There’s No Trace of Quit in These Dodgers

So, what to do with Jim Tracy?

I’d keep him.

But I’m not Paul DePodesta or Frank McCourt; I can tell by the neighborhood.

A long time ago, while watching an NBA game, I asked a veteran basketball observer how he could tell the good coaches from the bad ones.

The coaches, they all ran the same plays, subbed at the same time, called a lot of timeouts and scribbled stuff on clipboards.

They all looked the same in plaid sport coats.

He said, “The players play for good coaches.”

I think players play for Jim Tracy, once they get past the usual incentives, such as wealth, fame, innate competitiveness and to meet women.

A scout said Tuesday afternoon he sensed the Dodgers had come to understand their plight in the National League West and had given up. They had just lost three games in Colorado, and scored one run the night before against the Giants.

They’re dead, he said.

Two walk-off wins later, the Dodgers might appear done in the standings and on the lineup card, but did you catch Oscar Robles’ gleeful dash after Wednesday’s win?

It’s not that they’re not trying. It’s that they’re not very good. And where does that responsibility fall?

If I have one gripe with Tracy, it’s that he came in as the no-name guy trying to persuade everyone he could manage a baseball team, and remains a guy trying to convince everyone he can manage a baseball team.

Player failure can make him defensive; it reflects poorly on him. He’s stubborn. If he can help it, he won’t play someone -- say, Hee-Seop Choi or Antonio Perez -- who might not catch the baseball, even if the general manager feels otherwise.

Presumably, he and DePodesta will have to settle those differences before next season, assuming there is a next season for both, because the next generation of Dodgers is coming, and it will be imperfect for a while.

The organizational plan, if anyone has the patience for it, is to build on the Dan Evans framework, the pitching and infield prospects still a year or two away. Sure, it’s the inexpensive way to go, but hardly anyone talks about Atlanta’s payroll, and the prospect-rich Braves have plenty of money they don’t spend.

DePodesta is a product of the Oakland system, in which the general manager rules and the manager salutes, but he’s not nearly as suffocating. Tracy has said he would like to stay, and DePodesta will ask again, and everybody will have to agree this is a relationship worth preserving, or saving.

If that opt-out clause is burning a hole in Tracy’s pocket, and the new Dodger direction just isn’t working for him, however, this might be the winter to go. A conservative count shows 10 potential managerial openings in the coming months, including ones in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, neither far from his parents’ place in Hamilton, Ohio.

There will be jobs. Tracy could even get one of them, with a team building for the present. Once there, he’d be a good manager, just as he was here. Is here.

Fair or Foul?

I wonder if Mike Morse remembers the names of the players he left behind in the minor leagues, the ones he passed on his way to the big leagues, as he grew to 220 pounds.

I wonder if they believe it is “unfair” -- Morse’s opinion of his suspension -- that he took Deca-Durabolin and stanolozol, got big, made it to the big leagues and then had to sit out 10 days because he cheated to do it.

Morse thinks it is “unfair” he is still enduring the consequences for a mistake he made not even two years ago.

Here’s what’s unfair, Mike:

Eighteen months ago, you put into your body a performance-enhancing chemical so potent it is still registering in drug tests.

You’ve tested positive for a banned substance three times. In some companies, you’d be looking for a new company. In baseball, you can start making your $317,000 salary again next week.

If you’d gone to college and done the same thing, you’d have missed all of 18 months, not a few days of it. The NCAA wouldn’t let you play until you passed a drug test, which, as we know, you wouldn’t have, not for at least another few weeks.

Before we rally the lawyers and the union reps, let’s not. Instead of railing against the system, Mike, and lobbying for your own private loophole, perhaps you should thank the game for allowing you to participate, and then kick in a few dollars to the Taylor Hooton Foundation.

It’s the organization that educates young people on the effects of steroid use. Maybe, with enough funds, it will reach some of those minor league players you used to play with, Mike, and remind them that they might not have made it, but at least they didn’t make it the right way.

