FOR FRED CLAIRE, NEW JOB IS CLASS ACT.

Byline: Jim McConnell

Break out the Cliffs Notes. It's now Professor Fred Claire.

The former Dodgers executive has become a guest lecturer at USC. Drawing on his 40 years of professional experience in sports, the 62-year-old Pasadena resident is teaching at USC's Annenberg School of Communication.

His subject: ``Sports Business and Media in Today's Society.''

``It's a subject to which I can bring a unique perspective,'' Claire said. ``I can draw on my background as a sports editor, as well as my 30 years with the Dodgers. So far, I've enjoyed it. I hope my students feel the same.''

It may be too soon to tell if Claire's fling with the world of academia will develop into a full-time job. It's also too oon to tell exactly how the former Dodgers executive will be remembered by the baseball community.

Some see him as a victim - the first casualty of the Fox regime at Dodger Stadium. Others say he was a voice of reason crying in the wilderness that is major-league baseball.

``I have no bitterness,'' Claire said about being fired by the Dodgers amid their tumultuous 1998 season. ``I had a great run with the Dodgers. Now, I am doing something else.

``Frankly, you can't take it personally. You have to move on with your life. It's not my nature to dwell on the past. It was a business decision, and I can respect that.

``Businesses change hands; people come and go. The important thing is, make sure you don't change your principles. I never did that, nor would I have.''

Claire says he no longer follows the day-to-day doings of the Dodgers, and refuses to speculate on how the organization will do without him. But he admits he would like to return to baseball, if the circumstances werght.

``I would like to get back in the game as a general manager,'' Claire said. ``But it would have to be a mutually beneficial opportunity, a situation where I felt comfortable and had a reasonable chance of assembling a winning team.

``The reality is, more than half the current teams won't be competitive in 1999, or any time soon. And that does not bode well for baseball, let alone my job search.''

While Claire is deeply concerned with the direction of major-league baseball, he is heartened by the recent NBA labor agreement.

``I think the NBA agreement will be the model for a future agreement in major-league baseball. I see a real need for both a salary cap on individual players, as well as teams, and the NBA agreement does that.''

Claire is convinced that strict salary caps and fully shared revenues await baseball.

``It is a changing world, and baseball needs to change with the times. Without change, I'm not convinced that major-league baseball as we know it will inue to exist.

``Gene Orza (an executive with the baseball players' union) and I could debate this for hours. He feels that, historically, there have always been competitive and non-competitive teams and that is simply the nature of major-league baseball. I say it has never been like it is now, where so many organizations have this sense of hopelessness, this total inability to assemble a winning team.

``I remember back in the 1970s, right after free agency became a reality, someone asked Walter O'Malley how much money it would take to retain Sandy Koufax, assuming Koufax was still pitching for the Dodgers. And O'Malley, in his wisdom, said, `Mr. Koufax would be my partner.'

``When you see $100-million player contracts (like the one the Dodgers gave Kevin Brown), you see we aren't that far from what Walter O'Malley envisioned.''

Even so, Claire says it's wrong for owners to use Fox's Rupert Murdoch as a whipping boy.

``To blame Fox for the state baseball finds itself in is aersimplification,'' Claire said. ``Baseball's problems are much more complicated than the presence of one particular ownership group.

``Major-league baseball owners must face the fact they need to work together to solve their problems. Unfortunately,` we have a group of very competitive people - the owners, the players, the agents, the union officials - and they tend to see things in terms of winning or losing. And none of them want to be perceived as a loser.''

Whether he ever returns to baseball, Claire is certainly not about to apologize for his time with the Dodgers.

``I felt I did a good job,'' he said. ``We were in the middle of the pack in the 1990s, in terms of revenue streams, yet we managed to produce winning teams, divisional champions.

``I was consumed by the job, totally dedicated to making the Dodgers a championship team. And you have to be that way to succeed in professional sports. Now, I can take a step back and do some other things with my life, such as teach, whi always wanted to do.''

Claire also isn't ruling out writing a book about his experiences with the Dodgers.

``Well, if you know me, you know it won't be one of those `tell-all' type of things,'' he said. ``That's not my style. But I believe the 30 years I spent with the Dodgers were a fascinating time, and I suspect there would be a certain reader interest in my experiences.''

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