Skip to main content

Walter Alston


Wow! Seven pennants and four World Series titles, all with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1954 through 1976 - what an amazing career! Alston's managerial record of 2040 - 1613 with five ties resulted a winning percentage of .558. Currently ninth in all-time managerial wins, he only had four losing years. Truly amazing!

What's also interesting about Alston is he signed 23 one-year contracts with the team. His MLB career consisted of one game and one at-bat with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1936. He spent 19 years in the minors as a player and/or manager before beginning his major league HoF career. Alston managed the National League All-Star team to seven victories, and he was selected Manager of the Year six times.


Top row: 67, 70, and 71 Topps cards.

Middle row: Topps 73 and 74 cards with (then future) HoFer Tommy Lasorda; and a 75 Topps team card.

Bottom row: 87 Baseball Immortals (SSPC HoF); space; and a 2001 Fleer Greats of the Game card.

You might think "only one page of cards for Walter Alston"? Well, my minimum goal for my National Baseball Hall of Fame collection is to collect at least one card of each HoFer, so I met that goal with Alston. Adding more is not something I'm actively trying to do, but when I come across a good card and a good deal (at least to me) then I go for it.

So it's not a personal slam against the manager of the team that was the Reds arch-rival back in the 70's. It was a period when the Reds and Dodgers were both in the NL West and both were among the best in the major leagues.

Thanks for visiting!

CinciCuse Bill
Labels:

Comments

  1. night owlJanuary 4, 2020 at 4:15 PM

    That empty pocket is bothering me: I'm sure I have an extra Alston card to send you if you email me your address.

    Remember the Reds-Dodgers rivalry well. It was so long ago. I used to dislike the Reds so much.

    ReplyDelete
  2. CinciCuse BillJanuary 5, 2020 at 7:41 AM

    I never thought an empty pocket would cause that reaction - but I like it! Another Alston card would most definitely be welcomed, especially one from The Night Owl! Much appreciated!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ballplayers Turned Announcers, Actors, Writers, Etc.

  We all know of ballplayers that become announcers, actors, or writers. This post shows cards for a few notable examples, as well as a few other players with occupations that you may not be aware of. Announcers 1952 Topps card #227. Not only was Joe Garagiola a catcher for parts of nine season with four clubs, but he was also an announcer, writer, and host of numerous television shows. Joe was honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame with the Ford C. Frick Award for outstanding broadcasting accomplishments and he was named as the 2014 recipient of the Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award, presented once every three years by the Baseball Hall of Fame for positive contributions to Major League Baseball.     1965 Topps card #65. Tony Kubek played for the Yankees for nine seasons, winning the 1957 Rookie of the Year award and selected to three All-Star games. Kubek played in six World Series in the late 1950s and early 1960s, starting in 37 World Series games. U...
6 comments
Read more

Welcome to my first post!

Original, well-loved, cards from my youth. Rose: "I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball." My Story: I started collecting sports cards back in 1970 when I was about 9-yrs old. If I recall correctly, the first packs I opened in 70 and 71 contained a card of Pete Rose. Rose became my favorite player because of his hustle and desire to win, and he was one of the main cogs of the Cincinnati Reds Big Red Machine, my favorite team. (I still consider Rose to be one of the best players ever, but I have no respect for what he has done outside of the white lines) I collected a lot of cards up until mid 1975 which is when my interests changed, but I never got rid of those cards (nor were they thrown away by mom or dad, thankfully). I got back into collecting, on and off, from the mid 80's up to this day, but only baseball cards. Over the years, I realized I had a fairly decent collection of player cards from those days and started to organize my co...
9 comments
Read more

Retired Numbers - Oakland Athletics

  Continuing with my posts on retired numbers, below are card scans of former MLBers whose numbers have been retired by the Oakland Athletics to forever be revered. No. 9 Reggie Jackson 2013 Topps Commemorative Patch Card #RCP-7 No. 24 Rickey Henderson 1991 Bowman #692. There are so many great, great Henderson cards that I had a hard time picking out just one for this post. Well the '91 Bowman really stood out to me. No. 27 Catfish Hunter 1976 Laughlin #7. As noted here , Hunter is one of only 6 players ever that went directly from HIGH SCHOOL to the major leagues and NEVER played in the minor leagues. No. 34 Rollie Fingers 1976 Hostess #104. No. 42     Jackie Robinson 1980-1987 SSPC HoF #89. I love how Oakland's green and gold colors stand out in the border of this card. No. 43 Dennis Eckersley 2014 Panini HoF Induction Class of 2004 Autograph #78. Who do you think will be the next former Oakland A to have their uniform number to be retired? Vida Blue? Dave Ste...
8 comments
Read more