Baseball executives are getting word they could be called before the Senate Commerce Committee as soon as Sept. 28, though Congress’ preoccupation with the Hurricane Katrina aftermath could eventually mean a much later date.

Several bills have been drafted that would institute uniform steroid testing for all major American professional sports, all of them calling for a two-year suspension for first-time offenders.

Baseball would prefer Commissioner Bud Selig’s plan for a 50-game suspension for a first positive test, but will welcome a Congress-imposed policy if the players’ association resists.

While he has been criticized for the handling of two recent violators -- Rafael Palmeiro (too lenient, said most) and Morse (too strict, said some) -- Selig said this week he remains comfortable with the current program.

“I’m feeling more secure that the program is working,” he said. “But because of instances like [the Morse suspension], I have more intense feelings about stronger discipline and independent testing.

“Let’s have it be completely independent. The thing is, if we don’t do our policy, then we’ll get theirs.”

Bats and Pieces

If there’s anything better than listening to Vin Scully call a September baseball game, it’s listening to Scully call two simultaneously.

While broadcasting Giants-Dodgers last week, Scully weaved in the subtleties of Rockies-Padres, as if they were playing the games beside each other. He has done it for decades, and it never gets old.

*

No wonder Jason Giambi worked so hard to stay off Capitol Hill; the place is a career-killer.

The subpoenaed players appearing before the House Government Reform Committee on March 17, both active and retired, have endured a dreary six months. They adjusted their ties, raised their hands, waved an index finger and were off to oblivion or “The Surreal Life,” whichever they came across first.

The GRC 6 -- Curt Schilling, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Frank Thomas, Jose Canseco and Palmeiro -- have an ERA of 6.83 (Schilling’s alone) and a batting average of .240. Sosa (toe), Thomas (ankle) and Palmeiro (knee/stanolozol flu) are injured; Thomas played only 34 games. McGwire has gone underground and Canseco’s ex-wife had her own tell-all.

This is some huge coincidence, or they’ve all been turned to stone by a withering glare from Congressman Henry “Hammerin’ Hank” Waxman.

*

San Diego Padre management has had discussions about buying out the final year of Ryan Klesko’s contract, according to baseball sources, or a trade that would ease their $10.5-million commitment to him next season.

Klesko’s seeming lack of dedication to the game, which the Padres believe contributes to his nagging injuries, has frustrated them for years. Also, the organization believes it needs to build around its pitching-oriented ballpark, which is friendly to gap hitters with speed.

Klesko, who is batting .254 (.207 against left-handers) with 17 homers and 56 RBIs, has not started against three consecutive right-handers, including D.J. Houlton on Friday and Derek Lowe on Saturday.

*

Big stretch for the Florida Marlins, who at week’s end sat a half-game behind the Houston Astros and two games ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies for the National League wild card.

By Sept. 22, they’ll have played 20 consecutive games against the top five teams in the wild-card standings, including four against the Washington Nationals, six against the Phillies and, starting Monday, four against the Astros.

They might have to do it with a gimpy Paul Lo Duca, who has a chronically sore right hamstring and has batted .174 over the last four weeks.

*

Milton Bradley needs more help, according to George Anderson, a Los Angeles-based psychotherapist who specializes in anger-management issues.

“It’s not the anger that’s the issue,” Anderson said. “It’s the behavior that follows the anger. And that’s aggression, right?

“If I were Milton, I’d wish that somebody in the world would offer to help me.”

*

I’m thinking NoCal owes SoCal a big thanks.

Barry Bonds has been here pumping our $3 gas, driving our crowded freeways, running UCLA’s track, wearing out UCLA’s batting cage, seeing our doctors and lusting over one of our franchises.

Not only that, he’s not going to get into any fights with teammates if he’s living in Beverly Hills.

With three weeks left in the season and his re-entry from Planet Rehab nearly complete, we give him back to the Giants in time to drive them into second place, ahead of the Dodgers. And he talks about “going home.”

So, you’re welcome.