DODGERS NOTEBOOK : HOLLANDSWORTH ENJOYED WATCHING PAL WIN A TITLE.

Byline: Tim Brown Daily News Staff Writer

A few hours after his two hits, three RBI and stolen base led the Dodgers to their Opening Day victory over the Houston Astros, Todd Hollandsworth watched one of his good friends become a national champion.

Hollandsworth attended Newport High School in Bellevue, Wash., with Kentucky center Mark Pope, and was the sixth man on the school's basketball team when both were seniors in 1991. Kentucky defeated Syracuse 76-67 for the NCAA title, and Pope scored four points in 27 minutes.

In fact, it sounded as if Hollandsworth got a bigger kick watching Pope play than he did by hitting his three-run double.

``I haven't seen him in a while, but I've followed his career avidly,'' Hollandsworth said. ``It's got to be the biggest rush in the world for him. I'm so happy for him.''

Hollandsworth, who also played football and, of course, baseball, was the city's 1991 athlete of the year, but there was no mistaking Pope's impact on the basketball program.

``He was the man,'' Hollandsworth said. ``We just got him the ball. He'd get his 25 points, 13 boards a game. We were on his shoulders, plain and simple.''

Opening daze: Once he got his stirrups straightened out, Opening Day was a wonderful experience for Roger Cedeno, the Dodgers' 21-year-old rookie center fielder. He didn't start and he struck out when he did get in, but Cedeno wasn't too annoyed.

``This was different,'' Cedeno said on Tuesday. ``Last year I got called up during the season, but being a part of the team from the start, it's different. Exciting.''

Before the game, Cedeno sat in his uniform in front of his locker, ready to take the field, when Raul Mondesi not so subtly informed him that his right stirrup was missing. Cedeno turned red and pulled the stirrup on, and thereby was fully outfitted for his first Opening Day.

It's frightful: The Dodgers begin a four-game series Thursday in Chicago, where it is expected to be cloudy, with high temperatures in the mid-40s. All four will be day games.

For what it's worth: The Dodgers' .621 winning percentage (18-11) during spring training was their third plus-.600 mark (full squad, full spring) in the past 20 years. In 1977, when they were 17-7, the Dodgers won the National League pennant. In 1988, after a 21-11 spring, they won the World Series.

Notes: Former president George Bush and his wife, Barbara, threw out the first pitches in Tuesday night's game. Bush, once a first baseman for Yale, has been instrumental in the Astros' aggressive season-ticket campaign.