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ABSTRACT
In 1964, Newsday columnist Stan Isaacs quoted San Francisco Giants manager Alvin Dark making disparaging comments about his team’s Black and Latino players. This article analyzes the controversy over the Newsday column, with a focus on the interpretations of sports journalists. Most baseball writers excused Dark and attacked Isaacs, who was one of the “Chipmunks”—a cohort of young, socially conscious columnists for East Coast afternoon newspapers. The San Francisco press protected Dark out of regional identification, while New York’s veteran writers resented the style of the upstarts. The mainstream press muffled the genuine grievances of Black and Latino players, and it manipulated the statements and actions of superstars Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays. Although Black columnists saw Dark’s comments as indicative of racism in sports, most sportswriters downplayed the conflict, reflecting baseball’s prevalent biases in this era.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Stan Isaacs, Out of Left Field: A Sportswriter’s Last Word (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2024), 64–65.
2. Stan Isaacs, “Louisiana in Dark Showing Through,” Newsday, July 23, 1964. This article primarily uses “Black” and “Latino” as racial and ethnic identifiers. It uses “Negro,” “Latin,” or uncapitalized “black” only in quotations from sources. Per the journal’s guidelines, it capitalizes “White” and uses uncapitalized “White” only in quotations.
3. Isaacs, “Louisiana in Dark Showing Through”; Isaacs, Out of Left Field, 65–66; Stan Isaacs oral history, in Dennis D’Agostino, Keepers of the Game: When the Baseball Beat was the Best Job on the Paper (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2013), 8–9.
4. Isaacs, “Louisiana in Dark Showing Through.”
5. Orlando Cepeda with Herb Fagen, Baby Bull: From Hardball to Hard Time and Back (Dallas, TX: Taylor Publishing Company, 1998), 92–95; Orlando Cepeda with Charles Einstein, My Ups and Downs in Baseball (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1968), 145–47; James S. Hirsch, Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend (New York: Scribner, 2010), 417–21; Juan Marichal with Charles Einstein, A Pitcher’s Story (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967), 174–75; Juan Marichal and Lew Freedman, Juan Marichal: My Journey from the Dominican Republic to Cooperstown (Minneapolis, MN: MVP Books, 2011), 68; Willie Mays as told to Charles Einstein, Willie Mays: My Life In and Out of Baseball (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1966), 266–69; Willie Mays with Lou Sahadi, Say Hey: The Autobiography of Willie Mays (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988), 214–15; Willie Mays and John Shea, 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2020), 219–23; Peter C. Bjarkman, Baseball with a Latin Beat: A History of the Latin American Game (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1994), 96–97; Adrian Burgos Jr., Playing America’s Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 211–12; Samuel O. Regalado, Viva Baseball! Latin Major Leaguers and Their Special Hunger, 3rd ed. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008), 84–87; Rob Ruck, The Tropic of Baseball: Baseball in the Dominican Republic (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998), 82–83; and Rob Ruck, Raceball: How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latin Game (Boston: Beacon Press, 2011), 164–65.
6. Isaacs started writing his memoir in 2004. When he died in 2013, it had not been published. I learned about the manuscript from the endnotes of Mitchell Nathanson, Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2020). Professor Nathanson placed me in touch with the Isaacs family. After reading the memoir, I edited it for publication with the Sport and Society Series at the University of Illinois Press, where I serve as a series editor.
7. On the history of race, sports, and the media, see Chris Lamb, ed., From Jack Johnson to LeBron James: Sports, Media, and the Color Line (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016); Brian Carroll, When to Stop the Cheering? The Black Press, the Black Community, and the Integration of Professional Baseball (New York: Routledge, 2007); and Chris Lamb, Conspiracy of Silence: Sportswriters and the Long Campaign to Desegregate Baseball (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012). On the liberal press and the civil rights movement of the 1960s, see Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff, The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation (New York: Vintage Books, 2007), 222–394.
8. On the history of American sportswriting, see Leonard Koppett, The Rise and Fall of the Press Box (Toronto, Canada: Sport Classic Books, 2003); Michael MacCambridge, The Franchise: A History of Sports Illustrated Magazine (New York: Hyperion, 2007); Richard Orodenker, ed., Dictionary of Literary Biography 171: Twentieth Century American Sportswriters (Detroit: Gale Research, 1996); Richard Orodenker, ed., Dictionary of Literary Biography 241: American Sportswriters and Writers on Sports (Detroit: Gale Research, 2001); and Patrick S. Washburn and Chris Lamb, Sports Journalism: A History of Glory, Fame, and Technology (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2020).
