It Should Be a Challenge for Dodgers

The Dodger philosophy regarding the Bay Area blowhard has always been simple.

Don’t let Barry Bonds beat you.

When tempted to pitch around him this weekend, however, they need to examine that philosophy more closely.

Let’s say the Dodgers and Giants are both out of the pennant race.

If you walk Bonds ... he beats you.

If you pitch around him for fear of embarrassment ... he beats you.

If you allow your ego to affect the integrity of the game ... he beats you.

His victory would come not on the ever-changing scoreboard, but in the indelible confines of the heart.

The Dodgers would be forever branded as quitters. Jim Tracy would begin his legacy as a chicken.

The thunder they heard would be Don Drysdale. The chill they felt would be Sandy Koufax.

Worse than all that, the Dodgers would start resembling, well, the Giants.

Walking Bonds in a meaningless game to avoid watching him hit his record 71st home run is no better than the idea of stopping a game at Dodger Stadium to celebrate that record.

Walking Barry Bonds with nobody on base is no less sleazy than asking the Dodgers to wear their 1951 uniforms to celebrate Bobby Thomson’s home run.

The ugliest scratches on this wonderful antique rivalry have always been caused by the Giants.

They stole the signs. They drowned the basepaths. Marichal hit Roseboro.

In an effort to rise above their longtime insecurities, the Giants have sunk incredibly low.

The Dodgers must be careful not to join them.

“I understand,” Tracy said. “I get it.”

I spoke to him by phone Thursday from San Diego, where the Dodgers were playing their final game before the weekend anxiety in San Francisco.

I know, I know. You wish I would have encouraged him to roll the ball to Bonds.

Dodger fans would rather see Vin Scully dye his hair black than watch Barry Bonds hit another ball deep.

Dodger fans would rather watch Aramark employees celebrating their 1 millionth angry customer than watch Bonds dance around their baseball team.

That 10 minutes required to celebrate his 500th home run in April against the Dodgers? It felt like 10 hours.

“I understand,” Tracy said again.

However, he also understands that the integrity of the game is larger than even its best rivalries.

If the Giants are still involved in a playoff race, Tracy said he will walk Bonds if the game situation dictates a walk.

He won’t turn yellow like Houston Manager Larry Dierker and walk Bonds to lead off the inning or load the bases, but you get the point.

“If our game still has ramifications around the league, we have an obligation to honor them,” Tracy said.

But if the Giants aren’t in the playoff race, Tracy will pitch to Bonds no matter what.

Because, as he said, he gets it.

Tracy was in the dugout of the Montreal Expo team that gave up Mark McGwire’s five home runs in the final three days of 1998.

His pitchers were young. Their chances were slim. But by pitching to McGwire, their honor was intact.

“It’s about the purity of the game,” Tracy said. “You can’t do anything to detract from the purity of the game.”

He added, “If both teams are going home Sunday no matter what, then

The only problem would be, what if it’s not his decision?

After all, Dodger management has made strong, and sensible, stands against the wacky Giant requests this year.

No participation in the 1951 throwback day. No stopping the game at Dodger Stadium if Bonds broke the record there.

The good thing about Brooklyn guy Bob Daly is that, when it comes to the Dodgers and Giants, he remembers.

The scary thing, however, would be if that memory somehow clouded things in the manager’s office.

“Absolutely not,” Tracy said when asked if he would be prodded from upstairs. “Of course it’s totally my call.”

It could be bad.

It could be a Dodger pitcher joining Steve Trachsel and Tracy Stallard in ignominious baseball history.

It could be a game-stopping 30-minute party--you don’t think the Giants aren’t going to rub it in, do you?--that would literally force the Dodgers from the field.

But then, it could be good.

What if the Dodgers pitch to Bonds, and he still doesn’t hit the home run? Talk about an off-season inspiration for a pitching staff.

Think they’d still be talking about it next spring?

“Pride says, ‘Hey, I want to get Barry Bonds out in the midst of this whole home run race in front of fans that hate us,”’ Matt Herges told reporters Thursday.

Bad or good, at least the Dodgers could say they gave their best competitor their best effort in the worst of times.

Isn’t that is what is known as integrity?

If they don’t, the headlines will read, “The Rot Heard ‘Round the World.”

Fifty years later, that will still be known as disgrace.

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