BLUE DAY FOR DODGERS: LASORDA RETIRES : LONGTIME MANAGER SAYS FRONT OFFICE JOB A NEW START.

Byline: Tim Brown Daily News Staff Writer

Tom Lasorda, manager of the Dodgers for 19-1/2 seasons, announced his retirement Monday, one month after he suffered a heart attack.

After two World Series championships, four National League pennants and eight Western Division titles, Lasorda, 68, said Monday that he chose his heart over baseball.

Bill Russell, a former player for Lasorda and the club's interim manager since June 25, was named to replace Lasorda until the end of the season. Lasorda will stay with the club as a vice president, with responsibilities in player evaluation.

Lasorda insisted that he was found in good health by Dr. Michael Mellman, and that owner Peter O'Malley and executive vice president Fred Claire would have allowed him to return to the bench. However, after a weekend of organizational meetings and soul-searching conversations with family and friends, Lasorda said he arrived at a decision to leave behind his life's work.

The conclusion came at the end of a month in which he said the thought of retiring never crossed his mind. He often said that if O'Malley and Claire cleared him to resume managing, he would be in uniform the next day. But when that time came, he held a news conference to announce he would retire.

``For me to get into a uniform again, as excitable as I am,'' Lasorda said, ``I could not go down there and not be the way I've always been.

``I decided that it was best for me and the organization that I step down as manager of the Dodgers.''

At that, Lasorda's voice quaked. This is his 47th year in the organization, which employed him as a player, scout, coach and manager, and today as a vice president.

``I'm the luckiest man in the world, I'll tell you,'' Lasorda said. ``It's not the end for me, it's the beginning. It's the beginning of a new era.

``It's a new life for Tom Lasorda and the Dodgers.''

Lasorda replaced Walter Alston in September 1976, with four games left in the season. The Dodgers went to the World Series in three of his first five full seasons and won one, in 1981, against the New York Yankees. The Dodgers won the World Series again in 1988, in what will be remembered as Lasorda's finest hour.

The underdog Dodgers defeated the powerful New York Mets in seven games for the pennant, then the Oakland A's in five games in the World Series, Lasorda's last. He won 1,599 games and lost 1,439. His victories rank 13th on the major-league list and second to Alston on the Dodgers' list. An above-average left-handed pitcher in his younger days, Lasorda rose up to manage to the brink of the Hall of Fame, where many believe he belongs. O'Malley is among them.

``His credentials are of Hall of Fame proportions,'' said O'Malley, seated to Lasorda's right. ``There's no doubt about it, he's knocking on the door.''

Of Lasorda's nearly 20 seasons, O'Malley noted, the Dodgers finished in first or second place 13 times.

``Stick that record of Tommy's against anyone else's,'' O'Malley said.

Lasorda, in his new position, will report to Claire.

``It's hard to believe it was 20 years ago this September, in this very setting, that Tommy was announced as manager of the Dodgers,'' said Claire, in the general manager role for the past 10 years. ``For me, it seems like 20 minutes ago. You can't say `Dodgers' without thinking of Tommy. The good news is that relationship continues. There's a tremendous amount we've always drawn from, and we'll always draw from.

``It's not as if Tommy's leaving the Dodgers. That was (something) we didn't want either way. I believe Tommy should always be a Dodger. Always. I would hate to think of coming into Dodger Stadium and not having Tommy here. I would hate that. That's a loss I never want to experience.''

On June 23 at Dodger Stadium, Mike Piazza hit a ninth-inning home run to win Lasorda's final game as manager. Lasorda attended a banquet that night, then phoned Mellman to complain of stomach pains. Mellman, along with cardiologist Dr. Anthony Reid, determined that Lasorda had suffered a heart attack. On June 26 Lasorda underwent coronary catheterization to open the distal right coronary artery.

On Monday, Mellman said Lasorda ``is in excellent medical condition. He was made aware of that last Friday.''

Lasorda retired anyway.

``It was something that I felt would one day have to come,'' he said. ``I knew that I was no longer the manager of the Dodgers. I felt I was more concerned with my family than anything else.''

He said he thought of friends stricken with heart attacks, men such as Don Drysdale, Don McMahon and umpire John McSherry. And then he gestured to his wife, Jo, his daughter, Laura, and his granddaughter, Emily Tess.

``I thought about that wonderful family I have over there,'' he said. ``I'm taking that uniform off, but they're not taking the memories away.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) Tom Lasorda holds his granddaughter,Emily Tess Goldberg, 9 months, after Monday's news conference at Dodger Stadium.

(2) Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley, left, who sat beside Tom Lasorda at the new conference, said the retiring manager has Hall of Fame numbers.

David Crane/Daily News