Tracy’s Ties to the Dodgers Date to His Boyhood in Ohio

Growing up in the Ohio towns of Fairfield and Hamilton, Jim Tracy would make a point of venturing to Crosley Field whenever the Dodgers came to Cincinnati.

The young Tracy reveled in the growing rivalry between his hometown Reds and the visiting Dodgers, before the Big Red Machine and Big Blue Wrecking Crew battled it out annually for National League West supremacy.

“I just loved that as a kid,” the new Dodger manager said Wednesday afternoon after his hiring was announced at Dodger Stadium. “Whether it was at Crosley Field, Riverfront Stadium or Cinergy Field, that was great baseball.”

Tracy, 44, has known the game his entire life, though he never had a chance to see his father Jim play professionally. Tracy was born after his father’s five-year minor league career with the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Giants ended.

But Tracy’s family--his wife of nearly 19 years, Debra, and sons Brian, 16; Chad, 14; and Mark, 12-- will get to see him manage what could be a $100-million payroll next season at Chavez Ravine.

And that’s just fine with Tracy, who said he will most likely move his family to Southern California from their off-season home in Sarasota, Fla. Even if a majority of the sporting public is wondering, “Jim who?”

“Somehow I expect that that question will be asked quite a bit,” Tracy said with a laugh. “But this is not something I started thinking of a year or so ago. It’s somewhat the culmination of a process that began 14 years ago. And believe me, it doesn’t stop here. When you make it to the top of the industry, it’s not some short-term thing. The work continues.”

Tracy says he doesn’t remember exactly when he was bitten by the managing bug, that his destiny did not come to him as some single earthshaking revelation.

Rather, he insists that the never-ending bus rides endured while managing in the minor leagues--in the U.S., Canada and Mexico--only served to whet his appetite, convincing him that he was in the right profession. Even as it kept him away from his family.

Tracy, the fourth Dodger manager since the middle of the 1996 season, realizes how pressure-packed the job is. Remember, he was former Dodger manager Davey Johnson’s bench coach the past two seasons.

“It’s going to be a challenge, no doubt about that,” Tracy said. “But I love the challenge of managing, of playing mental chess against [another manager] by putting players in a position to win. That’s what managing is to me--putting players in a position to win.”

Tracy did just that in the minor leagues, going 501-486 in seven seasons with the Chicago Cub, Cincinnati Red and Montreal Expo organizations.

In 1993, he led the Expos’ double-A affiliate, the Harrisburg Senators, to a 94-44 record and a league championship. From 1995-98 he served as a bench coach for Expo Manager Felipe Alou before joining Johnson’s staff last year.

This summer Tracy went 3-1 against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Colorado Rockies in an acting manager role when Johnson was hospitalized because of an irregular heartbeat.

Still, Tracy wasn’t entirely comfortable in Johnson’s stead.

Montreal General Manager Jim Beattie worked with Tracy for two seasons with the Expos and said he is more than deserving of the opportunity.

“He’s a hard-working guy that worked under one of the best managers in the game here with Felipe,” Beattie said. “I can’t speak on him as a manager, but as a coach he did an outstanding job with us.

“A lot of people see him as an easygoing guy but he can show another side when he needs to. He can push guys when they need to be pushed.”

Tracy agreed.

“If I have to show the other side,” he said, “I won’t hesitate to do that. Because again, a good manager puts teams in a position to win, lets the players do their job. If that’s considered being laid-back, if that’s how people want to describe it, so be it. Is [Atlanta Brave Manager] Bobby Cox considered laid-back? There’s different personalities in baseball.”

Tracy, who is enshrined in his high school and college athletic halls of fame at Badin High in Hamilton and Marietta (Ohio) College, respectively, said he developed his coaching style over the years, picking up bits and pieces of knowledge along the way.

“One of the most important teaching tools for me is to look at the track records of very successful managerial people,” he said. “Whitey Herzog, I read his book ‘The White Rat.’ Jim Leyland. Tom Lasorda and Walt Alston here with the Dodgers. Bobby Cox, Bobby Valentine, who I managed against in triple A.

“Their track records indicate that you can learn from those type of people,” Tracy said. “I served as bench coach under two managers [Alou and Johnson] with more than 1,800 wins between them. It’s all about paying dues while going about your job and learning something along the way.”

Like learning who Jim Tracy is.