DODGERS BACK AT CROSSROADS.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

I want to be hired by the Dodgers.

This comes from both my boyish desire to join the circus, and keen eye for recognizing a sweet gig.

It's just all so tempting. Get a five-year deal, get fired after a year, maybe two, and then get paid for doing nothing. I can do that.

Listen, I'll be their fall guy for the week. Descend upon the sword for sake of team, that great Dodger tradition - and a guaranteed contract.

Paul DePodesta might not share these feelings after being fired Saturday, but he has another three years of paid leave to reconsider.

Ringmaster Frank McCourt showed him the door in the morning, hopefully offering a better explanation to him than he provided the media.

``This is all about bringing people together,'' McCourt said.

Exactly where, the unemployment line?

The reasons for firing DePodesta after the Dodgers' 91-loss season were less mystifying than the timing.

The Dodgers didn't lose any more - unless you count some front-office employees - since the season ended. Nothing had apparently changed.

DePodesta still was the same general manager who let manager Jim Tracy go, who was conducting that prolonged, shrouded search for a new manager.

Yet shortly before DePodesta was to hire this manager - to place a final piece into his master mainframe plan for the Dodgers - he was canned. The timing is flat-out strange.

``I'm a builder, and a builder needs a strong foundation,'' McCourt said.

The foundation has shifted once again, however, and an organization that has lacked stability almost from the moment Peter O'Malley sold the team now finds it is in organizational reconstruction mode yet again.

It seems a permanent post-O'Malley condition. When Fred Claire was fired, Tommy Lasorda temporarily took over before Kevin Malone became the general manager. He had to revamp the front office with his people to set his plan in motion, until he was fired and in came Dan Evans, who started the process all over again, until McCourt let him go and brought in DePodesta, and the people mover at Dodger Stadium just never got a rest.

Three of McCourt's first four hires have now been fired - marketing officer Lon Rosen, communications head Gary Miereanu and DePodesta. Marty Greenspun has survived, but then he's the chief operating officer and probably makes the McCourts money.

Is this a great place to work or what? It's so comical. You get to laugh while you work.

DePodesta's greatest failing was mostly to be exactly what he always appeared he would be. He crunched numbers, relied on statistics more than baseball people and ran things decidedly his way.

He was bright, young (31 when hired), inexperienced as a general manager and capable of arrogance.

And his people skills were almost nonexistent. He couldn't be bothered to call people when they weren't being returned. Would often watch home games on a TV. Didn't give a lick about communicating his vision to the media, though he made an effort to improve that this past season.

He always felt a little mechanical, but that is the new wave in youthful general managers.

McCourt would not admit he made a mistake in hiring DePodesta in the first place, but then he never did say why he fired him.

``It's a decision I have been struggling with for some time,'' McCourt said. ``I can't pinpoint the time. We all suffered through last season.''

The timing is particularly curious because it comes after that dinner meeting between McCourt and Lasorda with Orel Hershiser for the manager's job, a meeting DePodesta did not attend.

This means DePodesta flat out was not considering Hershiser, or already was in deep trouble.

The most popular scenario of the moment has Hershiser now being hired as general manager, and Bobby Valentine as the manager.

This means three things: McCourt's most important single advisor now clearly is Lasorda; McCourt's approach is taking a 180-degree turn from a stat guy to traditional baseball people; and the circus will remain in town.

You did catch Valentine in dugout disguise?

``The Dodgers are at a crossroads here,'' McCourt said.

Hey, but aren't they always these days?

McCourt said he wanted his new GM to have great leadership ability, be a good judge of baseball talent, a good communicator and experienced.

Or, in other words, the anti-DePodesta.

There are other experienced baseball people out there who are available - Pat Gillick, John Hart, Jim Bowden. It should also be noted Jamie McCourt is big on promoting women, and Kim Ng is the assistant GM.

``We won't miss a beat,'' McCourt said.

And aren't you frightened that's the truth?

DePodesta got less than two years to carry out his plan, which isn't a fair test, but compared to some other McCourt hires was a life-long commitment.

That short-shift routine would be no problem for me. My resume is in the mail.