9. Regalado, Viva Baseball!, 39–115; Burgos, Playing America’s Game, 198–202; Mark Armour and Daniel R. Levitt, “Baseball Demographics, 1947–2016,” https://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/baseball-demographics-1947–2016/; “Bateador of the Giants,” Time, June 15, 1962, 70; Robert H. Boyle, “The Latins Storm Las Grandes Ligas,” Sports Illustrated, August 9, 1965, 24–30; Robert Boyle, “The Private World of the Negro Ballplayer,” Sports Illustrated, March 21, 1960, 16–19, 74–84; and Adrian Burgos, Cuban Star: How One Negro League Owner Changed the Face of Baseball (New York: Hill and Wang, 2012), 186–256. On the integration of major league baseball, see Jules Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997). There were light-skinned Latinos (who could pass as White) in major league baseball prior to 1947. Robinson’s integration opened the door for those from Latin America of African descent.
10. Boyle, “The Private World of the Negro Ballplayer”; Regalado, Viva Baseball! 110–11, 136–39; and Burgos, Playing America’s Game, 202–28.
11. Ruck, Raceball, 154; Hirsch, Willie Mays, 327–28; and Roy Terrell, “Old Pals in a Cold Wind,” Sports Illustrated, September 26, 1960, 80–89. The Sports Illustrated article stated: “The best ballplayers on the club are Negroes, yet the Negroes, even if they chose to, could not lead because the whites would not follow.”
12. “Faithful Giver,” American, April 1955, 51; Harry Jupiter, “Dark: If Only Our Guys Would Believe,” San Francisco Examiner, September 6, 1964; Stanley Frank, “He Wishes the Majors Were Tougher,” Saturday Evening Post, July 16, 1949, 28–29, 90–94; and Alvin Dark with John Underwood, When in Doubt, Fire the Manager: My Life and Times in Baseball (New York: Dutton, 1980), 27–63.
13. “Alvin Dark: Manager with a Giant Job,” Look, May 8, 1962, 77–82; “Beanball My Men?” Life, July 26, 1963, 28-28A; Robert Creamer, “Crossing the Delaware with Alvin Dark,” Sports Illustrated, August 26, 1963, 46–48; and Mays, Willie Mays, 205–23. To retaliate against beanballs, Dark ordered pitches thrown only at the offending pitcher. He described his strategy in political terms: “Any pitcher who throws at a batter and deliberately tries to hit him is a Communist. I believe in democracy, not communism.” George Vecsey, “Throwing at a Batter Makes Dark See Red,” Newsday, May 29, 1964.
14. Charles Einstein, Willie’s Time: Baseball’s Golden Age (1979; reis., Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004), 110–11, 129–31; Robert F. Garratt, Home Team: The Turbulent History of the New York Giants (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017), 21–23, 30–33; Hirsch, Willie Mays, 292–94; Arthur Daley, “Here Comes Willie,” New York Times, May 29, 1964; Milton Gross, “A Visit with Willie Mays,” Saturday Evening Post, May 20, 1961, 32–33, 68; Edward Linn, “Trials of a Negro Idol,” Saturday Evening Post, June 22, 1963, 70–72; and Jack Mann, “They Love Herman and Willie,” Sports Illustrated, September 27, 1965, 24–31.
15. Mays, Willie Mays, 204–6; Mays, Say Hey, 161–64; Creamer, “Crossing the Delaware,” 46–48; and Charles Einstein, A Flag for San Francisco (New York: J. Lowell Pratt, 1962), 12.
16. Dark, When in Doubt, Fire the Manager, 93–94, 96–97.
17. Felipe Alou with Herm Weiskopf, Felipe Alou … My Life and Baseball (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1967), 68, 102–3; Felipe Alou with Peter Kerasotis, Alou: My Baseball Journey (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2018), 90, 125–28; and Marichal and Freedman, Juan Marichal, 68–69. On the Alous, see also Regalado, Viva Baseball!, 125–27, 144–46. In the 1963 offseason, when Dark held exit meetings, he asked Alou about his teammate, the Puerto Rican shortstop Jose Pagan. More specifically, Dark asked about Pagan’s girlfriend. Was she White, Black, or Latina? Staring into Dark’s eyes, Alou challenged the premise of the question. Racial tension charged the meeting. A few weeks later, the Giants offered Alou a contract with a $3,000 pay cut, even though he had a solid season with a .281 batting average, twenty-five home runs, and ninety-eight runs batted in.
