#185 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.

Building the Set
June 5, 2021 from Tomball, TX - Card #289
To celebrate the unofficial beginning of summer, I took advantage of a 15% Memorial Day Weekend sale hosted by one of my favorite dealers, The Battersbox, from Tomball, Texas.  With the second series now complete, I spent an enjoyable hour or so over the long holiday weekend picking 20 commons from the third series to add to our set and I'll feature those cards in the next 20 posts.  The package of cards arrived on June 5th and in total, the lot cost me a little more than $63.  This Alvis card was one of the lowest priced cards I added at about $1.28 after applying the discount.  

The Card / Indians Team Set
Alvis is sporting the Wally Moonish (#247) (Wally Moonesian?) eyebrow style here, and the the famous Yankee Stadium facade makes a cameo appearance in the background.  The back of the card mentions the playing time Alvis missed during the 1964 season, and he was tied for third place on the Indians in home runs with Woodie Held (#336).  Both Alvis and Held had 18 home runs, while Leon Wagner (#367) was the runaway team leader with 31 home runs and John Romano (#17) was a distant second with 19.

Alvis, at card #3, is one of 72 players featured within the 1965 Topps Embossed insert set and one of five Indians in the set.  He's also in the harder to find 1965 Topps Transfers insert set.

1965 Season
Healthy again, Alvis appeared in 159 games for the fifth place Indians, making 156 starts at third base.  His strong first half led to his first of two All-Star Game selections.  In that year's All-Star Game, Alvis took over for American League starting third baseman Brooks Robinson (#150) in the eighth inning.  In his lone at-bat, he attempted to bunt for a base hit but popped out to Cardinals' pitcher Bob Gibson (#320).  Alvis finished the season with a .247 average to go along with 21 home runs and 61 RBIs.

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

78 - Alvis non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 7/19/21.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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