Since many of the players use pink bats and wear pink on their uniforms to raise awareness for breast cancer on Mother's Day, would the Dodgers' manager wear a pink uniform if he was asked to?

"Whatever they want, if that is behind it," said Torre, who is also a cancer survivor. "I mean, if the players are going to go up there and use a pink bat, if the manager uses a pink uniform, that's fine."

Torre was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1999, while managing the Yankees, and had successful surgery to remove the cancer that year.

Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier was wearing blue and pink cleats with pink shoelaces on Sunday in honor of the day. Ethier got the start in right field on Sunday and went 3-for-5 with a double and a run scored.

"I haven't had any in my immediate family [diagnosed with breast cancer] ... but it's always in the back of your mind," said Ethier. "It's one of those things where they use the names of the teams and the players to help promote something that's a good cause for something I think that's close to everyone."

Various other players used pink bats in Sunday's game against the Astros, such as James Loney, who smacked a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning with a pink bat. He also requested his song be changed to "Hey Mama" by Jay-Z when he came up to bat on Sunday in honor to his mother. It was Loney's fourth homer of the season.

Pink bats have become annual Mother's Day symbols as part of an overall "Going to Bat Against Breast Cancer" initiative by Major League Baseball that raises awareness about breast cancer and directs massive proceeds to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Fans play the next big role in this process, because attention will move now to the MLB.com Auction and the gradual arrival of those pink bats that were used and then signed, or just signed by entire teams. Signed home plates and bases with the pink-ribbon logo also will be among the auction items that annually draw a frenzy, and all proceeds again will go to Komen.

It is a "rolling auction," so if you don't see a player's bat in the next few weeks, keep coming back because eventually most or all of them show up there. Fans also can purchase their own personalized "Mother's Day 2008" pink bats right now for $79 apiece at the MLB.com Shop, with $10 from the sale of each one going to Komen.

The Dodgers organization also celebrated Mother's Day by handing out some 10,000 roses to mothers who came through the turnstiles on Sunday. The first 25,000 mothers that came through the gates also received lip gloss courtesy of Smashbox Cosmetics.

Throwing out the ceremonial first pitches on Sunday were two women who are currently fighting breast cancer, Dodgers season ticket holder Nancy Colton and Desiree Sanchez, who works in the front office for Los Angeles.

For Torre, the more that can be done to raise awareness about cancer and raise more funds for research, the better.

"What's interesting is before you get exposed to it, be it a friend, family or yourself, cancer is something you sort of didn't want to think about," Torre said. "Then all of a sudden, you realize when you do learn about cancer, it's not a death sentence. I think information helps you open up and the more information you get the more you realize research is where the future is. So this is exciting to call attention to it and to have baseball be a part of it, which I'm very proud of the fact that they are doing that."