Giants Manager Alvin Dark Fired

Oct. 4, 1964 - Alvin Dark was fired today while the Cubs were trouncing the Giants at Candlestick Park. Shortly after the final game of 1964 ended, Horace Stoneham announced Herman Franks was the new Giant manager. Franks was given a one-year contract at a salary estimated at $35,000.

Stoneham gave Dark the word over the telephone “during the sixth or seventh inning.” The Giants’ president phoned the dugout from his mezzanine box.

As late as yesterday morning, the Giants still had a mathematical chance at a tie and a playoff. It probably would have been the only thing that could have saved Dark’s job.

Stoneham said he didn’t decide to make a change in managers until the Giants returned from their last trip, a week ago, but he said later he had been thinking about a change since June.

“The thinking behind the change,” said Stoneham, “is we believe we can do better.”

Dark’s dismissal was the fourth managerial shift announced recently. Lum Harris has replaced Harry Craft at Houston, Billy Herman has replaced Johnny Pesky at Boston, and Danny Murtaugh has resigned at Pittsburgh.

Dark became embroiled in a heated controversy when, in early August, he was quoted in a New York newspaper as having said that Negro and Latin-American players were not as mentally alert as other players.

The article, written by Stan Isaacs and printed in Newsday, caused Dark to request a special meeting with commissioner Ford Frick.

Later, at Frick’s urging, Dark called a special news conference and said Isaacs had gravely misquoted him. He said he had great respect for non-white players and cited as proof the fact that he had six in his starting lineup that night against the Mets.

The same night, a high-ranking Giants official — who declined to be identified — said Stoneham was ready to drop Dark.

Stoneham scotched that report two days later and also supported Dark in the controversy over the Isaacs column.

Dark was named Giants manager in 1961 to succeed the interim manager, Tom Sheehan, who in turn had succeeded Bill Rigney in midseason.

Dark, from Lake Charles, La., starred in football at LSU before signing a bonus contract with the Boston Braves in 1946.

He first joined the Giants in 1950 and played with the National League champions of 1951 and the world championship team of 1954.

Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s