Silent Coach, Quiet Bats a Perfect Mix for Evans

New Dodger hitting instructor George Hendrick stood behind the batting cage Tuesday night, and appeared to be working on Manny Mota’s stance.

Makes sense to me -- of all the current Dodgers here, Mota has the best chance of sticking around. And getting on base, for that matter.

Hendrick, of course, refuses to speak to the media, so we know now why he was hired. The Dodger hitters couldn’t hit under Jack Clark’s tutelage, but management had no problem with that until Clark told the media, “other teams are a little better.”

As far as revelations go, I rank that right up there with Clark telling me, “Today is Wednesday,” but it was enough for GM Dan Evans, who had told all the team’s coaches a month earlier no changes were going to be made, to change his mind and fire Clark.

If Evans tells me, “Today is Wednesday,” I’m going to check the calendar.

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WHEN IT came time to keep up with the better teams, Evans added Rickety Henderson, Jeromy Burnitz and Robin Ventura to the roster. They are now hitting a collective .202 in Dodger blue. The team announced Tuesday it had activated Ron Coomer, giving him the chance to work on his .210 batting average.

Now there was a time when this collection of bench players and Las Vegas 51s played to the strength of Jim Tracy, earning him the nickname “Micro Manager” here because of his fondness for shuffling players in and out of the game.

The Dodgers won 92 games a year ago, and Tracy stood 178-146 after two years in the dugout -- short of making the playoffs, but always optimistic and hanging in there with a team short on healthy players. This year, the Dodgers have struck out, but not unlike Angel Manager Mike Scioscia before certifying himself a champion, he has represented the Dodgers consistently with class and integrity.

Some people will point to the 1988 Dodgers and the miracle Tom Lasorda pulled off with a team that could not hit, but Lasorda had so much more seasoning at the time and it would have been fun to listen to him tell Evans just what to do with Henderson, Burnitz and Ventura.

I’m hearing (misguided) public sentiment now that Tracy should be replaced at season’s end, because someone must pay for such frustration. It remains unclear, though, how Tracy might manage a talented team if ever afforded the chance. To date he’s been handed players handpicked by the Movie Guy, Dodger Boy and Evans.

In baseball terms, that’s strike one, strike two, strike three.

He deserves better, but then so do the paying customers, and right now both of them -- manager and fans -- will have to see more talent on the field before that happens.

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ONE OF the Dodgers is using a “Joe Thurston” model bat. I guess that’s what the Dodgers meant during spring training when they talked about having Thurston’s bat in the lineup.

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AT THE end of August I will begin writing four columns a week again so that I can give USC and its fans all the attention they deserve.

I also will begin working for XTRA -- 690 & 1150 AM radio, three times a week, delivering a mini tirade on the Tony Bruno show, which I hope doesn’t mean I have to start listening to his show, and then spending five rollicking, laugh-packed minutes with Hacksaw later in the afternoon.

I wouldn’t worry about the specific times that I’ll be appearing on XTRA because given my failures with Fox and ESPN, I’d imagine this will be a short-lived assignment too. I put the over/under at lasting at XTRA at three weeks, or until the first time XTRA starts asking me to call myself, “T.J. the Brick.”

Now you know the kind of serious-minded wackos that sports radio attracts, so you can just imagine how well my stories about the Grocery Store Bagger and Salma Hayek are going to go over. By the way, do you think I have to worry about Hacksaw putting a move on Salma?

I’ll be taping the morning bits on Bruno’s show rather than going live because I don’t know anything about Philadelphia sports, and that’s all he talks about. Hacksaw offers a different challenge -- think Mt. Rushmore, and trying to get one of those guys to chuckle, or loosen up.

The folks at XTRA have written it down on paper, though, and signed it: “The Station understands that Mr. Simers will take shots at the property and its participants in the LA Times as part of his job.” ESPN had the same understanding.

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SHARON STONE was on the field before the game preparing to throw out the first pitch. My job is to interview the athletes on the field, so I went out of my way to run her down. I make these sacrifices for the readers all the time.

We hadn’t had time yet to exchange phone numbers, when we were interrupted by some guy who introduced himself to Stone. “Hi, I’m Al Michaels,” he said, and she looked at me as if I knew who he was, but I just shrugged.

Stone, along with her sister, Kelly, founded Planet Hope, a program to help homeless children and their families. She was here to raise awareness for Planet Hope. I told her I didn’t think she was here to watch the Dodgers. She laughed and leaned into me. I ridiculed the Dodgers some more, and she leaned into me again, and maybe now you’ll understand why I make as much fun of the Dodgers as I do.

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LISA GUERRERO made her “Monday Night Football” debut as a sideline reporter and brought along her boyfriend, injured pitcher Scott Erickson, to hold the microphone for her. I guess she misunderstood when I said she couldn’t hold Melissa Stark’s microphone.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com