Wallace Back With Dodgers

Dave Wallace came home Wednesday, rejoining the Dodgers as a special assistant to General Manager Kevin Malone.

“This feels great,” said Wallace, the former Dodger pitching coach who joined the New York Mets in a front-office position after the 1997 season. “It’s like coming home but in a different role. I’m just really excited about it.”

Wallace will assist Malone in scouting and development, working with major and minor leaguers while roving in the farm system.

“He’s going to be involved in a lot of different areas,” Malone said of Wallace, who makes his home in Massachusetts.

“People have expressed the utmost respect for Dave to me. They couldn’t believe Dave got away.”

After 17 years with the Dodgers, Wallace joined the Mets as an assistant to General Manager Steve Phillips, in part to be closer to his family on the East Coast.

Wallace returned to the field as the Met pitching coach in 1999. The Mets made the playoffs the last two seasons, winning the National League pennant last season.

Many longtime Dodgers said losing Wallace, widely considered baseball’s best pitching coach, was one of former general manager Fred Claire’s biggest mistakes.

Believing Wallace would not return for a coaching job, the Dodgers created a front-office position that would enable him to work with pitchers while assisting in other areas.

Wallace, a longtime friend of Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax, is close to current starters Darren Dreifort and Chan Ho Park, whom he tutored in the minors and majors.

During his tenure with the Dodgers, starting in 1981 as a minor league pitching instructor, Wallace helped develop many pitchers, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Pedro Martinez.

In Wallace’s three seasons as pitching coach, the Dodgers led the major leagues in team earned-run average once and finished second twice.

Dodger starters consistently ranked among baseball’s leaders in victories and strikeouts, and Wallace also developed a reputation as a confidant of his pitchers.