18. Felipe Alou with Arnold Hano, “Latin-American Ballplayers Need a Bill of Rights,” Sport, November 1963, 20–21, 76–79; and Alou, Alou, 128. On Sport see Roger Kahn, Memories of Summer: When Baseball Was an Art, and Writing About It a Game (New York: Hyperion, 1997), 167–68, 207–9; and Ed Fitzgerald, A Nickel an Inch: A Memoir (New York: Atheneum, 1985), 133–41. Another star from the Dominican Republic, Juan Marichal, believed that Dark toyed with his mind. Sometimes Dark made him finish a game so that he would not rely on relief pitchers, and other times he abruptly pulled the pitcher. Moreover, Dark questioned his “guts,” even though Marichal ranked with the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax as the league’s top aces. During the pennant race in 1962, Marichal missed some starts after injuring his foot. Dark said little to him, recalled Marichal, “but the look in his eye told me he thought I was trying to quit under pressure.” Marichal, A Pitcher’s Story, 111–13, 141–42, 172–73; Jack Zanger, “A Unique View of Juan Marichal,” Sport, September 1967, 18–21; and Marichal and Freedman, Juan Marichal, 67–68.
19. Myron Cope, “Closeup of Orlando Cepeda,” Sport, April 1962, 60–68; Art Rosenbaum, “Orlando Worth His Pay Check,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 12, 1964; and Cepeda, My Ups and Downs in Baseball, 59–64.
20. Cepeda, High and Inside, 33–35; and Cepeda, Baby Bull, 75–76. On Dark’s problems with interracial dating, see also Einstein, Willie’s Time, 211–12; and Howard Bryant, Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original (Boston: Mariner Books, 2022), 197.
21. Cepeda, Baby Bull, 77; and Cepeda, My Ups and Downs in Baseball, 112–15, 148–53.
22. A. S. (Doc) Young, “Home Run King of the Giants,” Ebony, July 1962, 47–53; and Cepeda, High and Inside, 42. On Ebony see E. James West, Ebony Magazine and Lerone Bennett Jr.: Popular Black History in Postwar America (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2020), 3–4. On Young’s ideology see A. S. “Doc” Young, Negro Firsts in Sports (Chicago: Johnson Publishing Co., 1963).
23. Tim Cohane, “Orlando Cepeda: Can He Slug His Way Out of the Doghouse?” Look, May 21, 1963, 84–89; and Andrew L. Yarrow, Look: How a Highly Influential Magazine Helped Define Mid-Twentieth Century America (Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2021), 45–48. As a reflection of how he valued and devalued players, Dark once said of Cepeda: “I’m getting sick and tired of people leading the league in home runs and runs batted in and not helping us any!” Einstein, A Flag for San Francisco, 84.
24. “Cepeda Sues Look—$1 Million,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 24, 1963; Art Rosenbaum, “Orlando Has Writers’ Cramps,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 24, 1963; Bob Stevens, “Cepeda Hurt By Charge,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 29, 1963; “Cepeda to Appeal Suit,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 20, 1963; Herb Caen, “Some Like 'Em Short,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 22, 1963; Glenn Dickey, “Horace Testifies: I Like Cepeda,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 31, 1963; “Cepeda Denies ‘Agreement,’” San Francisco Chronicle, January 10, 1964; Glenn Dickey, “Little League Libel in Cepeda Case,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 28, 1964; “Look Editor Jail Term is Stayed,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 13, 1964; “Cepeda Suit Source Named,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 16, 1966; Jack Viets, “Cohane Says Schumacher ‘Cut’ Cepeda,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 21, 1966; and William Cooney, “Cepeda Strikes Out; Look Wins,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 3, 1966. Cohane finally had to reveal his source as Garry Schumacher, the public relations director for the Giants. During spring training in 1963, Cepeda had held out for a better contract. During a long car trip and a drink at a hotel bar, Schumacher spilled out his frustrations to Cohane. The writer used Schumacher as his main source, though he did not take notes. The federal jury debated whether Cohane was careless, but it saw no malice on his part.
25. Isaacs, Out of Left Field, 7–8; and D’Agostino, Keepers of the Game, 3–4, 139.
26. Leonard Koppett, “Eager Beavers + Rat Pack = Chipmunks,” Sporting News, April 16, 1966, 9–10; Frederick C. Klein, “Sportswriters Switch From ‘Gee Whiz’ Style to Analysis, Acerbity,” Wall Street Journal, October 6, 1967; Bryan Curtis, “No Chattering in the Press Box,” Grantland, May 2, 2012, https://grantland.com/features/larry-merchant-leonard-shecter-chipmunks-sportswriting-clan/; Mitchell Nathanson, Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2020), 48–53; and Koppett, The Rise and Fall of the Press Box, 114–16.
27. Isaacs, Out of Left Field, 8–10; and Bryan Curtis, “In Memoriam: Sportswriting Iconoclast Stan Isaacs,” Grantland, April 4, 2013, https://grantland.com/the-triangle/in-memoriam-sportswriting-iconoclast-stan-isaacs/.
