Alvin Ralph Dark, nicknamed "Blackie" and "the Swamp Fox", was an American professional baseball shortstop and manager. He played fourteen years in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston/Milwaukee Braves, the New York Giants (1950–56), the St. Louis Cardinals (1956–58), the Chicago Cubs (1958–59), and the Philadelphia Phillies (1960). Later, he managed the San Francisco Giants (1961–64), the Kansas City/Oakland Athletics, the Cleveland Indians (1968–71), and the San Diego Padres (1977). He was a three-time All-Star and a two-time World Series champion, once as a player (1954) and once as a manager (1974).

The New York Giants were a Major League Baseball team in the National League that began play in the 1883 season as the New York Gothams and became known as the Giants in 1885. They continued as the New York Giants until the team moved to San Francisco, California after the 1957 season, where the team continues its history as the San Francisco Giants. The team moved west at the same time as its longtime rival, the Brooklyn Dodgers, also in the National League, moved to Los Angeles in southern California as the Los Angeles Dodgers, continuing the National League, same-state rivalry.