If you speak to any of the roughly 500 citizens of Darrtown, inevitably they or their family will have known, been touched by, or have a story to tell about its' most famous resident, Walter "Smokey" Alston. Even Mr. Crunchy of the CCLP, who has just lived in this area since 1990 has a story. Mr. Crunchy's co-worker came to him when she heard he was going to the Antiques Roadshow in Cincinnati, and gave him two baseballs to have appraised. Alston had given them to her grandmother, who was once Alston's teacher, and they were signed by the entire 1963 and 1965 World Series winning Dodgers teams. It was Mr. Crunchy's honor to see them appraised for $1000-$1300.
Walter Alston moved at a young age to Darrtown, where he pitched and played baseball for the Milford Township high school, and lived in the structure you see to the east of GZ. His fastball was "smoking hot" and soon he was a big man on campus at Miami University in nearby Oxford. In 1936, his dream of making it to the Big Show of professional baseball came true. He struck out in his first plate appearance for the St. Louis Cardinals, and it proved to be his last. Alston never played baseball again. He did, however; become a Hall of Fame manager.
Alston would manage for 23 years in the Major Leagues, all with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, and coach some of the greatest players of the game like Sandy Koufax and Jackie Robinson. Alston ended his career with a 55.8% career winning percentage, only having endured three losing seasons during that span. Alston managed the Dodgers to seven National League pennants and four World Series victories. To put that in perspective, Joe Torre is the only man alive who ever managed four World Series winning teams, and only three other men ever lived who accomplished this feat! Enough said........in 1983, Alston was inducted in to the Baseball Hall of Fame, but suffered a heart attack shortly thereafter that forbade him from attending the ceremony. He died in Oxford, Ohio in 1984 and is buried in Darrtown Cemetery.