Greg "Goose" Gregson, who was Wallace's teammate then and is the Sox' roving minor league pitching instructor today, tells the story.
"Dave was from cold country," Gregson said of his longtime friend, "and he and I wanted to get down to spring training a week, week and a half early, to adjust to the heat. The Phillies had a unique running program then, and you had to be ready for it. So we used to stay with Frank Dolson, the baseball writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and sleep on his floor. We'd get up early and run every morning."
Dolson, typical of the members of his noble profession, may not have had a pullout sofa for the aspiring pitchers, but Gregson says he treated them to meals at some of Clearwater's finest establishments. It's debatable how much Wallace's sacrifice helped him in his goal of making the big leagues -- in a time before six-year minor league free agency gave fringe pitchers the chance to shop their services elsewhere, Wallace appeared in a total of 13 big league games and finished with an 0-1 record and 7.84 ERA. But that didn't hurt him in spending the next 30 years in baseball.
Dick Teed deserves some credit, too. Folks in Connecticut know Teed as a longtime scout, and it was Teed, then scouting for the Phillies, who signed the former University of New Haven star to a contract after watching him pitch in a semipro game, when Wallace thought he was headed to a career as a schoolteacher. And Teed was scouting for the Dodgers and former Phillies manager Danny Ozark was a Dodgers coach when both men recommended Wallace as a minor league pitching instructor in 1981.
Wallace spent the next 17 years working for the Dodgers, and it was time well-spent. He was mentored by and became friends with people like Ron Perranoski, Johnny Podres and Sandy Koufax, the Hall of Famer who probably would be making an appearance here this spring if he hadn't torn a muscle playing basketball a few weeks ago. Wallace helped in the development of pitchers like Orel Hershiser, Alejandro Pena and Ramon Martinez, and when he became the Dodgers' big league pitching coach for three seasons (1995 to '97), the Dodgers led the majors in ERA once and finished second twice.
