Brooklyn’s backup plan

Walter Alston at the beginning of his time in Brooklyn

Unable to reach a new contract with manager Chuck Dressen after the 1953 season, the Brooklyn Dodgers turn to shortstop Pee Wee Reese to fill the role.

Chuck Dressen

Only Reese says um, well, no thanks, he would rather remain the team’s shortstop than run the team.

With that, the Dodgers 70 years ago today pivot to 41-year-old Walter Alston, the ultra-quiet manager of Brooklyn’s Class AAA team in Montreal.

The Dodgers give a one-year contract to Alston, who since 1940 has been quite successful managing in the relative obscurity of the minor leagues.

Pee Wee Reese

Alston does well enough in his first season in the majors, winning 92 games for the 1954 Dodgers and earning himself another one-year deal for the 1955 season, when Brooklyn wins its one and only World Series.

Accomplishing that certainly is enough to warrant another one-year deal, which is followed by 21 more one-year deals before Alston retires after the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 1976 season with 2,040 wins, seven National League pennants, four World Series titles and a pathway to the Hall of Fame.

“I do worry about tomorrow’s game,” Alston once says, “but never about next year’s job.”

Walter Alston near the end of his time in Los Angeles