by Amaury Pi Gonzalez
OAKLAND–Former A’s manager Alvin Dark passed away on Thursday at the age of 92 the Oakland A’s announced in a press release. Dark whose many successful accomplishments as a player and a manager in baseball was overshadowed by telling former Giant first baseman Orlando Cepeda to stop talking in Spanish in the Giants clubhouse during his time with the San Francisco Giant as manager in the 1960s.
Dark at the time wanted the Latino players on those 60s Giants teams like Juan Marichal, Felipe Alou and Cepeda to talk in English only in the Giants clubhouse. Years later Cepeda would say everytime Dark saw him he would apologize for that and Cepeda would say, “he didn’t know our background or where we came from.”
Cepeda would tell Dark when he would apologize, “that’s in the past now, that’s in the past, I don’t hold grudges against nobody.” Dark died at his home in Easly South Carolina from a long bout with Alzheimer’s disease. Dark came from a very strong born again Christian background and would often give talks in churches which he did in the East Bay quite often when he was managing the 1974 Oakland A’s.
Dark’s career started out with the Boston Braves in 1946, in 1948 he finished third in voting for the American League rookie of the year with the Braves. In the 48 season Dark played a key role in helping the Braves get to the World Series it would be the Braves first pennant since 1914. Dark however it hit only .167 in the 1948 World Series and was traded to the New York Giants after the season.
In the 1951 National League playoff game three against the Brooklyn Dodgers the Giants were trailing 4-1 the Giants managed to get within one run making it 4-3 and in the bottom of the ninth at the Polo Fields in New York. Dark hit a single and later Bobby Thompson hit a homer off Dodger pitcher Dan Newcombe for a walk off victory 5-4 to get the Giants into the 1951 World Series. The homer which was later named “the shot heard round the world.”
Dark later managed the 1962 San Francisco Giants to a World Series, the Giants played the contentious New York Yankees to seven games. The Giants lost game seven when Willie McCovey with two runners on hit a line shot to Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson who leaped and caught it for the final out of the game. With that Yankees win that would erase their previous bitter loss in the 1960 World Series to Bill Mazeroski and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Dark later managed the 1974 Oakland A’s to a World Series pennant, the A’s had won two straight pennants in 1972-73 and Dark’s 1974 A’s made it three straight. That A’s team had been talent loaded with Reggie Jackson, Gene Tenace, Sal Bando, Ray Fosse, Mike Epstein, Joe Rudi, Bert Campaneris, Bill North, and a pitching staff of Jim Catfish Hunter, Ken Holtzman, Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers, Paul Lindblad, John Blue Moon Odom and owned by Charlie O Finley.
Kelvin Moore passes at age 57: Former A’s infielder Kelvin Moore passed away at the age of 57 in Covington Georgia of a heart attack on Wednesday it had been reported that Moore was suffering from diabetes and other ailments in the past few years.
Moore played with former A’s second baseman and current Comcast baseball analyst Shooty Babbitt on the 1981 A’s team who won the American League West that season. Moore was a native of Leroy Alabama. Moore was selected sixth out of the draft in 1978, Moore played at Jackson State and it was on former A’s manager Billy Martin’s team that season in 81 where Moore hit .255 in 14 games.
Moore would wind up playing for Oakland for all of his three years in the big leagues between 1981-1983. Moore would hit .223 with eight home runs and 25 RBIs in 76 games. Moore is survived by his family wife Patricia and daughters Chasity and Kim and son Justin.
Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com
