$105 MILLION MAN; DODGERS SIGN KEVIN BROWN.

Byline: Michael A. Anastasi Daily News Sports Editor 

Now, anything less than a world championship is failure.

The Dodgers became baseball's first team to guarantee a player $100 million Saturday when they signed Kevin Brown - the game's premier free-agent pitcher - to a seven-year, $105 million contract.

The deal utterly stunned, though not necessarily surprised, baseball administrators gathered in Nashville, Tenn., this week for their annual winter meetings.

The Dodgers, the American sports jewel of Rupert Murdoch's empire, raised their payroll to about $80 million annually, 10 times what the Montreal Expos paid their team this past season. The $105 million also represents 30 percent of what Murdoch paid to buy the Dodgers from Peter O'Malley.

And like Shaquille O'Neal and even Wayne Gretzky before him, Brown's arrival in Los Angeles brings the expectation of professional sport played at its most elite level.

Immediately, incoming Dodgers manager Davey Johnson named Brown his Opening Day starter. ``I would have to say,'' Johnson said, ``we're the favorites to win the division.''

Brown, who turns 34 during spring training, should face Randy Johnson, himself just signed to a $52.4 million contract by the Arizona Diamondbacks, on April 5 at Dodger Stadium.

Brown - whose contract includes a no-trade clause and perks such as a personal hotel suite for road trips and the use of a corporate jet 12 times a year so that his wife and two sons may visit from their Atlanta-area home - is to be introduced at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday. He issued only a statement Saturday.

``I am looking forward to being part of the re-establishment of a winning tradition,'' he said. ``(The Dodgers ownership) made it clear that they plan on being competitive year in and year out.''

Brown, 139-99 lifetime, has just one 20-win season in his 12 years in the major leagues, has never won a Cy Young Award, and will be 40 years old when his contract expires in 2005.

Only five pitchers in the game's history, including Cy Young who had 20, have won at least 15 games at that age. The legendary Bob Gibson, 22-9 with a 1.12 earned-run average when he was 33 like Brown, was 3-10 by the time he was 40.

Yet Brown, who possesses a 94 mph sinking fastball, is 51-26 the last three seasons and led both the Florida Marlins and San Diego Padres to the World Series the last two. And only he and Atlanta's Greg Maddux have thrown more than 1,400 innings over the last seven years.

His ultimate value, though, transcends dominant numbers.

The four-time All-Star is known as a fierce competitor who plays his best when the stakes are at their highest. Against the Atlanta Braves, the National League's juggernaut of the 1990s, Brown is 6-0 with a 1.85 ERA in his last eight starts and, moreover, is 3-0 in NL Championship Series games he's started against that team.

Like Kirk Gibson - who justified his free-agent signing by the Dodgers to a then-rich, three-year contract as a 31-year-old with a single at-bat in the 1988 World Series - Brown raises the level of play of those around him.

``(He) has a huge winning impact on all his teammates, especially the other pitchers on the staff,'' Dodgers general manager and executive vice president Kevin Malone said.

``The signing of Brown brings us a quality No. 1 starter with power, durability, leadership, and most importantly, the desire and passion to win.''

With a front three of Brown, Chan Ho Park and Darren Dreifort, the Dodgers' pitching rotation is impressive.

Among the five teams pursuing Brown were the Disney-owned Angels, who on Nov. 25 signed Mo Vaughn to what then set baseball's high for average annual salary, $13.33 million under a six-year, $80 million agreement.

Brown averages $15 million annually. His total salary eclipses the previous high of $91 million, set by Mike Piazza and the New York Mets on Oct. 23. Ironically, it was Piazza's demand for a $100 million deal from the Dodgers that led to his trade this past summer.

The Dodgers do not instantly become baseball's best team. They ranked nearly last in the league in runs scored this season and only have taken modest steps to improve in that area, most significantly with the Dec. 1 acquisition of catcher Todd Hundley in a trade with the Mets.

Nevertheless, Malone is confident Brown's signing is the key to pushing the Dodgers from the solid, yet generally underperforming level of recent seasons to that of genuinely contending for a championship.

Daily News wire services contributed to this story.

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PHOTO (Color) KEVIN BROWN

The 33-year-old All-Star is projected to be the Dodgers' Opening Day pitcher and makes them an immediate championship favorite.