giants reach the World Series. He'd have to wait until 1954 to win his first World Series ring when he batted .412 during the series while helping the Giants sweep the Indians. Dark finished eight seasons in the top five for fielding percentage among all National League shortstops and he led the league in double plays turned three times. In 1,828 career games, Dark batted .289 with 126 home runs and 2,089 hits.

After retiring as a player, Dark began his managerial career with the Giants in 1961, guiding the team to the National League pennant in 1962. After stints with the Kansas City Athletics and Indians, Dark took over the Oakland Athletics in 1974 and led the team to its third straight World Series. (The team had won in 1972 and 1973 with Dick Williams as the manager.) He was 994-954 as a manager, just missing the 1,000-win plateau.

Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1956 Topps blog.

1955 Season / New York Giants

From Dark's SABR biography: "An injury-plagued 1955 campaign was Dark's last full season as a Giant. After fracturing his rib in a game against Cincinnati on August 7, he separated his right shoulder against the Phillies on September 2. Dark's injuries limited him to 115 games, and he ended the year hitting .282 with 9 homers and 45 RBIs. New York finished 18½ games behind the Dodgers, in third place."

Phillies Career / 1960

Dark came to the Phillies in the trade that saw popular Phillie and future Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn (#130) depart the franchise. On January 11, 1960, the Phillies acquired Dark, John Buzhardt and Jim Woods from the Cubs for Ashburn. With Dark at 38, only Dave Philly (#222) was older on the club at 40. Dark was the Phillies' opening day third baseman in 1960 and he was a regular in the line-up until the team traded him on June 23rd to the Braves for Joe Morgan.

His first hit of the season in the team's home opener on April 14th was the 2,000 of his career, a sixth inning infield single off pitcher Don McMahon. With the Phillies, Dark hit .242 over 55 games, with 3 home runs and 14 RBIs. His short time with the club earned him a 1960 Topps card, released late in the season.

Building the Set / Card #1

Summer of 1983 or 1984 in Millville, NJ / Original 17 from the Magic Box

The full story of the Magic Box appeared frequently on my 1956 Topps blog, and originally over at the Phillies Room in a post from 2011. I'll retell the tale here in full and then summarize it for the next 16 posts.

I think it was either the summer of 1983 or 1984 when a shoebox of vintage baseball cards, football cards and a few non-sports cards arrived into my world. The box contained about a hundred cards dating between 1950 and 1956, and for the most part, they were all in excellent shape. A friend of the family was in the process of cleaning up and moving into her new house when she found the old shoebox and she wondered if the only kid she knew who collected baseball cards (me) would be interested in looking through it – maybe even taking the box off her hands.

She dropped the box off to my parents and asked them to have me look through the box and take what I was interested in. Turns out, I was interested in everything. Up to that point, the oldest cards in my collection were cards from the early '70s I had obtained through trades or cards that my Dad had picked up for me at yard sales or small baseball card shows. (My Dad had given me a few dog-earred ’59 Topps cards – Juan Pizzaro and Jim Busby – a few years prior, and I completely forget how or why he had purchased these cards for me.)

My parents asked me to pick out a few cards from the box, and then we’d return the rest to the family friend. Problem was, I wanted them all. I really wanted them all. I diligently and meticulously went through one of my price guides and determined the “value” of the treasure chest. I probably used my Sport Americana Baseball Card Price Guide No. 4, edited by Dr. James Beckett, and I had no way to value the football or non-sports cards. My memory is fuzzy, and I can't find the original tally, but I think I came up with the box being worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 to $400, which I knew my parents definitely did not have in their discretionary spending budget. But they could tell how much I wanted those cards, as I lovingly studied each and every one and handled each as if it were some long-lost artifact.

I don’t know the exact details, but I believe my Dad went back to the friend and told her we’d take the whole box, but only if she let him give her some money for it. I believe she was genuinely shocked that the box of old cardboard pictures had some value, and that someone was willing to give her cash for it. My Dad shared the list I had created showing the “book value” of the cards and he mentioned how it was going to be close to impossible to get me to pick and choose which ones I wanted. When all was said and done, the family friend, who had absolutely no intention of making money on this endeavor, walked away with (I think) something in the neighborhood of $100 for the whole lot.

Within the spoils were 44 cards from the 1956 Topps set – by far the most cards from any one set. I studied them, I sorted them, and I pretty much memorized every detail of those 44 cards. But there were also 18 cards from the 1955 Bowman set, consisting of mostly commons or semi-stars, but no star cards. This Dark card was one of the cards, and there was a Fred Baczewski (#190) card in the bunch with an advertisement on the back. (I'll get to that card with the Baczewski post.)

The Card / Bowman Exclusive / Bio on Back

Dark appeared exclusively in Bowman sets in 1954 and 1955. The TV paneling on the front is the lighter of the two cabinet colors used in the set, with Bowman switching to a darker coloring with card Don Zimmer's (#65) card. There are a few different options Bowman went with for the backs of the cards, and Dark's card contains his biography. Other cards later in the set recount a player's favorite baseball memory, advice to youngsters or other baseball-related anecdotes.