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Walt Alston

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

Walt Alston was born on December 1, 1911, in Venice, Ohio and died on October 1, 1984, in Oxford, Ohio. He was inducted with the Hall of Fame in 1983. Alston carved out a Hall of Fame career as a manager of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. A product of the Cradle of Coaches, Miami Ohio University, Alston tried almost every position during a 13-year minor league playing career from 1935-1947. Initially a third baseman, he moved to first base in 1936 and led the Mid-Atlantic League with 35 homers. Promoted to St. Louis, Alston struck out in his only major league at-bat. His first managerial assignment came while he was still a player, with Portsmouth in 1940. He led the circuit in homers, but the club finished sixth.

He spent two seasons at Trenton, one at Nashua, one at Pueblo, and two at St. Paul. After leading St. Paul to the Junior World Series in 1949, Alston was promoted to Brooklyn's top minor league club, Montreal. During four seasons in Canada, guiding many of Brooklyn's future stars, Alston's Royals never finished below second place.

Alston served fewer than 23 consecutive one-year contracts. Following charismatic helmsmen like Leo Durocher, Bert Shotton, and Dressen, Alston kept a low profile in the dugout. With a lineup of stars, Alston led Brooklyn to its only World Series victory in 1955 and a pennant in 1956. Alston adapted to his talent the power-laden Brooklyn clubs, the pitching-rich Los Angeles Dodgers of the 1960s, and the young team of the 1970s. At age 62, Alston guided his 1974 Dodgers to a seventh and final World Series. He was honored as Manager of the Year six times by Associated Press and five times by United Press International. In eight All-Star Game assignments, he was the winning manager a record seven times. Alston was the first 1970s manager inducted into the Hall of Fame.

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