Wallace Johnson (baseball)

Graduated from Indiana State University with a B.S degree in Accounting. Named to the CoSida Academic All-American team, NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and received the McMillan Memorial Award for leadership. Was a Co-Captain of Indiana State University's first Missouri Valley Conference baseball championship and first appearance in NCAA regional post season play. Led the nation in hitting (.502) during the regular season and was named MVC conference tournament MVP. Named to the Missouri Valley Conference All-Centennial Team and elected to the Indiana State University Hall of Fame in 1985.

Wallace was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the sixth round of the 1979 amateur draft and one of the first Indiana ballplayers selected. He began his professional career in the New York-Penn League that summer; by the next season (1980) he was leading the Florida State League in batting (.334) and stolen bases (58) He was named the MVP of the FSL Southern Division. [1]

Played on the 1981 Denver Bears (AAA) and 1986 Indianapolis Indians (AAA) championship teams. He made his major league debut for the Expos in September 1981 and on October 3, Johnson delivered a pinch-hit triple (scoring 2 runs) off of Mets ace reliever Neil Allen that help propel the team to its first ever NL East title.[2] Johnson's was an acclaimed pinch-hitter. He was the Expos all-time pinch-hit leader with 86.

He spent part of 1983 with the Giants, having been traded to them on May 25 in exchange for outfielder Mike Vail. The next spring, the Giants released him, and he returned to the Expos as a free agent shortly thereafter.

On May 2, 1988, Johnson broke up the perfect game bid of Ron Robinson of the Cincinnati Reds. Johnson getting a single with two outs and two strikes in the 9th inning.[3]

Johnson led the major leagues in pinch-hits during the period 1986-1990. In February, 1990, Johnson won his arbitration case against the Expos and was the only winner of players that filed arbitration cases that year.

On August 11, 1990 he was released by the Montreal Expos again and signed with the Oakland Athletics, but he did not appear in any games for the A's. He played his final major league game on August 3, 1990. Johnson was a teammates of four Hall of Famers during his Expos tenure, that included Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Tim Raines and Randy Johnson.

He spent one season as the Gulf Coast hitting instructor (1994 Expos), three years (1995-1997) coaching in the Atlanta Braves minor league system and five years as the third base coach with the Chicago White Sox. He was part of the 2000 AL Division championship that led the league in runs scored and offense. The team lost in the playoffs to the Seattle Mariners. Former major leaguer and TV analyst Hawk Harrelson gave him the nickname "Wavin Wally". His coaching career included instructing two Hall of Famers, Frank "Big Hurt" Thomas and Vladimir Guerrero. The list of major leaguers coached include Roosevelt Brown, John Rocker, Mark DeRosa, George Lombard, Orlando Cabrera, Fernando Lunar and Jose Macias.

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)