BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Familiar Territory for Tim Wallach

Two years before the Montreal Expos traded Tim Wallach, they tried to find someone else to play third base. They moved Wallach to first base and then back to third before finally trading him to the Dodgers on Christmas Eve for minor league shortstop Tim Barker, who made 27 errors in 97 double-A games. In addition, the Expos threw in $1 million toward Wallach’s $3.2-million 1993 salary.

Talk about feeling unwanted. Wallach was so glad to leave that he agreed to scrap his option with the Dodgers for the 1995 season after playing with Montreal his entire career. He was unhappy with the way the Expos treated him in 1991 after he struggled for the first time in 12 seasons.

“I think they could have handled it better,” Wallach said.

But Wallach, who attended Irvine’s University High, Saddleback College and Cal State Fullerton, was happy about the trade mostly because it finally gave him a chance to play at home. Tonight, Wallach returns to Montreal for the first time since the trade. After a good spring he is batting a lowly .143 with one home run and four runs batted in and is the only Dodger starter who hasn’t broken out of a slump.