1969 Topps #91 Al Dark


About this card
This is one of the 25 manager cards in the 1969 Topps set - one for each of the 24 clubs, with Washington twice (#294 Jim Lemon, the outgoing manager, and #650 Ted Williams, hired that February). Nine of the 25 are Hall of Famers.
About Al Dark
Topps put this one in the earliest packs of 1969, ahead of the season that undid Dark in Cleveland. In 1969 the Indians handed him the general manager's title on top of the field job, making him responsible for the roster he was also filling out. It went badly: Cleveland opened 1-15, Luis Tiant fell from 21 wins to 9-20, and the club finished last in the brand-new American League East at 62-99, 46 and a half games out. Dark kept both titles until Cleveland took them away on July 30, 1971, with the team 42-61. Card #91 is a first-series 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: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 553 | 17 | 232 | 236 | 43 | 15 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #91 card?
It is card #91 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Al Dark of the Cleveland Indians. This is one of the 25 manager cards in the 1969 Topps set - one for each of the 24 clubs, with Washington twice (#294 Jim Lemon, the outgoing manager, and #650 Ted Williams, hired that February). Nine of the 25 are Hall of Famers.
How many cards are in the 1969 Topps Baseball set?
664 cards, tracked as 696 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 664 with none skipped and no printed number shared by two cards; 32 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately, 23 of them the yellow- and white-letter name pairs of #440-511.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, Baseball Almanac, 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 2026-10-12.