Wallach to Manage Rancho Cucamonga

Tim Wallach, who played 17 seasons in the major leagues and was a volunteer assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton last season, said Monday he has accepted a job as manager of the Class-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes next season.

Rancho Cucamonga will become the Angels’ affiliate in the California League in 2001 after an eight-year association with the San Diego Padres. The Padres are expected to put their Class-A team in Lake Elsinore.

“It’s a perfect situation for me right now,” Wallach said. “I like the location. It’s only about a 35-minute drive from my home [in Yorba Linda]. I wouldn’t want to be in a situation where I’d have to be gone a lot. This way I can still be with my family most of the time, and it will be easy for them to go to the ballpark there.”

Wallach managed San Bernardino, then the Dodgers’ affiliate in the Class-A California League, for the second half of the 1998 season before joining the staff at Fullerton for the 2000 season. San Bernardino will become a Seattle Mariner affiliate next season.

“I really enjoyed the year I spent at Fullerton and I learned a lot of things from all the coaches there,” Wallach said. “It was a good experience for me. I enjoyed the coaching part of it, but I enjoy running the game. That’s the fun part of it.”

Wallach said he approached the Angels about managing again in the minor leagues “if their Class-A job became available.”

Wallach was a five-time all-star third baseman for the Montreal Expos before finishing his career with the Dodgers and Angels. He played for the Dodgers from 1993-95 and spent time with both the Angels and Dodgers in 1996 before retiring.

Wallach, who attended University High and Saddleback College, led Fullerton to the first of its three College World Series championships in 1979, and won the Golden Spikes award as amateur baseball player of the year. Montreal selected him in the first round of the major league draft.

“We’re excited about starting our relationship with the Angels and working with a new manager,” Quakes General Manager Pat Filippone said. “It made sense for us to make the change to the Angels. We thought having a parent club so close to us was a big advantage.”

The Quakes scheduled a news conference for today to announce their new manager and coaches.

Fullerton Coach George Horton said Chad Baum would replace Wallach as the Titans’ volunteer assistant. Baum was a student assistant last season after playing for the Titans in 1998-99.

“We feel fortunate to have had Tim with us for at least last season,” Horton said. “We were happy to have one of the class people from our program with us. He was very popular with our players and added a lot. I think he learned from us, and we learned from him. I think we might see him as a major league manager someday.”