DODGERS MANAGEMENT TEACHES BY EXAMPLE.

Byline: Matt McHale Baseball

With Mike Piazza in town this weekend, we're reminded of the six-year, $60 million contract he wanted two years ago.

It probably would have kept him a Dodger forever and also would have allowed Kevin Brown to become a teammate.

Club president Peter O'Malley said he didn't want to hand a potential owner that kind of debt after he put the team up for sale.

Pocket change for Rupert Murdoch. A bad memory for everyone else.

This comes to mind for a lot of reasons, mostly because Piazza's Mets are in the middle of a terrific pennant race and the Dodgers are finishing off another season of despair.

But it also comes up because the Cleveland Indians are now in the same position with slugger Manny Ramirez. He is making $4.5 million, a pittance for his 142 RBI.

He becomes a free agent after the 2001 season and could command between $12 million and 15 million a year.

But the Jacobs family, which owns the Indians, is selling and doesn't want to saddle the new owners with too much debt.

The Indians might want to look at the Dodgers and avoid the same mistake.

If O'Malley had agreed to that contract, Piazza would have been locked up until he was 35. At that point, he would have been looking at a three-year deal at best for a whole lot less than the seven-year, $91 million it cost the Mets to sign him.

Instead, Fox's pitbull Chase Carey decided he couldn't re-sign Piazza after the catcher turned down six years for $85 million. The Dodgers sent Piazza and Todd Zeile to Florida in a blockbuster trade that brought Gary Sheffield, Charles Johnson and Bobby Bonilla to Los Angeles.

Sheffield was in the first year of a six-year, $61 million contract. The Dodgers also had to ante up $2.5 million to get Sheffield to waive his no-trade clause.

That meant he made almost $12 million last year and more than $9.5 million through 2003. Piazza would have cost about the same.

Despite the weight of Sheffield's contract, the Dodgers still signed Brown to a seven-year deal worth $105 million.

On a team with no apparent bottom line, the bottom line is Piazza is gone and the Dodgers haven't been competitive since.

Think of the savings.

Cleveland also is leery of giving Ramirez that much money, thinking it might hurt his motivation.

Many think O'Malley's reluctance to give Piazza the money was personal. Piazza never bought into the Dodger-first mentality that helped make the organization great. After the Dodgers refused to negotiate a bigger deal, he turned down club requests for personal appearances.

Hindsight, of course, is a beautiful thing if you don't have your finger on the trigger.

But every time Boston's Pedro Martinez pitches like he did Friday night with a one-hit, 17-strikeout performance against the New York Yankees, you wonder how he ever got away.

There is lots of blame to go around. Fred Claire, Frank Jobe, even the shadow of Martinez's brother Ramon.

But there might have been an even bigger villain: Jody Reed.

Remember the scrappy second baseman in 1992?

At the end of that season, Claire offered Reed, a potential free agent, a three-year contract worth $7.5 million. The Dodgers had a policy of negotiating only with their free agents during the exclusive two-week window after the World Series.

They didn't break it for Steve Sax, and they certainly weren't breaking it for Jody Reed. No bidding wars allowed.

Reed was getting nibbles from the San Francisco Giants, who were talking about $10 million for three years. Reed filed for free agency and Claire pulled the offer.

At the last minute, the Giants decided to retain Robby Thompson, but by then the Dodgers had decided to trade for Montreal's Delino DeShields. The offer was Pedro Martinez.

Reed was never heard from again. The only time DeShields' name comes up is on the disabled list.

Piazza and Martinez, they're going to the postseason and probably the Hall of Fame.

If the Indians are smart, they will study Dodgers history. And not repeat it.

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PHOTO Mike Piazza's return to L.A. this weekend with the Mets might serve a bitter reminder to some fans of what might have been in Dogerland.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News