28. Isaacs, Out of Left Field, 20–56; and George Vecsey, interview with the author, January 6, 2023.
29. Robert F. Keeler, Newsday: A Candid History of the Respectable Tabloid (New York: William Morrow, 1990), 226–28, 362; and “Mann in Charge,” Newsweek, March 27, 1961, 88–89. For some of Isaacs’s contributions to Best Sports Stories, see Stan Isaacs, “There Once Was a Tennis Player,” in Best Sports Stories 1961, ed. Irving T. Marsh and Edward Ehre (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1961), 232–34; Stan Isaacs, “Marvelous Marv,” in Best Sports Stories 1963, ed. Irving T. Marsh and Edward Ehre (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1963), 83–85; Stan Isaacs, “In One Jump, He Joined the Immortals,” in Best Sports Stories 1964, ed. Irving T. Marsh and Edward Ehre (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1964), 248–49; and Stan Isaacs, “He Made the Mets Fun,” in Best Sports Stories 1966, ed. Irving T. Marsh and Edward Ehre (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1966), 57–59.
30. Leonard Shecter, The Jocks (Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1969), 30–36; Gerald Eskenazi, A Sportswriter’s Life: From the Desk of a New York Times Reporter (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2004), 11–13; and Alan Schwarz, “When a Secret Opened the Door to Candid Sports Reporting,” New York Times, September 14, 2008.
31. Furman Bisher, “Born to Play Ball,” Saturday Evening Post, August 25, 1956, 30, 74–76; Jimmy Brown with Myron Cope, Off My Chest (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964); Gilbert Rogin, “We Are Grown Men Playing a Child’s Game,” Sports Illustrated, November 18, 1963, 74–90; and Ed Linn, “I Owe the Public Nothing,” Saturday Evening Post, January 18, 1964, 60–63. See also Howard Bryant, The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron (New York: Anchor Books, 2011), 190–98; and Aram Goudsouzian, King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010), 152–57.
32. Isaacs, Out of Left Field, 69–76.
33. David Remnick, King of the World (New York: Vintage, 1998), 150–59, 199–204; and Robert Lipsyte, interview with author, January 10, 2023.
34. In San Francisco, Charles Einstein of the Examiner was a bard for Willie Mays. In 1960, he argued with three White Giants players in a hotel bar who proclaimed that Mays was overrated, denigrating him in racist terms. Then they spotted the Black beat writer Bob Teague. “Who’s the nigger?” they asked. When Einstein informed them that he wrote for the New York Times, one exclaimed, “I’ll be a dirty bastard.” Despite his liberal politics and personal affection for Mays, Einstein kept the story out of the newspaper. Hirsch, Willie Mays, 328–29.
35. Taylor Branch, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963–65 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998), 343–509.
36. Harry Jupiter and Gene Mugnier, “Selling Home Here, Moving in June”; San Francisco Examiner, February 1, 1964; and Harry Jupiter, “Colts Say They’re Not After Alvin,” San Francisco Examiner, February 2, 1964.
37. Charley Feeney, “Dark Sees 7-Way Photo Finish,” New York Journal American, August 4, 1964; Charles McCabe, “Mr. Dark’s Brightest Hour,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 4, 1964; Glenn Dickey, “Dark Doesn’t Count Dodgers Out,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 29, 1964; Glenn Dickey, “Weekend Dark for Cover Boy,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 6, 1964; Dick Friendlich, “Dark Tossed, Uses Big, Big D,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 21, 1964; Art Rosenbaum, “Run Up the Surrender Flag,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 28, 1964; and Steve Treder, Forty Years a Giant: The Life of Horace Stoneham (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2021), 239–42, 268–76.
38. Dark, When in Doubt, Fire the Manager, 100–110.
39. Marichal and Freedman, Juan Marichal, 115; and Mays, Willie Mays, 257–58. Columnist Harry Jupiter profiled another outspoken Goldwater supporter on the Giants team, pitcher Bob Shaw. See Harry Jupiter, “Conscience of a Giant,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 10, 1964. On Goldwater in 1964 see Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (New York: Hill and Wang, 2001).
40. Dick Young, “Idled by Pitch, Thomas Warns Bolin of Giants,” New York Daily News, May 17, 1964; Dick Young, “Young Ideas,” New York Daily News, May 22, 1964; and Dick Young, “Young Ideas,” New York Daily News, August 2, 1964.
41. Robert H. Boyle, “Time of Trial for Alvin Dark,” Sports Illustrated, July 6, 1964, 26–31.
42. Michael G. Long, ed., Beyond Home Plate: Jackie Robinson on Life After Baseball (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2013); and Jackie Robinson, Baseball Has Done It (1964; reis. Brooklyn, NY: Ig Publishing, 2005), quotation p. 75. See also Jackie Robinson, “Baseball Has Done It,” Chicago Defender, May 30, 1964.
