1963 Topps #258 Alvin Dark
About this card
The nineteen manager cards use the same portrait layout as the players. Twenty clubs, nineteen managers: the Cubs were run by their rotating College of Coaches from 1961 to 1965 and have no manager card.
About Alvin Dark
The 1962 pennant earned Dark the National League's All-Star managing job for 1963, and he filled out a squad that beat the American League behind game MVP Willie Mays. Managing the American Leaguers in 1975 made him the first man to run All-Star teams for both leagues. The season itself was a step back: the Giants went 88-74 and finished third, eleven games behind the Dodgers, and spring training had opened with Dark telling reporters he kept a rating system on his players, and that the holdout Orlando Cepeda had more minuses than anybody. Card #258 is a third-series manager-subset card.
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: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 283 | 2 | 40 | 148 | 60 | 18 | 10 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 15 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-09-24. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8), and PSA's qualified grades are counted separately from the straight-grade rows shown here.
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Related cards
Team card: #417 San Francisco Giants
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- #7 1962 National League Pitching Leaders
- #9 1962 National League Strikeout Leaders
- #30 Harvey Kuenn
- #50 Bill Pierce
- #61 Ernie Bowman
- #85 Tom Haller
- #106 Bob Bolin
- #128 Matty Alou
- #138 Pride of the N.L.
- #143 World Series Game #2 - Sanford Flashes Shutout Magic
- #145 World Series Game #4 - Hiller Blasts Grand Slammer
- #147 World Series Game #6 - Pierce Stars in 3-Hit Victory
- #163 Don Larsen
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #258 card?
It is card #258 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Alvin Dark of the San Francisco Giants. The nineteen manager cards use the same portrait layout as the players. Twenty clubs, nineteen managers: the Cubs were run by their rotating College of Coaches from 1961 to 1965 and have no manager card.
How many cards are in the 1963 Topps Baseball set?
576 cards, tracked as 583 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 576 with no gaps and no number used twice, and seven cards carry a catalogued print variation - three checklists, the two Rookie Stars cards also printed with a "1962" heading, and the #341 Jack Baldschun and #454 Art Fowler print states - that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-03.