When Tracys Play, It’s a Family Affair

Bases loaded, bottom of the ninth, Steve Finley at the plate for the Dodgers with the National League West title on the line.

The date was Oct. 2, 2004, but if you think that was the most anxious moment of Jim Tracy’s seven years in Los Angeles, think again.

Two on, two out, top of the sixth, Chad Tracy stepping into the batter’s box for Pepperdine last year to face UC Santa Barbara pitcher Brian Tracy.

“It was not the most comfortable situation in the world,” the former Dodgers manager said.

Chad went hitless in two at-bats against his older brother over a three-game weekend series, but he hit the ball hard both times and his father left satisfied that neither son had embarrassed the other.

“A stalemate, that’s what I root for,” Jim Tracy said.

And, so far, that’s pretty much what he has. Chad, 20, has two hits in seven at-bats against his 22-year-old sibling, including a double during Pepperdine’s 8-1 victory over the Gauchos last month.

On the flip side, Santa Barbara is 4-3 against Pepperdine with the brothers on opposing sides. When they meet again today in Santa Barbara, Brian is expected to pitch one inning as a tune-up for his scheduled start Sunday against UC Davis.

Jim won’t be able to watch this time. He’ll be in Pittsburgh, where his new team, the Pirates, is playing a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds. But his day won’t be complete without his usual postgame phone call to each of his sons, whose teams he zealously follows.

“He knows as much about our teams as we know about his, and his is in the paper every single day,” said Brian, a redshirt junior who is 2-7 with a 4.88 earned-run average.

Chad, a preseason All-American catcher who is batting .327 with five homers and 41 runs batted in, said his dad is still able to offer valuable advice, even over the phone.

“I have bad habits that I get into, so when I talk to him and I tell him, ‘Hey, I did this, this and this in the game, what do I do?’ he’ll be able to give me an adjustment,” said Chad, a junior.

Jim leaves the pitching advice to Pittsburgh pitching coach Jim Colborn, who speaks with Brian regularly.

Chad and Brian don’t have to imagine what it would be like to have their dad coach them because he already has -- in basketball, during middle school.

“It was my opportunity to be with them and catch up on some lost time,” Jim said.

Chad and Brian said they see similarities between their youth basketball teams and the Dodgers. In both instances, their father guided a group of young players through numerous missteps to reach their goal through gradual but sustained improvement.

Jim’s first middle school basketball team won eight of 25 games. In the fourth season, the boys from St. Martha’s Catholic school in Sarasota, Fla., were 22-2 and played for a championship with a roster that included Jim’s youngest son, Mark, now a senior at Claremont High.

So, after watching their dad struggle to build a winner in his first three seasons with the Dodgers, the boys could fully appreciate the elation Jim felt that October afternoon at Dodger Stadium when Finley’s grand slam clinched the Dodgers’ first postseason berth in eight years.

“My dad doesn’t cry, and he had tears in his eyes,” said Chad, who embraced his father in a bearhug on the field. “That was the greatest thing to me in the world.”

Both boys say they have benefited from their father’s penchant for perfection.

Brian recalls many late nights when his father would return home after a tough loss, plop down alongside him on the bed and turn on the television to watch clips of the game.

“We’ve learned a lot of life lessons, like letting the little things bother you and not just shrugging them off,” Brian said. “You have to know what can make you better and get it done.”

Said Jim: “I’ve tried to, in my own way, pass that along to them. You have to strive for excellence.”

Just so long as it doesn’t make the other brother look bad.