43. Robinson, Baseball Has Done It, 116–19.
44. A. S. “Doc” Young, “Jackie’s Book Links Sports, Democracy,” Chicago Defender, May 27, 1964; Jackie Robinson, “The Road to Hell,” Chicago Defender, August 15, 1964; “Alvin Dark on the Negro,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 13, 1964; Dick Friendlich, “Jackie’s Story Of the Way Up,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 17, 1964; “Letters to the Editor,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 19, 1964; and “Letters to the Editor,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 20, 1964.
45. Bob Stevens, “Dark Names Willie as Field Boss,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 22, 1964; Dick Friendlich, “How Willie Got Commissioned,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 22, 1964; Charles McCabe, “The Fearless Spectator,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 25, 1964; and Mays, My Life In and Out of Baseball, 259–65.
46. McCabe, “The Fearless Spectator.” See also Einstein, Willie’s Time, 203–205.
47. Stan Isaacs, “To Al Dark It’s Not Hustle; It’s Routine,” Newsday, March 27, 1958; Stan Isaacs, “Alvin Dark Weighs the Moral Issues,” Newsday, July 14, 1961; and Isaacs, Out of Left Field, 64. In 1964, Isaacs wrote a similar column about another devout Christian athlete, Dan Demeter of the Detroit Tigers. See Stan Isaacs, “Demeter: Praise the Lord and Hit to Right,” Newsday, March 24, 1964.
48. John Schulian, ed., The Great American Sports Page: A Century of Classic Columns from Ring Lardner to Sally Jenkins (New York: Library of America, 2019), xviii, 38; and Frank Graham Jr., A Farewell to Heroes (New York: Viking Press, 1981), x-xi.
49. Stan Isaacs, “Cepeda Just Isn’t Dark’s Kind of Guy,” Newsday, July 24, 1964.
50. Isaacs, Out of Left Field, 66; Stan Isaacs, “An Interview From Out of Left Field II,” Newsday, March 12, 1971.
51. Dark, When in Doubt, Fire the Manager, 51; Jack Hanley, “Alvin Dark: What He Would’ve Done If Fired,” Santa Rosa (CA) Press Democrat, August 11, 1964. In a telephone interview with the author on July 7, 2023, the ninety-two-year-old Merchant had no direct recollection of this conversation.
52. “Dark Denies Negro Slur,” New York Herald Tribune, August 5, 1964; Dark, When in Doubt, Fire the Manager, 94–97; and Isaacs, Out of Left Field, 66.
53. “Dark Fears Wrath of Killer Mets,” New York Post, August 4, 1964; “Marichal Goes Into Hospital,” New York Post, August 5, 1964; Leonard Koppett, “The Dark Controversy,” New York Times, August 4, 1964; and Dick Young, “Giants Expected to Ax Dark Soon; BB Career Ruined?,” New York Daily News, August 6, 1964.
54. Barney Kremenko, “Dark Sees Frick, Denies Racial Slur,” New York Journal American, August 4, 1964; Leonard Koppett, “Dark Denies Prejudiced Views About Giants Attributed to Him,” New York Times, August 5, 1964; “Dark States His Case to Players in Meeting,” New York Times, August 6, 1964; Phil Pepe, “Alvin Insists ‘I’ve Nothing to Defend,’” New York World Telegram and Sun, August 5, 1964; Leo Levine, “Dark Denies Negro Slur,” New York Herald Tribune, August 5, 1964; and Dick Young, “Al Dark Denies Bias,” New York Daily News, August 5, 1964.
55. “Rumor? Alvin Dark Might Get the Ax,” Salinas Californian, August 5, 1964; Koppett, “Dark Denies Prejudiced Views About Giants Attributed to Him;” and Levine, “Dark Denies Negro Slur.”
56. Stan Isaacs, “Alvin’s Denials Tough on Himself,” Newsday, August 5, 1964.
57. Joe Reichler, “Club Official Says ‘Dismissal Imminent,’” News (Frederick, Maryland), August 5, 1964; “AP Claims Giants Official Said Dark Will Be Fired,” Raleigh News and Observer, August 5, 1964; Barney Kremenko, “Dark on Skids, Franks Offered Job,” New York Journal American, August 5, 1964; and New York Herald Tribune, August 6, 1964. During this post-game scene, Casey Stengel was grumpy. The legendary seventy-four-year-old manager of the Mets typically attracted a gaggle of sportswriters, who dutifully reported his gruff, hilarious, and circular ramblings. But the press corps gathered in the visitors’ locker room, surrounding Dark for the second time. See Leonard Lewin, “Casey Takes a Back Seat,” New York Post, August 5, 1964; and Phil Pepe, “Irate Stengel Knows Who’s In Charge Here,” New York World Telegram and Sun, August 6, 1964.
