Biography - Walter Emmons "Smokey" Alston
DEATH
Kirk Mee III contributed the following Walter Alston obituary, which appeared in the Washington Post, on October 4, 1984.
Baseball’s Walter Alston Dies at 72
Los Angles, Oct. 1 (AP)
"Walter Alston, 72, who guided the Dodgers to seven National League pennants and four world championships during his 23 years as their manager, died today in Ohio, the team announced.
Mr. Alston, who had retired after the 1976 season, died at McCullough Hyde Memorial Hospital in Oxford, Ohio, said Steve Brener, publicity director for the Dodgers.
Mr. Alston, who managed the Dodgers both in Brooklyn and in Los Angeles, was voted into baseball’s Hall of Fame last year.
Walter Emmons Alston summed up his managerial philosophy in the same laconic way he ambled to the mound to remove a pitcher.
“Look at the misfortune the same way you look at success,” he said shortly after he retired. “Don’t panic. Do you best and forget the consequences.”
That philosophy worked for 23 years, all on one-year contracts. It worked for 2.040 regular season wins against 1,613 losses for a career-winning percentage of .558.
Mr. Alston was born December 1, 1911 in Venice, Ohio, and never strayed far from those roots. Until he took over as manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1953, he taught school during the off-season in Darrtown, Ohio and it was to his farm in Darrtown that he returned after each season in the spotlight.
He graduated from Miami University in Ohio in 1935 and immediately signed as a first baseman with the St. Louis Cardinals for $125 a month. He barely made the big leagues, striking out in his only at bat with the Cardinals in 1936. But, he played 12 more years in the minors, the last four of those as a playing manager. Overall, he managed for 10 years in the Dodger minor league organization.
Mr. Alston was so quiet, so colorless, that when he was named on Nov. 24, 1953 to manage the Dodgers, few believe he’d be there long. The team’s managers had included the flamboyant Charlie Dressan, who was rebuffed by owner Walter O’Malley in his demand for a two-year contract, and the volatile Leo Durocher.
“A lot of people thought he’d be a failure,” said Carl Erskine, then one of the team’s best pitchers. “I thought he wasn’t forceful enough to be a manager and he didn’t bring any ready-made credentials.”
There was speculation that Alston was hired merely to hold down the dugout until Pee Wee Reese, the team’s star short top and captain, was ready to take over. But, by the time that Reese retired in 1958, there was no thought of anyone but Mr. Alston as manager of the beloved “Bums.”
Versatility was his hallmark as manager. He won in the 1950’s with the power of Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, and Roy Campanella. He won in the ‘60s with the pitching of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale and the speed of Maury Wills. He won in the ‘70s with a mix of power, pitching, and speed.
Through all that, he was the antithesis of a Durocher, a Dressen, a Billy Martin, an Earl Weaver.
“What he has is the total respect of the club and that’s an accomplishment,” Wills said of Mr. Alston during his years with the Dodgers. “Most managers have the respect of a portion of the club, while others gripe. That’s usually enough to get the job done. But, anybody who dislikes Walt Alston has a problem.”
Mr. Alston’s debut did not suggest 23 years of longevity. With Jackie Robinson injured and pitching ace Don Newcombe ineffective after two years in military service, the Dodgers slid to second after two straight pennants, five games behind a New York Giant team, led by 23-year-old Willie Mays.
But, Mr. Alston got another one-year contract and another and another, each time without rancor or ceremony. “Sometimes, it happened at the end of the year and sometimes at spring training,” he said of the contract signings. “Walter O’Malley and I would talk it over and that would be it. If I was ever in danger of losing my job, Mr. O’Malley never told me. It didn’t bother me. I always had my farm to go to.”
In 1955, Mr. Alston did what no other Dodger manager had ever done – win a World Series. Brooklyn won 11 games in a row at the start of the season, and cruised home, with a 13-game winning margin over the Milwaukee Braves.
Then, atoning for World Series losses to the Yankees in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1951, and 1952 – they beat the Bronx Bombers in the seventh game of the World Series.
But, age was eroding the Dodgers. There was one more pennant left, in 1956, but a World Series loss followed to the Yankees in a seven-game championship marked by Don Larsen’s perfect game.
By 1958, the team had moved to Los Angeles. It finished seventh the first year, but against heavy odds, Mr. Alston fashioned another world championship in 1959 with a transitional team. It included the remnants of the Boys of Summer – Hodges, Snider, and Carl Furillo; brilliant young pitchers, like Drysdale and Koufax, who were to bring more championships in the 60’s, and an assortment of veterans and journeymen.
There were more world championships in 1963 and 1965 and a National League pennant in 1966. This Alston team was built around pitching, speed, and defense, with Drysdale and Koufax at their best and Wills bringing the stolen base back to baseball.
Then came Mr. Alston’s least productive stretch – an eighth-place finish in the 10-team National League in 1967; a seventh in 1968, with winning percentages of .451 and .468, his lowest ever.
Those teams were decimated by the retirements of Wills and Koufax, the latter at age 32, after years of elbow pain. But, by the early 70’s, Mr. Alston had the Dodgers back in contention with a young nucleus that included Steve Garvey and Don Sutton on a team that won a pennant in 1974 and was to win three more for his successor, Tom Lasorda.
Finally, in 1976, at age 64, there were no more one-year contracts. “There comes a time,” Mr. Alston said simply, “when you get enough of anything.”
"Welcome to Darrtown" signs remember Walter "Smokey" Alston
The above image shows the sign that the community posted at the north and south entrances to Darrtown on the Walter Alston Memorial Highway section of Ohio St. Rt. 177.