1961 Topps #220 Al Dark
About this card
Cards #131-139 and #219-226 are the manager subset: seventeen skippers in the same portrait layout as the players.
About Al Dark
Dark's first card as a manager, and his first season in the job: Milwaukee sent him to San Francisco after the 1960 season in a trade for Andre Rodgers, and the Giants installed him in place of Tom Sheehan. One of his first acts was to reassign clubhouse lockers so players were no longer grouped by race. The club finished third at 85-69, eight games behind Cincinnati. Card #220 belongs to the third series of the 1961 Topps set and to its manager subset; with Dark's playing-days cards reaching back to the 1949 Bowman issue.
Alvin Ralph Dark, born January 7, 1922 in Comanche, Oklahoma and raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana, lettered in baseball, basketball and football at LSU before Marine Corps service sent him to Southwestern Louisiana Institute and then to China. He signed with the Boston Braves in July 1946 and, batting .322 as a rookie shortstop in 1948, won the last Rookie of the Year award handed out before the writers began naming a winner in each league. Traded to the New York Giants after the 1949 season, he was named team captain by Leo Durocher, hit .300 or better three times, and batted .412 as New York swept the 1954 World Series. Over fourteen seasons with the Braves, Giants, Cardinals, Cubs and Phillies he hit .289 with 2,089 hits, 126 home runs and three All-Star selections. He retired as a player after 1960 and moved to the dugout, managing the Giants, Athletics, Indians and Padres over parts of two decades, winning the 1962 National League pennant and the 1974 World Series. He belongs to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame; though he outhit fellow New York shortstops Pee Wee Reese and Phil Rizzuto, he was never elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He died November 13, 2014.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 373 | 4 | 42 | 185 | 98 | 31 | 6 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 15 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. PSA counts are straight grades only; PSA half grades (PSA 1.5 among them) and qualified slabs are not included. SGC half grades fold down (8.5→8). Slabs of the two cards printed #463 are joined by description, never by number alone.
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Related cards
Team card: #167 San Francisco Giants Team
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- #150 Willie Mays
- #161 Sherman Jones
- #188 Jim Marshall
- #203 Eddie Bressoud
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- #258 Jack Sanford
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #220 card?
It is card #220 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Al Dark of the San Francisco Giants. Cards #131-139 and #219-226 are the manager subset: seventeen skippers in the same portrait layout as the players.
How many cards are in the 1961 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 596 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 589, but #426, #587 and #588 were never issued and two different cards were printed #463 - Jack Fisher and the Milwaukee Braves Team card, catalogued 463b - and eight cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, The Topps Archives, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-05.