Alston, Walter E. ("Smokey")
Baseball
b. Dec. 1, 1911, Venice, OH
d. Oct. 1, 1984
The consummate professional baseball manager, Alston had one major league time at-bat, a strikeout in 1936. He later became a minor league manager. When Charlie Dressen asked the Brooklyn Dodgers for a three-year contract in 1954 after winning two consecutive pennants, the Dodgers declined and hired Alston.
The low-keyed Alston was virtually unknown. One New York sportswriter commented, "The Dodgers do not need a manager. That's why they got Alston." After the team finished in second place, many thought he would be gone. But Alston signed another one-year contract--one of twenty-three he signed with the Dodgers before retiring--and guided them to a pennant and their first World Series victory in 1955.
Alston was the Dodgers' manager when they moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958, and he took the Los Angeles Dodgers to the pennant and a World Series championships in 1959. Under Alston, the Dodgers won a total of seven NL pennants and four World Series. His last World Series victory came in 1965, and he won just two pennants after that, but he almost always had his team in the running.
He announced his retirement and was replaced with four games left and the Dodgers ten games out of first place during the 1976 season. Alston had a won-lost record of 2,040-1,613 for a .558 winning percentage.
A measure of Alston's ability is that the teams he managed in Brooklyn were built around power. When the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, they emphasized pitching and speed. Alston was able to win consistently with both types of teams.