Torre sits out this one

SAN FRANCISCO -- Nomar Garciaparra will manage the Dodgers today, as Joe Torre will continue a tradition that he had with the New York Yankees of handing his team over to a veteran on the last day of the regular season.

“When I told him Manny wasn’t playing, he got a little disappointed,” Torre said of Garciaparra.

Garciaparra shrugged and laughed.

“Who needs Manny?” he said. “I’m just kidding, of course.”

Mark Sweeney will be Garciaparra’s bench coach.

Asked whether Dodgers owner Frank McCourt would pay him for the Dodgers’ 162nd game, Torre jokingly replied, “That’s an appearance fee.”

Torre, who counted Roger Clemens and Bernie Williams among his managers for a day with the Yankees, said he started the tradition when he was managing the New York Mets as a way to quiet catcher John Stearns. He said Stearns approached him four times in that game to ask for advice but that he never gave him any.

Sadler vs. Dodgers II

San Francisco Giants reliever Billy Sadler got under the Dodgers’ skin again.

Sadler wildly pumped his first when he struck out Casey Blake for the Dodgers’ final out of the eighth inning, prompting Blake to stare at him. Matt Kemp, who was on third base, crossed paths with Sadler as they retreated to their respective dugouts and turned around to say something to him.

“If I hit a homer off him, I’m not going to pump my fist and yell, especially if we’re not in the race,” Blake said. “But that’s not me. That’s him.”

Sadler irked the Dodgers in their last visit to San Francisco, celebrating a strikeout of Ramirez on Aug. 9 in similar fashion. Jeff Kent hit a home run later that game and pointed into the Giants’ dugout.

Ng: First female GM?

Seattle Mariners President Chuck Armstrong told local reporters that his club is “color blind, gender blind,” an indication that Seattle could be looking at Kim Ng, Dodgers assistant general manager, as a candidate to be its new general manager. If hired, Ng would be major league baseball’s first female GM. Ng was a finalist for the Dodgers’ job in 2005 that Ned Colletti landed.

Season’s strangest play?

Torre said that seeing Bengie Molina being credited with a home run but not a run scored Friday night was the oddest sight of the season.

Because the ball hit the top of the right-field wall and bounced back into the field of play, Molina was originally credited with a single. Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said he protested because shortstop Omar Vizquel told him that he thought he heard the ball hit the green metal that lined the top of the wall, which would’ve made it a home run.

Bochy protested, the umpires reviewed the play on video and ruled that Molina had homered. But they also ruled that because pinch-runner Emmanuel Burriss got to first base, Molina was out of the game and Burriss was in it.

The delay lasted 14 minutes.

Bochy said he tried to stop Burriss from running onto the field.

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dylan.hernandez@ latimes.com