Angels Release Wallach

The Angels released Tim Wallach on Friday, a move that could mark the end of a storied 17-year major league career that includes 256 home runs, 1,103 runs batted in, three Gold Gloves and five trips to the All-Star game.

Wallach, 38, left the door to retirement cracked--admitting he would listen to an offer from the Dodgers if they called--but he had his Angel teammates sign the lineup card from the last game in which he played and was collecting memorabilia like a guy who was planning a life away from the clubhouse.

Dodger third baseman Mike Blowers suffered a season-ending knee injury Wednesday and Wallach indicated the Dodgers were the only other team he would even consider, but quickly added, “I can’t say I would absolutely go even if they call.”

“Certainly if I went, it would be to play,” Wallach said, “so I’d have to listen to what they had in mind and make a decision. I’ve been away from my kids and family for a long time and I’m ready for it to end. I would say this is probably it.”

Wallach, who hit .237 with eight home runs and 20 RBIs in 57 games for the Angels, was unhappy with his offense and his inability to help the team reach preseason expectations.

“This is no surprise,” he said. “I was considering retiring last year when I got the opportunity to play for a team that was close to home, that I grew up watching. But I came back for only one reason, because I felt this team could win a championship. I felt I could still play and my biggest disappointment is that I wasn’t good enough to help the team win.”

Wallach, who attended University High, Saddleback College and led Cal State Fullerton to the College World Series title in 1979, was originally selected by the Angels in the eighth round of the 1978 free-agent draft before signing with the Expos, who picked him in the first round (10th overall) in 1979.

“This is a tough decision for us considering the impact Timmy has had in our clubhouse and with our young players,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “He did some very good things for us, he just wasn’t able to do some of things he had done in the past.”

The Angels signed Wallach as a non-roster invitee last winter with the idea that he would probably platoon at third base with veteran Jack Howell. But rookie George Arias had a great spring and won the opening day job.

“That’s the measure of the man,” Lachemann said. “He was in a situation where a young kid was trying to win his job and still he went out of his way to do everything he could to help the kid.”

When Arias struggled and was sent back to the minors, Wallach was unable to regain the form that made him one of baseball’s most feared hitters. Tuesday, Arias was recalled from triple-A Vancouver and Friday the Angels activated Howell, who had been on the disabled list with a strained hamstring, thus sealing Wallach’s fate. A left-handed hitter, Howell has three home runs and seven RBIs in 19 appearances as a pinch hitter.

“Baseball is a very hard game and I knew it was going to be a hard grind this year,” said Wallach, whose only regret is that he never played in a World Series. “But it just gets harder at 38, almost 39. None of us wants to accept that, but it’s a reality.”