BE IT EVER SO WARM OUT, THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME.

Byline: Michael Ventre

The temperature was 78 degrees, the stands were packed with beach-ball-bouncing fans, and the nearest men in ski masks were miles away, pulling heists.

Goodbye, Chicago, where the scoreboard registers runs, hits, errors and wind-chill factors. Hello, L.A., where the Dodgers wore short sleeves while making quick work of the world-champion Atlanta Braves.

Thanks to Hideo Nomo, the Dodgers trashed the ugliness of the season-opening 2-5 road trip and posted a rejuvenating 1-0 decision Monday at Chavez Ravine over ace Tom Glavine and the Braves.

``It's nice to get back home,'' first baseman Eric Karros said. ``The weather in Chicago was not the most conducive to baseball. It's good to be back in a warm, friendly climate.''

This was what Dodgers fans had in mind when they heard comments emanating from Vero Beach suggesting, in effect, that the opposition had better duck. Instead, it was the Dodgers who did the bowing. Some of them would have been better burying their heads in the turf - that is, if Chicago's frozen tundra could have been penetrated.

Not so Monday. Basking both in the glorious glow of California sun and the hopeful gazes of 53,180 fans, the Dodgers accomplished an unlikely feat in trying to right their wobbly selves: They shut out the mighty Braves and outpointed the masterful Glavine.

``Forget that,'' said Brett Butler, referring to how the Dodgers expect to put the rocky beginning in arrears. ``When you come off a road trip to start the season, the home opener is like a brand new start.''

Let's hope so.

But there were enough remnants of the nightmarish days in Houston and Chicago to keep the locals in their seats nearly until the eighth inning, rather than the usual sixth or seventh.

Greg Gagne provided one moment of near-trauma. A popup by Fred McGriff went just behind the shortstop with two outs in the first inning and a man on first. Gagne went after it like Frank Bruno went after Mike Tyson. Fortunately for the Dodgers, Gagne won this bout.

Just the idea that it was a fight, and that Gagne committed four errors on the trip, is cause for alarm. When the team exiled Jose Offerman, fans didn't think they would still be gasping every time a ball is hit to short. Maybe after Monday, they can breathe easier.

And when Nomo entered the ninth after having already thrown 101 pitches, and failed to convert a relatively easy double-play ball hit to the mound, thereby placing a runner in scoring position, you wondered if maybe the new turf and the new left side of the infield and the new attitude were getting old already.

``This was good for us, considering the way we've been playing,'' Karros said. ``Honestly, it didn't matter who we were playing. We just needed a win.''

Pundits would respectfully beg to differ. Beating Atlanta was big. Shutting out Atlanta was colossal. Nomo outdueling Glavine? Invigorating.

``Anytime these two teams get together, there's definitely the potential for a game like this,'' said Glavine, who allowed the one run in the third on Raul Mondesi's RBI single to right.

``They have a lot of quality pitchers over there, as do we.''

Marveled Karros: ``Unbelievable pitching on both sides.''

When catcher Mike Piazza wasn't pursuing his newfound role as spray hitter, he was adeptly guiding Nomo through the afternoon. ``He made all the quality pitches when he had to,'' he said.

Piazza stands not just as one component of a potent Dodgers assemblage of talent that triggered all the spring-training bluster in the first place, but also as a reminder that things are still a little askew.

On Monday, Piazza continued his Rod Carew impression with three more singles, bringing his season total to 15 singles and no extra-bag whacks. This would be super if he were a wiry, mercurial leadoff man and vaunted base-stealer. But he is a power broker, and right now the power is off.

On a day like this, though, it's time to can the negativity and look on the sunny side. The Dodgers quieted naysayers, at least for one ceremonial day.

``Different people take things in different ways,'' Butler said. ``Whatever people want to say about us, we're just gonna keep going out and trying to win.''

``Some things were said before spring training started,'' Karros explained, ``with guys talking about us being a confident ballclub. It's a long season. You don't win by talking in the papers. You win between the lines.''

It helps, of course, if the lines themselves aren't frozen, and the warm weather is coupled with a hot pitcher.

MEMO: Michael Ventre's column appears in the Daily News four days a week.