58. Larry Fox, “Dark to Wind Up as Mets’ GM and Pilot?” New York World Telegram and Sun, August 5, 1964; Barney Kremenko, “Dark on Skids, Franks Offered Job,” New York Journal American, August 5, 1964; Harry Jupiter, “Dark Doomed; Franks In?” San Francisco Examiner, August 5, 1964; and Art Rosenbaum, “The Sinking of Al Dark,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 6, 1964.
59. “Dark Stays as Giants Pilot: Stoneham,” New York Daily News, August 7, 1964; “Stoneham Denies He Will Drop Dark as Manager of the Giants,” New York Times, August 7, 1964; Bob Stevens, “Stoneham Speaks: We Have No Intent to Fire Al Dark,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 7, 1964; Jack Leone, “Dark to Remain at the Top, Says Stoneham,” Newsday, August 7, 1964; “Now Dark To Stay Giants’ Manager,” Ventura County Star-Free Press (Ventura, CA), August 7, 1964; and John J. Connolly, “If Horace Admires Dark So Much, Where’s Alvin’s New Contract?” Daily Independent Journal (San Rafael, CA), August 7, 1964.
60. Albert S. Broussard, Black San Francisco: The Struggle for Racial Equality in the West, 1900–1954 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1993); Paul T. Miller, The Postwar Struggle for Civil Rights: African Americans in San Francisco, 1945–1975 (New York: Routledge, 2010), 26–87; and Eduardo Contreras, Latinos and the Liberal City: Politics and Protest in San Francisco (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019), 1–14, 102–31.
61. Art Rosenbaum, “Alvin and Semantics,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 7, 1964; “Tumult and Shouting,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 9, 1964; “Dark Vindicated,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 10, 1964; “The Spitball,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 10, 1964; and “Letters to the Editor,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 11, 1964.
62. Jack Hanley, “Alvin Dark’s Inquisition,” Santa Rosa Press Democrat, August 9, 1964; Jack Hanley, “The Question, But No Answer,” Santa Rosa Press Democrat, August 10, 1964; and Max Norris, “The Jaundiced I,” Redding (CA) Record-Searchlight, August 11, 1964. See also Mel Bowen, “Sidelines Sidelights,” Santa Cruz (CA) Sentinel, August 9, 1964.
63. Dick O’Connor, “Dark’s Infamous Interview Witnessed By Times Writer,” Palo Alto (CA) Times, August 6, 1964; and Isaacs, Out of Left Field, 67–68. Ray Spangler of the Redwood City (CA) Tribune later quoted the bulk of O’Connor’s column as another defense of Dark. See Ray Spangler, “Sports Writer Backs Dark in the Prejudice Charge,” Redwood City Tribune, August 21, 1964.
64. Tom Kelly, “A Quote, A Career,” Tampa Bay (FL) Times, August 9, 1964; John Fenn, “Sports Journal,” Enterprise-Journal (McComb, MS), August 7, 1964; and Charles Karmensky, “The Sportscope,” Daily Press (Newport News, VA), August 6, 1964.
65. Jimmy Cannon, “Where a Man Comes From,” New York Journal American, August 5, 1964; and Jimmy Cannon, “Stoneham’s Dilemma,” New York Journal American, August 6, 1964. The other major New York sports columnist, Red Smith, was on vacation; his August 5 column described fishing trout in Canada’s Northwest Territory. Red Smith, “Clotted With Trout,” New York Herald-Tribune, August 5, 1964.
66. Dick Young, “Ax Hanging Over Dark; May Have Had It In BB,” New York Daily News, August 6, 1964; and Isaacs, Out of Left Field, 67.
67. Isaacs, Out of Left Field, 67.
68. Larry Merchant, “Dark Days: Says It Isn’t So,” Philadelphia Daily News, August 5, 1964; Larry Merchant, “First Amaro—Is Rojas Next?” Philadelphia Daily News, August 11, 1964; and Larry Merchant, telephone interview with the author, July 7, 2023.
69. Leonard Shecter, “Alvin Dark: On the Brink,” New York Post, August 5, 1964; and Leonard Shecter, “Players’ Side,” New York Post, August 6, 1964.
70. Phil Pepe, “Alvin Insists ‘I’ve Nothing To Defend,” New York World Telegram and Sun, August 5, 1964.
71. Douglas J. Baer, “Honest Expression,” Newsday, August 12, 1964; and L. K., “Move Over, Cannon!” Newsday, August 13, 1964.
