YOU CAN COME HOME, BUT DON'T GET COMFORTABLE.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

After becoming a hero in Red Sox Nation, and thinking that would go on forever, Nomar Garciaparra has been through two seasons of turmoil.

He faced a trade and free agency. He had a bad injury and a worse injury. He went from the Holy Trinity of shortstops to a man without a position.

``It was surprising, definitely,'' Garciaparra said of the trade in summer 2004 from World Series-title-bound Boston to the Chicago Cubs. ``I felt that was where I was going to finish my career. I was set up there. I had a home there. The fans were great.''

If Garciaparra hopes to get back to the stability he enjoyed at Fenway Park, he might have come to the wrong place when he signed a free-agent contract with the Dodgers.

Oh, he feels as if he's coming home now, being a native of Bellflower (St. John Bosco High), a Dodgers and Angels fan growing up, and a Manhattan Beach homeowner with his wife Mia Hamm.

And certainly the fans here will be supportive as he tries to get back to his old baseball-god, batting-champ, All-Star form.

And perhaps the injuries are behind him, the wrist and the heel and the groin.

But everything about his new situation screams, ``Don't get too comfortable.''

At 32, he has a one-year contract (worth $6 million to $10 million with incentives) that could uproot him again next winter.

And he comes to Los Angeles ticketed not for shortstop or even third base (where he finished 2005 in Chicago), but first base - though left field isn't out of the question.

And he joins a clubhouse where change has brought more change and promises to bring more change before the Dodgers become pennant contenders again - as a for-instance, Garciaparra would be the Dodgers' fifth regular first baseman in five seasons.

All of this uncertainty might make him a little fidgety if he weren't the most fidgety batter in the world already with all those glove adjustments and foot taps.

``Trust me,'' he said Monday after an introductory news conference at Dodger Stadium, ``any person, in any job, wouldn't mind some stability. But in baseball these days, I don't know if anybody has stability. In any sport.

``There's not a sense of (uncertainty). I still get to do what I love to do, which is play baseball. You see the Dodgers going through changes,trying to get back to what the Dodgers stand for. A one-year deal, a change of positions, I don't worry about that.''

Garciaparra said he picked the Dodgers over the Indians, Astros and Yankees in large part because of the ``childhood memories'' that washed over him when he drove to Dodger Stadium to meet with general manager Ned Colletti and owner Frank McCourt.

``The first baseball game I saw was here at Dodger Stadium,'' he said. ``My parents took me. When it was just me and my mom, we'd get French dip sandwiches at Phillipe's'. I knew all the players and positions growing up.''

That was the era when Dodgers players and positions stayed the same for years instead of weeks.

With Garciaparra coming in, along with shortstop Rafael Furcal, third baseman Bill Mueller and (expected to sign next) center fielder Kenny Lofton, the Dodgers could open 2006 with five new names in the lineup - and a complete turnover from two seasons ago. By giving veterans short deals, trading none of his prized prospects, Colletti has turned the 91-loss Dodgers into threats to win a weak division and promised an infusion of young blood in 2007 and 2008.

Welcome home, Nomar. Put your feet up. Relax? Maybe.

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Photo:

(color) With Nomar Garciaparra coming in, the Dodgers could open 2006 with five new names in the lineup.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer