THESE DODGERS NOW STRANGERS TO MIKE SCIOSCIA.

Byline: Kevin Modesti

Mike Scioscia, the former Dodgers catcher, coach, minor-league instructor and Triple-A manager, is immortalized in name and picture on Dodger Stadium's left-field wall.

That's him between Don Newcombe, the intimidating right-hander of the 1950s, and Bud Light, the paying advertiser of the '90s.

Leaving an organization that thinks so highly of you should be heart-rending. But, as the intrusion of the Bud Light ad on the fence demonstrates, these are not the same Dodgers who signed Scioscia when he was 17, who made it to the 1988 World Series because of his playoff home run, who saw him as the logical heir to another another Pennsylvania-born Italian-American named Tom Lasorda.

``You're always going to take a little piece of the organization with you,'' Scioscia said Tuesday morning on the phone from his Agoura home. ``But realistically, the organization I grew up with and the people in place now are different. I'm not saying it's better or worse. It's just different.''

So, he said, there is ``nothing to be sad about'' in his parting with the Dodgers, made official by Monday night's announcement that Scioscia is leaving the Albuquerque Dukes managing job after one season to pursue opportunities with other clubs.

``I'm excited about some opportunities out there,'' he said.

But wait.

Nothing to be sad about?

That's not for him to say, is it?

It might be a happy day for Scioscia but a sad one for the team and its fans, who say goodbye to a blue-collar hero.

Scioscia, 40, probably is better off cutting the cord to the club for which he caught a Dodgers-record 1,395 games and stonewalled a zillion would-be run-scorers between 1980 and 1992.

A few years ago, he'd been the team's manager of the future, the favorite over former teammate Bill Russell to succeed Lasorda. But Scioscia seemed to fall behind in that race when he chose a job as the Dodgers' farm-system catching coordinator over minor-league and winter-league managing jobs that would have fleshed out his resume.

When Lasorda was pushed out of the Dodgers manager's office after a heart scare in 1996, Russell replaced him and Scioscia joined Russell's staff.

Then Russell was fired, Glenn Hoffman was installed and Hoffman was replaced last offseason by outsider Davey Johnson. Scioscia, sent off to manage the Peoria Javalinas of the Arizona Fall League and Albuqerque of the Pacific Coast League, gained more and more experience and less and less hope of applying it.

In evaluation sessions with general manager Kevin Malone and minor-leagues assistant Bill Geivett over the past couple of weeks, Scioscia was told he didn't have a future with the Dodgers, certainly not the one he coveted. This week's parting was a mutual decision.

For this he had passed up coaching jobs with other major-league teams.

``Now it's time to explore some of those opportunities,'' Scioscia said. ``There are going to be some opportunities out there now for managers.''

He doesn't know if a major-league team will hire him for the 2000 season, ``but I think it will happen eventually,'' he said. ``I feel I'm qualified. I feel like the six years I spent (coaching and managing) in the organization have given me an understanding of this side of the game and what I need to do to motivate a club.''

Scioscia is magnanimous with praise for the men who stood between him and the Dodgers manager's seat. Johnson, he said, has done a ``good job,'' never mind the team's poor showing.

Johnson returned the praise.

``Did I hear Scioscia is leaving?'' Johnson said in his clubhouse office Monday night after the Dodgers' ninth-inning victory over the San Francisco Giants. ``I'm sorry to hear that.

``I hated him,'' Johnson added with a cheeky smile.

He was referring to 1988, the National League championship series, Game 4, ninth inning. Johnson was managing the New York Mets against the Dodgers.

The Mets were three outs from a three-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven series when Dwight Gooden left a fastball on the inside corner of the plate.

Scioscia, who'd hit three home runs all season, yanked it over the right-field wall to tie the game, which the Dodgers won in 12 innings.

If not for Scioscia's homer, Kirk Gibson never hits his.

``In '88 he wasn't my favorite player,'' Johnson said. ``But I got to know him in spring training and he's a good baseball man, and he'll be missed. He has my blessing.''

And so the memory of '88 fades a little further, a happy development for the Mets and the Oakland A's, a sad one for the Dodgers.

Mike Scioscia is gone and only his spot on the left-field wall remains, at least until it's sold to an oil company.