72. Wendell Smith, “Wendell Smith’s Sports Beat,” Chicago Defender, August 10, 1964; Wendell Smith, “One Man’s Opinion: Stan Isaacs Didn’t Misquote Louisiana’s Alvin Dark,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 15, 1964; and A. S. “Doc” Young“; Dark’s Racism is Malignant Cancer,” California Eagle, August 27, 1964. For more of Doc Young’s analysis of Dark, see A. S. “Doc” Young, “Alvin Dark Moves On,” Chicago Defender, September 15, 1965; and A. S. “Doc” Young, “Hoof-In-The-Mouth Disease,” Chicago Defender, August 3, 1967. On Wendell Smith see also Michael Scott Pifer, ed., The Wendell Smith Reader (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2023).
73. Joe Reichler, “Dark Confers With Frick Over Story on Negroes’ Mentality,” Sacramento Bee, August 4, 1964; and Isaacs, Out of Left Field, 67.
74. “Backs Dark,” New York Daily News, August 6, 1964; “Negro Leaders on Alvin’s Side,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 6, 1964; and Red Smith, “Alvin Dark Could Never Know a Darker Summer,” Louisville Courier-Journal, August 30, 1964.
75. Robinson, “The Road to Hell”; and Young, “Dark’s Racism is Malignant Cancer.” Robinson reaffirmed this general characterization of Dark in a later column. See Jackie Robinson, “Northern Style Bias,” Chicago Defender, November 28, 1964.
76. Harry Jupiter, “Dark Tells Team: No Bias,” San Francisco Examiner, August 6, 1964; “Mays Backs Up Giant Skipper,” San Bernardino (CA) County Sun, August 6, 1964; Barney Kremenko, “Mays: A Vote for Dark,” New York Journal American, August 6, 1964; and Bob Stevens, “Mays Backs Dark With Two Homers,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 6, 1964. See also Jack Hanley, “Mays Backed Dark,” Santa Rosa Press Democrat, August 12, 1964.
77. Einstein, Willie’s Time, 209–11; Mays and Shea, 24, 24–25; and Willie Mays with Charles Einstein, “Willie Mays: My Story,” Look, March 8, 1966, 71.
78. Mays, “Willie Mays,” Look, 71; Dick Young, “Dark Denies Bias,” New York Daily News, August 5, 1964; Joe Donnelly, “Players Still Waiting to Hear Alvin’s Side,” Newsday, August 5, 1964; and Shecter, “Alvin Dark: On the Brink.”
79. Leonard Lewin, “Mays Plays … Mets Pay,” New York Post, August 6, 1964; Mays, “Willie Mays,” Look, 71; and Einstein, Willie’s Time, 212.
80. Shecter, “Players’ Side.”
81. Joe Donnelly, “No Time for Mays to Enjoy Homers,” Newsday, August 6, 1964; Larry Fox, “Say Hey Prefers to Belt Ball And Shy Off the Arguments,” New York World Telegram and Sun, August 6, 1964; and Leonard Lewin, “The Shea Stadium Debates,” New York Post, August 6, 1964.
82. Donnelly, “No Time for Mays to Enjoy Homers”; and Fox, “Say Hey Prefers to Belt Ball And Shy Off the Arguments.”
83. Murray Robinson, “Bright Side of Dark Fuss,” New York Journal American, August 7, 1964; “Giant-Sized Trouble,” Time, August 14, 1964, 44–45; and “Faith or Works,” Sports Illustrated, August 17, 1964, 7.
84. Mays, “Willie Mays,” Look, 71. Doc Young took particular delight in learning of how Mays shut out Dark after this incident. See A. S. “Doc” Young, “A Progress Report,” Chicago Defender, March 24, 1966; A. S. “Doc” Young, “This Week’s Wash,” Chicago Defender, February 28, 1966; and A. S. “Doc” Young, “Names and Claims,” Chicago Defender, March 7, 1966. For more on the fallout between Mays and Dark, see John Gregory Dunne, “It’s a Long Way to 714,” Saturday Evening Post, July 30, 1966, 79.
