There’s a Micro Chasm Between Him and the Kid

It was “Rally Monday” at Angel Stadium, time to bury Jim Tracy up the road at Dodger Stadium, and right now the Los Angeles Angels has a very nice ring to it.

You remember the Los Angeles Dodgers, and their tradition of excellence?

Ask your grandparents, maybe they remember.

Mike Scioscia played for them, and then he was deemed unworthy to manage them, giving him the chance now to drive the Angels toward a second World Series title in the last four seasons.

The Angels’ website was asking Monday who should start Game 3 of the American League division series; the Dodger website was asking fans to vote for the rookie with the best chance of opening next season in the bullpen, and for the life of me I can’t remember any of their names except for Schmoll.

The Dodgers finished 20 games under .500, and the kid GM putting the team together said the manager doesn’t agree with the way he does business. Nice to know the manager of the Dodgers is on the same page with most of us.

Cut through all the malarkey, and the kid who has been given the charge of running this storied franchise into the ground by a pair of lost souls from Boston, admitted Monday he wanted his own manager from the day he arrived.

“I certainly think that’s a part of it,” said Paul DePodesta. “At the end of the day everyone needs to be on the same page.”

Now we’re being told they didn’t agree on things, DePodesta declining to spell out their differences, while Tracy said they didn’t share the same opinion when it came to personnel.

Reading between the politically correct words, DePodesta gave Tracy crummy players, and said, go win, and Tracy said with one year left on a contract, Who are you kidding? I can’t win with these guys anytime soon.

“Do I think this could be fixed? Yes,” Tracy said. “Can it be done overnight, or over one season? I don’t know if the answer to that is yes.”

Oh, by the way, the Dodgers are accepting deposits on season tickets for 2006. No pushing in line, please.

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THE DODGERS will no longer have a Micro Manager, and as you might imagine, it’s a devastating loss for Page 2. I could do without the Grocery Store Bagger, and certainly the Boston Parking Lot Attendant.

On the critical side, the Micro Manager rolled with it all, and was he a good manager? We might never know -- never getting the chance to see him work with the kind of talent that has been handed to Scioscia.

On the human side, they come no better.

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AS FOR the Dodgers’ brass, just where is the breaking point in credibility, competence and response?

The Parking Guy and his “Size 0” wife never joined the discussions with DePodesta and Tracy, and although I’m not complaining given their own display of expertise to date, what does it say about Frank McCourt’s sudden interest in character when he doesn’t call Tracy, thank him and wish him well?

“There was a death in the family and he’s not in town,” said a Dodger coverup specialist, and I guess for all we know his cellphone was shut off for failure to make payment and he had no way of calling.

No, there is no mercy here today because there has been no attempt to date to earn it. It has been one learning-on-the-job mistake after another, the media prediction coming true that a scapegoat would be identified for this disastrous season, and the most likely candidate would be the Micro Manager.

There had been conflicting reports that Tracy had won favor with the McCourts, the kid GM taking it in the back from Tom Lasorda, but then McCourt’s wife said her faith in the kid never wavered.

Now we know. The kid GM, two years into a five-year guaranteed contract, won. For the record, his first victory, I believe.

I’d hate to see the kid GM, though, if the Dodgers win something that really counts, because he was off the arrogant chart in explaining that no one needs to know why he had his differences with Tracy, what they were, or what kind of yes man the Dodgers will now be hiring.

He was asked whether the fans deserve to know exactly why he and Tracy were not on the same page, and he said, “No, I don’t think so.”

And yet never once did he criticize Tracy publicly for decisions made. Never once did he offer a hint they had any differences. More often than not, he had praise for Tracy and the manager’s ability to deal with adversity and make the best of it.

I guess you can never really believe what the guy has to say anymore.

“Everyone who wears a Dodger uniform is going to get my support publicly,” he said in justifying why he chooses not to be forthright, and here I thought he was just following the lead of his boss. “Everything I said about Jim, I stand by ... if there is any disappointment for this season, it should be me” who is blamed.

So why is the Micro Manager the one cleaning out his office?

“We truly wanted to make it work,” DePodesta said, and I don’t believe him.

I believe he had one hole card left to play as the new kid on the block running the Dodgers -- and that was hiring his own manager.

It buys him time with the McCourts, and gives him a fresh start and a chance to buy a compatible computer for the next guy who manages the Dodgers -- so they can be on the same website.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.