They Dive With Gusto Into a Green Bashing

I have always thought soccer, or maybe parents, would lead to the demise of Little League baseball, but blindfolds, please, for our children -- the Dodgers are playing. Like Bobbleheads and noisemakers, for Dodger fans, blindfolds might make good giveaways.

Up until Saturday it had been a week of defeat, with the Dodgers playing a brand of slapstick baseball recognizable maybe only to T-ball followers -- and now there’s an idea to give Adrian Beltre a fighting chance at the plate.

It has been bonehead play after bonehead play, the Dodger faithful growing more weary and frustrated with each gaffe, each hitless inning and each day that passed with no help in sight.

Finally, a victory Saturday, but instead of a celebration it becomes a Shawn Green roast. Try and explain that to the kids at home.

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BELTRE FORGETS to cover third base earlier this week and someone swipes it without a throw. Alex Cora is called on to sacrifice bunt, pops it up and a runner is doubled off first. Wilkin Ruan went back to catch a ball that fell in front of him in center field, and a run scored. By the way, who is Wilkin Ruan?

A Times’ story suggests the food at Dodger Stadium is as bad as the team’s attack. Cesar Izturis fails to score from third on a single to center. Talk about tough to swallow. Eric Gagne thinks the Dodgers have lost after he gives up a run in the top of the 10th, and forgets to back up home, allowing a second run to score, which does prove to be the game-decider.

None of that, however, is going to hang as heavy in the air as what happened with Green on Saturday, and while totally off base in comparison to every other thing that has gone wrong with this team, try to explain that to the kids who know better.

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ODALIS PEREZ, pitching a no-hitter into the eighth inning after slamming his teammates in the newspaper earlier for not providing him with support and then getting blasted by Paul Lo Duca in the newspaper because it’s apparently all right for Lo Duca to rip a teammate in print, watched a single drop in front of Green.

It appeared Green played the ball like Garret Anderson, you know, refusing to dive and get his uniform dirty, and the Dodger fans booed.

Green would say later he had no chance to catch the ball, and why wouldn’t anyone believe him? The fans saw it differently, and when Green came to the plate in the bottom of the inning they booed. They took it to another level when he failed to get on base, and Green, maybe the nicest athlete in Los Angeles -- isn’t that worth something? -- was getting the Barry Bonds’ treatment in his own ballpark.

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SINGLES DROP in front of outfielders almost every game, although on TV it often appears they could have been caught by diving outfielders. Green said he was running full speed, which makes him the slowest athlete in Los Angeles, but certainly not the Dodger most likely to be booed for not playing all-out.

Here’s where it went crazy Saturday. There’s no doubt Dodger fans are upset now, and even in victory the Dodgers looked lousy. It was a boring game, but the fans had a chance to witness a no-hitter, which they lost when the ball fell in front of Green. Not much else to get excited about unless you’re waiting to see Daryle Ward run the bases.

But the booing that followed, I contend, had as much to do with Green’s offensive struggles all season, the team’s miserable play the last week and the lack of hope on the horizon as his apparent unwillingness to dive for a ball he did not think he could catch. The Dodgers aren’t sinking in the standings because Green isn’t athletic enough to dive for a sinking popup.

He became a lightning rod, however, for additional media criticism after the game -- after Lo Duca and Micro Manager Jim Tracy opened their mouths.

Lo Duca ripped the fans, calling their reaction to Green, “pathetic” and “ridiculous,” and the media pounced on that.

Tracy, meanwhile, called Green a model citizen and just a swell guy who doesn’t deserve such treatment, but then tried to lay a guilt trip on everyone else.

“We all have to keep in mind it’s very easy to kick someone when they’re down,” Tracy said. “To boo a guy like this -- that’s pretty tough.”

No one was suggesting that Green was a bad human being. Tracy continued to defend Green, but when told he was trashing Dodger fans for booing Green, when all they wanted to see was some hustle, Tracy said, “I’m not chastising the fans at all.” The way this guy flip-flops, some times you have no idea what he’s trying to say. Or not say.

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THE DODGERS won Saturday, and Green took the fall. The fans expect an all-out effort in exchange for purchasing a ticket, and didn’t think they got it.

I understand, and I agreed. But after talking with Green he convinced me he never had a chance to catch that ball, and to dive would have been just for show. Why wouldn’t I believe him? To suggest now that Green doesn’t play the game of baseball as hard as he should is an injustice, and probably more a byproduct of the Dodgers’ overall poor play and the need for some to identify a scapegoat.

(I don’t need to do that, I’ve already got mine.)

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from RJ Jaimes:

THE NEW York Post reported this week that actor Edward Norton introduced a “gorgeous blond” as his girlfriend to folks at a recent outing in New York, indicating he has split with Salma Hayek. It’s common knowledge that chicks dig the wordsmith. Witness Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller.”

I better check my voice mail.

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