DODGERS NOTEBOOK: COLBORN TAKES PARTING SHOTS.

Byline: Tony Jackson Staff Writer

Jim Tracy finally got the long-term contract the Dodgers wouldn't give him, signing a three-year deal worth slightly more than $3 million Tuesday to become the next manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. With that done, Tracy quickly began stocking his new coaching staff with holdovers from his old one.

Pitching coach Jim Colborn and bench coach Jim Lett will join Tracy in Pittsburgh, filling the same positions they held in Los Angeles. Tracy likely will ask other members of his Dodgers staff to follow him as well, although it isn't clear whether such offers have been extended. All the Dodgers coaches were given permission by general manager Paul DePodesta to pursue other opportunities when Tracy and the Dodgers agreed Oct. 3 to go their separate ways.

Colborn didn't go quietly. The man who oversaw Eric Gagne's conversion from middling starter to the game's top closer, Jose Lima's conversion from reclamation project to a prominent place in Dodgers history and Jeff Weaver's conversion from a guy with questionable makeup to an arguable staff ace, fired a few parting shots Tuesday.

They were aimed directly at the Dodgers front office.

``You want to be appreciated wherever you go, and I don't think we were,'' Colborn said. ``I never heard anything to that effect. There is a lot of tugging and pulling and a lot of stuff I don't understand. But now, I don't have to worry about processing it anymore.''

DePodesta has said the Dodgers' next manager will be allowed to bring in his own staff, something he told all the coaches by telephone Oct. 4. But Colborn criticized DePodesta for leaving the information on some of the coaches' voice mail as DePodesta was leaving town that day to attend his sister's wedding in Italy.

After spending Tuesday afternoon with Triple-A Las Vegas manager Jerry Royster, the first of five candidates who will be interviewed for the job Tracy left vacant, DePodesta said he still intends to speak directly with every member of the coaching staff.

Colborn also implied the front office didn't consult Tracy and his staff enough before making major organizational decisions.

``You just never got the feeling you were part of the process,'' Colborn said. ``You were part of it, but a dispensable part of it. But that's all right. Maybe they had their own point of view, and they probably figured (we) weren't going to carry out what they wanted done. They have the right to bring in their own people. But I don't really look at it is I did a bad job or that I failed any kind of test. But whatever I had to offer, they didn't think it was valuable.''

DePodesta declined to get into a war of words with Colborn.

``I would just say exactly what I said (when Tracy's departure was announced), and that is that anybody who wears or has worn the Dodger uniform will absolutely get my public support,'' DePodesta said. ``I have repeatedly said during the course of the past year that our manager and coaches have done everything they could to get the most out of all our players.''

Colborn received overtures from both Seattle and Florida, but said he ultimately decided on Pittsburgh out of loyalty to Tracy.

The Dodgers managerial search continues today with an interview of former Detroit manager Alan Trammell, who was fired by the Tigers the same day Tracy left the Dodgers. San Francisco bench coach Ron Wotus will be interviewed Thursday, followed by Dodgers player development director Terry Collins on Friday and Cleveland minor-league manager Torey Lovullo of Northridge on Saturday.

Tony Jackson,[phone]

tony.jackson(at)dailynews.com