Tracy Shouldn’t Waste This Senior Leadership

Three days after acquiring an eccentric and exciting second-half fuse, the Dodgers did the most curious thing Saturday.

They waited eight innings to light it.

By the time Rickey Henderson stepped gingerly out of the dugout, the stadium was in a sweat-soaked torpor, Kevin Brown in the showers, and the Dodgers trailed by two.

The ovation was huge, the attention was rapt, but the timing was lousy.

Soon after the pinch-hitting future Hall of Famer flied out, the Dodgers completed a 3-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals that left fans openly wondering.

Where was Rickey?

Since he joined the Dodgers at the All-Star break, the team had won both games with him as a leadoff hitter.

Only 18 hours earlier, he had hit a home run to lead a comeback.

Lots of veterans routinely won’t play in a day game after a night game, but, goodness, two days of work and already a vacation?

“I do not have that decision,” Henderson said. “If I had that decision, I would be out there.”

It was, indeed, Manager Jim Tracy’s decision, and his reasoning was as plain as the gray hairs on my head.

Henderson was benched not because of his glove. He was benched not because of his bat.

He was benched because of his birth certificate.

“Oh yeah,” Henderson said, smiling. “That age thing.”

Trying to keep him fresh for as long as possible, Tracy admitted that he rested Henderson because of that rare baseball statistic known as 1958.

“He’s 44 years old,” Tracy said. “I don’t think you want to run a guy like this into the middle of August until there’s nothing left.”

Yet when he’s on the bench, there’s little left in a leadoff spot that did not score a run Saturday.

“I just go with the flow,” Henderson said.

But there was no flow, despite leadoff hitter Jolbert Cabrera’s two knocks, especially when he was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double that could have started a big third inning.

“We started here this morning 10 hours after we finished Friday night, and we have a lot of games left, and I thought this was a good day to save Rickey,” Tracy said.

To which Henderson smiled again.

“You know how they do us,” he said, referring to the older players. “They protect us. They don’t want to wear us out. I’m not sure what that’s all about, really.”

Poor Tracy must think, he’s criticized for wearing down Eric Gagne, yet now he’s questioned for not wearing down Henderson?

He must wonder where he’s managing, in the MLB or AARP?

“I’m fine with whatever they do,” Henderson said. “I’d be out there, but I’m just here to help the team and I’ll go with whatever they say.”

He’s being polite, but the facts are these:

The Dodgers have 66 games left in the season. Henderson may have only 66 games left in his career. They signed him for the major league minimum salary. They’ll probably never see him again after October anyway.

When he starts a game by taking a first pitch for ball one, he’s already better than most of their hitters.

He wants to play until he drops. As long as there’s room for him out there, even if it means trying Shawn Green at first base once Dave Roberts returns, why not let him try?

“Just because you’re my age, that doesn’t faze you,” Henderson said. “The question is, are you worn down or tired? My body has not shown me that right now. I’m ready to go. I’ll be ready to play every day.”

The fans agree. The murmur through the Dodger Stadium crowd of 41,195 was all about Rickey.

When Cabrera fell behind two strikes before grounding out in the first inning, there were thoughts of Rickey.

When Cabrera singled to right but was thrown out trying to turn it into a double in the third inning -- even though there were no outs and the heart of the order was behind him -- there were visions of Rickey.

“We’re all hoping to learn something from him,” Cabrera said.

That can’t happen when he’s hanging around with the sunflower seeds.

“I don’t do too good over there,” he said.

While one old guy was being restrained, another old guy was being unleashed, and look what happened.

Thirty-eight-year-old Kevin Brown returned from a two-start absence Saturday to again resemble the league’s best pitcher, six innings, one earned run, no walks, six strikeouts, plenty of gas.

“To throw like that after taking two weeks off is phenomenal,” catcher Paul Lo Duca said. “To have him back is huge.”

Same old Kevin Brown, striking out Jim Edmonds once on a 94-mph fastball and another time on a 92-mph breaking ball.

Same old Kevin Brown, trying to choke the game all by himself, throwing a bold pickoff attempt to first base in the third inning with a runner on third. The throw was wild, the run scored, the Cardinals had enough.

“You get the run support, you get some things going your way, you win games,” said Brown, in a rare reference to the lack of Dodger offense. “When you don’t, you don’t win.”

Until Dan Evans acquires one more right-handed bat, more pitchers are going to be talking like that, in brasher tones.

Which brings us back to the attributes of brash Rickey, who was approached by a cameraman during his first workout earlier this week.

“I’ve always been your biggest fan,” the cameraman said.

“Likewise,” Rickey said.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.