[1] He also managed a .439 batting average at the plate during his senior year and was named to the All-Westchester County First Team as a relief pitcher.

[2] In the summer following his senior year, he pitched for the Bayside Yankees in the All-American Amateur Baseball Association World Series in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

[5] In September 1991, he was invited to try out for the United States national baseball team in advance of the 1992 Summer Olympics but ultimately did not make the roster.

Alston initially had difficulty adjusting to life in rural Central Oregon as an African-American man; he found that nightspots played country music and local barbers could not cut Afro-textured hair.

[11] Alston spent the entirety of his first professional season in Bend, starting twelve games and allowing only one home run in 73 innings pitched.

[12] The following year, Alston progressed to the Single-A California League but his performance suffered with the Central Valley Rockies; his ERA jumped from 3.95 in 1992 to 5.46 in 1993.

[16] At the conclusion of the delayed spring training following the end of the strike in 1995, Colorado general manager Bob Gebhard told Alston he would be on the team's expanded Opening Day roster.

He earned his first pitching win and recorded his first strikeout on June 11, retiring both Houston Astros batters he faced in a game at Coors Field.

[25] He would return to the big league club briefly in August to fill a roster spot following an injury to Lance Painter but would not appear in a game and would otherwise pitch the remainder of the season in Colorado Springs.

[26][24][12] Alston was expecting to vie for the Rockies' closer job in 1997 but underwent surgery before the start of the season to reroute a nerve, shrink a ligament and remove bone chips from his elbow.

[12] Alston began the 1999 season pitching in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League for the Wei Chuan Dragons.

[12][29] On August 26, he signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers and finished the season in Triple-A with the Albuquerque Dukes.

[34] Alston served as pitching coach for the Minnesota Twins during the 2018 season, but did not return when new manager Rocco Baldelli was hired in the offseason.

[27] Alston's son, Garvin Altson Jr., was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in 2015 and 2019, joining the organization after playing college baseball at Arizona State at USC Aiken.