Blast from the Past: Alvin Dark and Eddie Stanky 1951

The New York Giants of the 1940's had talented players, but they were mostly slow, lumbering power-hitting types.  Leo Durocher, whose contract was traded from the Dodgers to the Giants in the middle of the 1948 season, wanted more speed and defense.  He got his wish before the 1950 season when the Braves traded their double-play combo, Alvin Dark and Edde Stanky, to the Giants for 4 players including a couple of the aforementioned power hitters.

Alvin Dark was a 5-tool athlete who earned college scholarship offers in both football and basketball.  He was the shortstop, a superior defender with excellent bat-to-ball skills and a bit of power and speed.  Stanky was a short(5'0") scrappy second baseman, also a great defender, who made the most of his hitting ability by taking a lot of walks as well as HBP's producing OBP's over .400.  He previously played fo Durocher on the 1940's Dodgers teams.  Stanky was the perfect leadoff hitter while Dark was the perfect #2 hitter.  They played together for the Giants for just two seasons, but were as responsible for winning the 1951 pennant as anyone on the team.  For those of you who believe in "clubhouse chemistry", the 1940's Giants were the team that prompted Leo Durocher to coin his famous phrase, "nice guys finish last."  Dark and Stanky were Durocher type players who achieved both success, failure and controversy throughout their careers with their fiery personalities.

Here are the stat lines for the 1951 Giants keystone combo and their leadoff and #2 hitters:

Eddie Stanky:  .247/.401/.369, 17 2B, 2 3B, 14 HR, 8 SB, 88 R, 43 RBI, 19.4 BB%, 9.6 K%, 653 PA, 5.0 fWAR.

Alvin Dark:  .303/.352/.454, , 41 2B, 7 3B, 14 HR, 12 SB, 114 R, 69 RBI, 6.0 BB%, 5.6 K%, 700 PA, 5.2 fWAR.

Now, how would you like to see THAT at the top of the Giants lineup in 2020?

Stanky left the Giants after the 1951 season to be player-manager of the Cardinals and quickly ramped down his playing career to concentrate on pulling the strings from the dugout.  Dark played 6+ seasons for the Giants and was also part of their 1954 World Series Championship team.  He also went on to have a successful and controversial career as a manager of multiple teams including the pennant winning 1962 Giants, but that's a story for another day.