#145 Max Alvis - Cleveland Indians

Roy Maxwell Alvis
Cleveland Indians
Third Base

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  185
Born:  February 2, 1938, Jasper, TX
Signed:  Signed by the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent before 1958 season
Major League Teams:  Cleveland Indians 1962-1969; Milwaukee Brewers 1970

Max Alvis overcame a serious bout with spinal meningitis in 1964 to earn two All-Star Game berths with the Indians as that club's regular third baseman throughout the mid-1960s.  Alvis enjoyed a career year in 1963, hitting .274 with a career high 22 home runs before missing six weeks in 1964 battling the ailment.  He came close to his career high with 21 home runs in both 1965 and 1967, and he drove in a career high 70 runs in 1967.  A steady fielder, Alvis led all American League third baseman in putouts in four different seasons and he finished in the top five among third baseman for fielding percentage three times.  He was dealt to Milwaukee before the 1970 season and he'd spend his final year in the majors as a back-up infielder in the Brewers' inaugural season.  Alvis appeared in 1,013 career games, tallying a .247 average with 111 home runs and 373 RBIs.

Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.

Building the Set / Card #176
March 12, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)

In mid-March, Doug and I attended the Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show, held within the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania.  My main focus for this show was accumulating as many 1969 Topps commons as possible, which I did by adding a grand total of 193 cards to our set.  That's almost 30% of the entire set added in one enjoyable afternoon.  I wrote a full summary of the show in a post over at The Phillies Room, found here.

This is the 99th of the 193 commons and semi-stars purchased, pulled and stacked from the first two neon green binders housing 1969 Topps cards at the multi-table spread of Uncle Dick's Cards from Babylon, New York.  My method was simple - I pulled up a chair, found a card I needed, picked the best of the group from the binder page and set it aside.  After each 100 cards, I'd ask the dealer to tell me how much damage I had done so far.  With a budget in mind, I kept going twice, continuing after card #100 and card #200, and stopping at card #298.  The final amount due was 17% off the sticker price for the pile of 193 cards, with this card costing less than a dollar.

The Card / Indians Team Set / Accuracy Index +5

The photo used here seems to be from the same session as the photo used for Alvis' 1966 Topps card, so it could date all the way back to 1965.  The back of the card highlights his All-Star game appearances and also mentions his health struggles.

Accuracy Index:  Alvis' card scores a solid +5.

1969 Season
This was to be Alvis' final season in Cleveland, and he began the season as Zoilo Versalles' (#38) back-up at third base.  Alvis suffered a knee injury in a game on May 24th which hampered his production the rest of the season and ultimately led to him being shut down in mid-July.  In 66 games he batted .225 with six doubles and 15 RBIs.  A few days before the start of the 1970 season, Alvis and Russ Snyder (#201) were traded by the Indians to the Brewers for Frank Coggins, Roy Foster and cash.

1963 Topps #228

1964 Topps #545

1966 Topps #415

1967 Topps #520

1970 Topps #85

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1963 Topps #228
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (8):  1963-1970
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2019 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-MA
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  78 in the Beckett online database as of 11/14/23.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
1965 Topps Blog

#144 Bob Hendley - New York Mets / #146 Jim Perry - Minnesota Twins