[1] Regarded as one of the greatest managers in baseball history, Alston was known for his calm, reticent demeanor, for which he was sometimes referred to as "the Quiet Man."

Born and raised in rural Ohio, Alston lettered in baseball and basketball at Miami University in Oxford.

His service included a stint as manager of the 1946 Nashua Dodgers, the first U.S.-based integrated professional team in modern baseball.

In 1983, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame but was unable to attend his induction ceremony after suffering a heart attack that year and being hospitalized for a month.

[3] Alston spent much of his childhood on a farm in Morning Sun; when he was a teenager, the family moved to Darrtown.

[7] In 1935, Alston graduated with a degree in industrial arts and physical education from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

[8] Alston played minor league baseball as an infielder for the Greenwood Chiefs and Huntington Red Birds in 1935 and 1936, respectively.

[9] Alston's only major league game was with the St. Louis Cardinals on September 27, 1936, substituting for Johnny Mize at first base.

He later described his major league playing career to a reporter by saying, "Well, I came up to bat for the Cards back in '36, and Lon Warneke struck me out.

He split the 1937 season between the Houston Buffaloes and Rochester Red Wings, hitting for a combined .229 batting average.

[9] Alston had been offered the job in Trenton, a minor league farm club of the Brooklyn Dodgers, by Branch Rickey, the executive who had signed him as a player with St.

[12] After his two seasons with Trenton, Alston served as a player-manager for the first integrated U.S. baseball team based in the twentieth century, the Nashua Dodgers of the Class-B New England League.

Alston managed black Dodgers prospects Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella, leading Nashua to a New England League title in 1946.

[4] His predecessor, Chuck Dressen, had moved on from the Dodgers after the team's leadership refused to sign him to a two-year or three-year contract.

Alston was an unknown at the major league level and the New York Daily News reported his hiring with the headline "Walter Who?

"[19] Sportswriter Jim Murray said that Alston was "the only guy in the game who could look Billy Graham right in the face without blushing and who would order corn on the cob in a Paris restaurant.

[30] Brooklyn got off to a strong start in 1955, but an Associated Press article noted that Alston was reticent in response to questions and that he did not seem like a manager who had won ten consecutive games.

They clinched the pennant on September 8,[32] earlier than any team had in NL history; at 92–46 (.667), the Dodgers were 17 games ahead of second place Milwaukee with 16 remaining.

[44] Managing the NL All-Star Team in 1960, Alston attracted some controversy when he left Milwaukee Braves pitchers Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette off the roster.

The following year, the team finished in second place after veteran Duke Snider missed two months with a broken arm.

[46] The Dodgers lost the lead in the 1962 NL pennant race and rumors surfaced that Alston and coach Leo Durocher might be fired, but the team retained both for 1963.

Alston's pitchers excelled, with Koufax striking out 23 batters over two games winning the World Series MVP Award.

In 1966, both players held out of spring training and demanded three-year contracts each worth $500,000, which was more money than anyone was making in baseball at the time.

[53] Alston guided his teams to at least 85 wins per season in his last eight years at the helm,[5] with six runner-up finishes in the NL West division during that span.

Beginning in 1973, Alston's team featured an infield of Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, and Ron Cey.

[54] In 1974, the Dodgers won the NL pennant and faced the two-time defending champion Oakland Athletics in the World Series.

Cey, Lopes, and another unnamed player criticized Garvey in a mid-June 1976 San Bernardino Sun-Telegram article, which prompted Alston to call a team meeting.

[19] Alston's grandson traveled to Cooperstown to represent the ill former manager at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

[4] Upon Alston's death, MLB commissioner Peter Ueberroth referred to him as one of baseball's greatest managers.

[72] Broadcaster Vin Scully said of Alston: I always imagined him to be the type who could ride shotgun on a stage through Indian territory.