Don’t Expect These Guys to Rise to the Occasion

After catching a pair of Laker games the last few days, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to go to a dull baseball game.

I arrived at Dodger Stadium shortly after 10 a.m. in order to mingle with the guys around the batting cage, and discovered three workers watering the infield dirt. They were a lot friendlier than the baseball players.

I went into the Dodger clubhouse, halfway expecting to find Eric Gagne had already been sent to the showers, but no one was there.

A sign on the wall indicated there was optional batting practice from 11 to 11:45, and everyone was to be in uniform by 11:55 for a 1 p.m. game.

Apparently you can’t expect millionaires to work late one night, and then start the next day much before noon.

Eric Karros took advantage of the optional batting practice, and with Glenn Hoffman pitching and no one else on the field, Karros went two for six.

Gary Sheffield was the only other Dodger to practice hitting--a night after the Dodgers had been shut out--which tells me Scott Boras has a clause in Sheffield’s contract calling for him to get paid whenever he takes BP.

I would have thought someone like Chris Donnels would have wanted to practice, but he must feel like he’s in a groove right now.

Donnels, by the way, is now hitless in his last 11 at-bats.

OVER IN the other clubhouse, the walking dead men, otherwise known as the Angels, were dressed by 11--as if it mattered. The Seattle Mariners finished them off long ago, but of course it was Kirk Gibson Bobble Head day at the park, and each of the Angels had to be in attendance to get their very own.

I would imagine they’re trying to sell them on EBay right now.

The Angels strolled onto the field in time to stretch at 11:15, and if players are fined for being late, Manager Mike Scioscia might want to ask Wally Joyner and Al Levine where they were at 11:15.

At this point, I can truthfully say that Stu Nahan, prepping for his radio pregame show, was working harder than any player on the field. As you know, it’s also a chore to listen to Nahan’s pregame show, so I guess you could say a lot of listeners were working harder than any player on the field.

IN THE first inning, Darin Erstad, Mark Grudzielanek, Sheffield and Shawn Green all struck out. That made the score in this heated rivalry 3-1, in favor of Dodger strikeouts. And the Dodgers were without Karros.

In the second inning, the Dodgers scored a run because Chad Kreuter hit into a double play. I guess Kreuter’s double-play grounder really impressed the Angels because they walked him the next three times he came up.

He walked on four pitches to open the bottom of the ninth in a 1-1 game and was replaced by a pinch-runner. When Kreuter returned to the dugout his teammates greeted him with high fives. They were obviously thrilled he didn’t try to swing his bat.

The giddy Dodgers eventually scored for a 2-1 victory, concluding six hours and 27 minutes of baseball between these teams the last two days with 39 runners left on base and a total of four runs scoring.

I’m ready for another Laker game.

DODGER MANAGER Jim Tracy said the team will not take batting practice today because it’s Camera Day and the fans will have a chance to take a picture of their favorite player.

I wish I could be there to tell Kevin Brown to smile.

I REMEMBER calling Tracy a “Knucklehead” in early April for using Jose Nunez, a minor league pitcher, against Arizona and losing a game. Although I haven’t had the time to really help him as much as I would like--as you know, there was work to be done with Phil Jackson--Tracy seems to have developed very nicely since early April, working with an ever-changing roster that would have tested the most seasoned manager.

Most people thought he would be left stranded after his champion, Kevin Malone, left the organization, but Tracy has emerged as a personable leader--destroying the first impression that he was some kind of corporate dullard. I wouldn’t start booking him for David Letterman, but it’s no longer necessary to have a cup of coffee in your hand when he starts talking.

The guy is even trying to tell jokes, telling a reporter he didn’t want his players to be in uniform until 11:55 Saturday “because you’ve got to keep the uniforms clean.”

He also has shown the ability to laugh at himself, admitting to reporters that he’s stuck on the cliche “We’ve been able to weather the storm” and asking for help in coming up with some new cliches.

All in all, I guess you could say--now that Nunez is gone--there’s nothing holding this guy back from being pretty good.

WELL, THERE might be a few roadblocks.

How would you like to make a living as a manager knowing the Dodger starting rotation for the next four games is going to be Terry Adams, Luke Prokopec, Darren Dreifort and Giovanni Carrara?

I MET interim GM Dave Wallace, and asked him if he would like to be called “Dodger Boy.”

Wallace reacted as if he didn’t know what I was talking about, but Tracy quickly jumped in and told him, “No, no--you don’t want that.”

TRACY SPENT time in a hospital visit recently with an ill youngster, Ashley Andrade, and took a toilet paper roll and helped her with crayons and glue to fashion it into a statue that now sits prominently on his desk.

Ashley clearly did a better job than Tracy of staying within the lines with her coloring.

Although it appears that Tracy modeled the statue--with arms and legs twitching everywhere--after Mike Fetters, the manager denied it.

TODAY’S LAST WORD comes in a sigh of relief from me:

The hockey season is officially over.

*

T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com.