THOMAS BONK : Russell’s Name Is Only Penciled In

When Bill Russell signed his first lineup card as the one and only manager of the Dodgers, he was behind a desk in the assistant coaches’ locker room.

He was not in the manager’s office. The door was closed to that office, the one just off the hallway near the batting cage under the stands down the third base line.

It’s still Tom Lasorda’s office, and it’s going to stay that way until the Dodgers leave town next week and he comes in to clean out 20 years worth of pictures, baseballs, mementos and memories.

Russell said he isn’t in any hurry to move in, that he feels just as comfortable in the coach’s office, even though it’s only slightly larger than Mike Piazza’s mitt.

A new Dodger era began Tuesday, one that for the first time in 20 years did not involve a certain fast-talking manager with a penchant for pasta and bear hugs.

No one really knows how this particular Dodger era is going to work out, but we should know soon. The first thing to do is figure out just who is going where.

Everyone seems pretty sure that Lasorda is going to the Hall of Fame.

Russell’s destination is a little different. He wants to know if he is going to be in the Dodger dugout next season.

Russell said there is only one way to answer that question and that is for the Dodgers to win baseball games.

Funny, but that’s probably just what the people in the front office are thinking too. The Dodgers have made no commitment to Russell outside of hiring him to manage the team for the last 56 games of this season, which builds the suspense, doesn’t it?

It leads to speculation that Russell is on probation, that his tenure may be brief, depending on what the Dodgers do the rest of the way.

Right now, there are more questions than answers.

Do they have to win the West for Russell to stay? What if they merely come close? Do they have to win at least one round of the playoffs?

The whole issue could become a distraction during a pennant race, but Russell insisted that the whole thing can be taken care of if the team he is managing wins games.

Sounds simple. But you have to wonder how great the Dodgers’ investment in Russell is when no one from the organization let him know Lasorda was stepping down. Russell didn’t find out for sure until he read it in the newspaper.

No one is quite sure how owner Peter O’Malley feels about keeping Russell on. In fact, how O’Malley feels about managers in general is not really known, basically because he’s hired only one in his 26 years as Dodger president.

Russell is a lot closer to matching the calm personality of Walt Alston than Lasorda, even though he is Lasorda’s protege. We just don’t know if that’s considered important.

It also would seem that Russell’s low-key approach is similar to the way O’Malley does business. We also don’t know if that’s considered important.

As it turned out, it certainly was important to Russell that Alston was extremely patient with a certain 20-year-old Dodger shortstop converted from the outfield. Russell went on to play more Dodger games and for more seasons than anyone in franchise history other than Zack Wheat.

There are some who believe Russell represents a chance for the Dodgers to change the focus of attention to the players on the field instead of the manager in the dugout. We don’t know if that’s an important consideration either.

Chances are, it’s all going to come down to something a lot more basic than style, image, personality or demeanor.

No, whether Russell’s Dodger managerial career will be counted in years instead of months is probably going to depend on how many games the team wins. Russell found out Tuesday that the 30 games he managed in Lasorda’s absence count on his own record.

He has the rest of the season to make sure it’s a record he can stand on.