TRACY SHOULD BE GIVEN BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

ANAHEIM - Let's give the Fire Jim Tracy mob a chance to guess which of the managers in this Dodgers-Angels series has the better won-lost record.

No, let's be sporting and give that crowd two chances.

The winner is Tracy, in one of those close contests he loves.

Counting regular season, playoffs and World Series, Tracy's Dodgers were 60 games over .500 in his 4 1/2 seasons going into Friday night's game. Mike Scioscia's Angels were 56 games over .500 in his 5 1/2 seasons.

And in the four full seasons they've been managing clubs 25 hard freeway miles apart, Tracy has finished with more wins in three.

Tracy knows what you're going to say to all that. He said it first.

``He's got the big one that we don't have,'' Tracy said of Scioscia.

Mike Scioscia has won a World Series. He also has put in a quarter-century as a winner in the eyes of Southern California baseball fans, beginning as a Dodgers catcher.

Jim Tracy has won nothing bigger than a division title. He came to the job through in-house promotion after an anonymous coaching career following a forgettable major-league playing career.

That difference is the reason why every time the Dodgers disappoint, Tracy faces scrutiny that's harsher than anything Scioscia has endured under similar circumstances.

It's happening again.

The front office took Tracy's National League West-winning team and changed half the batting order this winter. Injuries have continued the shake up.

So bad has it gotten that Tracy and general manager Paul DePodesta were positively ecstatic Friday when they learned that Eric Gagne's elbow injury isn't as bad as expected and their best player should be out only for the rest of 2005.

Said Tracy, who's learning more than he wishes about sports medicine because he has to deliver each day's injury updates to reporters: ``I'm about two more injuries from putting on the (surgical) mask and going in there with (Dr.) Frank (Jobe) and operating.''

After their 12-2 start raised expectations, the Dodgers have tumbled below .500 and into third place. Now people are saying the manager should - or will - take the fall.

They're asking if owner Frank McCourt will pull the lever at the All-Star break or wait for the end of the season. Or if Tracy might be protected by the two-year deal he signed in November.

Let's give them a chance to guess who thinks there's something wrong with that. OK, two chances.

``The bottom line is winning. But certainly at times there are extenuating circumstances,'' Scioscia said. ``I think Jim's an outstanding manager. He has the right frame of mind to understand that he needs to connect with the personnel that he has to play the kind of game he needs to play.''

Scioscia may have a problem with Frank Robinson. Not with Tracy.

``I think he's outstanding. But that isn't always going to mean success,'' Scioscia said. ``Sometimes teams have little tailspins.''

Scioscia is in first place these days. But he has been where Tracy is.

``We've gone through that here, particularly at the beginning of 2002,'' Scioscia said of injuries and slumps that seemed beyond the skipper's control. ``We were not so much a team in transition of personnel. There were some new guys but not these overall changes (like the Dodgers'). But we were a team trying to find its identity. ... That (can) take some time.''

I don't think Scioscia means to compare the 2002 Angels, who opened 6-14 and wound up World Series champions, with the 2005 Dodgers, whose ``little tailspin'' has gone on for two months. Maybe a better comparison would be the 2001 or 2003 Angels, who finished 12 and eight games under .500.

The point is that good managers like Scioscia have bad years too. I'd hate to see how much worse the Dodgers could be right now without Tracy's enthusiasm for crafting batting orders out of driftwood.

Jim Tracy has four winning seasons in a row. What he wants is what Mike Scioscia has.

A trophy. And the benefit of the doubt that comes with it.

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