85. Curley Grieve, “Dark: We Have to Find a Way to Win 28 More,” San Francisco Examiner, August 21, 1964; “Bye, Alvin! Giants Fall Apart,” San Francisco Examiner, September 4, 1964; Prescott Sullivan, “No Chance Now for Giants to Win BIG!” San Francisco Examiner, September 15, 1964; “Alvin Can Say ‘I Told You So’ of N. L. Finish,” San Francisco Examiner, October 2, 1964; “Will the Giants Do It Again?” San Francisco Examiner, October 3, 1964; Marichal, A Pitcher’s Story, 56–58; Glenn Dickey, “All We Need Is More Pitching,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 17, 1964; Milton Gross, “No Alvin in 1965,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 3, 1964; “Next Giant Chief—Charley Fox?” San Francisco Chronicle, September 4, 1964; Glenn Dickey, “I Throw and Then I Pray,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 12, 1964; Jack Fiske, “Dark Dreams of a Miracle,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 13, 1964; and Al Moss, “Dark: We Can Still Win,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 14, 1964. On August 19, Dark had a heated exchange with Frank Robinson of the Cincinnati Reds, after a Giants pitcher beaned Robinson and Robinson cursed at Dark from the dugout. In the aftermath, Robinson explained, “I don’t agree with anything Dark says. I don’t like the man.” When asked to elaborate, he said, “I have my own personal reasons.” See Dick Friendlich, “Robbie ‘Woke Up’ Fighting Mad,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 20, 1964; Curly Grieve, “Dark, Robby Nearly Clash,” San Francisco Examiner, September 20, 1964; and Curly Grieve, “Robby: ‘Pitchers Should Use Skill, Not Beanball,’” San Francisco Examiner, September 22, 1964.
86. Glenn Dickey, “Giants Fire Dark, Hire Franks,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 5, 1964; Bob Stevens, “Doors Close on Dark,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 6, 1964; “Horace’s Move,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 11, 1964; George Hexton, “Alvin Dark,” San Francisco Examiner, October 14, 1964; “Giants Fire Dark and Hire Franks,” San Francisco Examiner, October 5, 1964; Harry Jupiter, “Stoneham Fired Dark in Person,” San Francisco Examiner, October 6, 1964; and Joe Pareti, “Blame Dark,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 17, 1964. In an interesting sidelight to the season’s racial controversies, Masanori Murakami made his debut as a Giants pitcher on September 1, 1964, becoming the first Japanese player in the major leagues. George Vecsey, a Newsday colleague of Stan Isaacs, noted the irony that in his previous trip to New York, Dark stood in the center of a media crisis, and on this trip, he made history by calling in Murakami in relief. George Vecsey, “Newest Giant Pitcher Gets Quick Orientation,” Newsday, September 2, 1964. See also Robert K. Fitts, Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami, the First Japanese Major Leaguer (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015), 78–108.
87. Dick Young, “Why Mets Didn’t Hire Dark,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 5, 1964; Harry Jupiter, “‘A Dark Winter for Alvin,’” San Francisco Examiner, October 14, 1964; Prescott Sullivan, “Poor Alvin—How Was He to Blame?” San Francisco Examiner, September 30, 1964; “Yanks—Keane; Cards—Schoendienst,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 21, 1964; and “Alvin Dark Signs as Cubs Coach,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 11, 1964.
88. Arthur Daley, “Out of the Dark,” New York Times, December 1, 1965; “Finley’s Follies,” Newsweek, September 4, 1967, 68–69; John Underwood, “Al Dark at the Top of the Stairs,” Sports Illustrated, March 4, 1974, 22–24; “Alvin Dark: Dugout Disciple,” Time, June 3, 1974, 65; A. S. “Doc” Young, “Case of Alvin Dark,” Chicago Defender, August 5, 1971; “Peña Tells of Racism,” Chicago Defender, May 22, 1973; Norman O. Unger, “Blacks Ignored for A’s Boss,” Chicago Defender, February 21, 1974; A. S. “Doc” Young, “The Week’s Wash … ,” Chicago Defender, March 4, 1974; “Latin Player Makes Charge,” Chicago Defender, May 13, 1974; Wendell Smith, “Dark Still Bothered by Racist Charge,” Chicago Sun-Times, August 4, 1970; and Curt Flood with Richard Carter, The Way It Is (New York: Trident, 1971), 80–81.
89. Mays and Shea, 24, 221–23; “Cepeda Praises New Giant Mentor Franks,” Chicago Defender, December 19, 1964; A. S. “Doc” Young, “Bits and Bites of Sports,” Chicago Defender, July 20, 1965; and Ruck, The Tropic of Baseball, 82.
90. Dark, When in Doubt, Fire the Manager, 94–95; Mays and Shea, 24, 221–22; Isaacs, Out of Left Field, 68; and Neil Best, “It’s All on the Record,” Newsday, May 25, 2008.
91. Dark, When in Doubt, Fire the Manager, 98–99; Daniel E. Slotnik, “Stan Isaacs, 83, Cheeky Columnist,” New York Times, April 10, 2013; and Richard Goldstein, “Alvin Dark, 92, Is Dead; Led Giants to 3 Pennants,” November 14, 2014.
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Aram Goudsouzian
Aram Goudsouzian is the Bizot Family Professor of History at the University of Memphis. He is the author of five books, including King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution and Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear.