Williams and Daryl Spencer the candidates to be the new Giants shortstop. After having made $25,000 the year before, Dark held out at the beginning of spring training, seeking a higher salary for 1953, as Reese of the Dodgers had made $40,000 the year before. On March 3, he and the Giants finally agreed on a two-year-contract that reportedly paid somewhere between $30,000 annually (what the Giants had wanted) and $35,000 annually (what Dark had wanted). Once spring training was underway, there were reports that Dark was playing indifferently at second base, hoping to force the team to move him back to shortstop. Durocher held a press conference at his hotel room to address the rumors on March 20, and Dark barged in as it was going on. "I have told Leo I will play second, third, or anywhere else he wants me to if he thinks it will improve the club," Dark said, and Durocher concurred that there was no ill feeling between him and Dark. John Drebinger of The New York Times doubted that Dark had played indifferently, noting that his worst day as a fielder in spring training occurred in a game in which he was playing shortstop, a game he had insisted on playing even though he was "not feeling well" that day. Dark began the season at the shortstop position. Durocher shifted him to left field on June 21, then to second base on June 25, as Spencer began to get time at short. He scored four runs and had three RBI in a 20–6 victory over Brooklyn on July 5, including a two-run home run against Clem Labine. After spending much of July playing second base, Dark was shifted back to shortstop for the rest of the season on July 29, as Spencer's batting average had been low the past month. On August 26, he had five hits and five RBI, including a two-run home run against Harvey Haddix in a 13–4 victory over the Cardinals. He had back-to-back four-hit games in victories over the Cubs on August 31 and September 1. With the Giants out of playoff contention at the end of the 1953 season, Dark convinced Durocher to let him do something he had always wanted to do in the major leagues: pitch. Originally scheduled to throw the first two innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 27, Dark completed only the