SHADES OF BLUE

Tom Lasorda spoke cautiously Thursday because the Dodgers are seeking a manager, Bobby Valentine is unsigned and the New York Mets are watching.

Lasorda praised his longtime friend on the eve of Valentine’s leading the Mets against the New York Yankees in the first Subway Series since 1956, beginning Saturday night at Yankee Stadium.

Lasorda reveled in anecdotes about his protege, but some Valentine topics are off limits.

“Look, I can’t get into that because that’s not my area,” Lasorda said, alluding to speculation about Valentine’s rejoining the Dodgers. “I don’t know about that stuff so I can’t talk about it.

“And I don’t want to talk about [Valentine’s contract status], what he’s going to do [after the World Series] or anything like that because I don’t know. What I do know is that Bobby Valentine is a great manager.”

That’s something Lasorda enjoys discussing.

The Mets, in their fourth World Series, have won 191 games under Valentine the last two seasons and have qualified for postseason play in consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history.

Valentine led the wild-card winners to their first National League pennant since 1986, pushing the right buttons in an impressive five-game, championship series victory over the Central champion St. Louis Cardinals.

Lasorda watched in delight as Valentine’s moves helped the Mets cause more excitement than usual in the city that never sleeps.

“This Subway Series is a great thing for New York, it’s a great thing for baseball, and you better believe [Valentine] had something to do with it,” Lasorda said. “You don’t win the amount of games Bobby has won over the last few years, in a city as tough as New York, unless you know what you’re doing, and he sure does.

“You know what he is? He is a great tactician. He doesn’t get out-managed. You never see him get out-maneuvered because he’s got a great baseball mind. A lot of guys have the talent to win, but they don’t know how to use it. He not only knows how to use it, he knows how to get the most out of it.”

Lasorda said Valentine has been a step ahead of the competition since he was a teenager.

“When Bobby first joined me in the rookie league at 17, when he was our [1968] No. 1 draft pick, I found out he was a tremendous competitor and a winner,” said Lasorda, who also had Valentine in triple A. “Everything that he undertook he always won, and you could see he had great baseball instincts and a whole lot more.”

Lasorda quickly observed that Valentine was cunning.

“I remember when we were together [in triple A], Bobby did something I couldn’t believe,” the Dodger senior vice president said. “We were in Vancouver to play, and they had these three ferocious German shepherd dogs in a glass-enclosed room. They let those dogs roam the ballpark at night so nobody would go in there and take anything. So we’re playing and it starts to rain, and I go into the clubhouse and don’t see anybody.

“The trainer told me everyone was down at that room because Valentine bet [his teammates] he could pet those dogs. I said, ‘What!’ Those were some mean-looking dogs, so I took off for that room to stop him.”

He found Valentine petting the dogs as wide-eyed teammates stood in stunned silence.

“I said to him, ‘What in the hell, are you crazy?’ But get this, Valentine told me he set those guys up. He had been feeding those dogs for a whole week. A whole week! Those dogs loved him. See what I mean? He’s just a winner.”

But Valentine has come under intense Big Apple scrutiny--is there another type?--because of some of his maneuvers, causing tension in the Met organization with his comments and actions.

Some believe Valentine is too smart for his own good, contributing to the Mets’ wait-and-see approach regarding his contract. Not surprisingly, Lasorda believes Valentine is misunderstood.

“[A sportswriter] once wrote that I didn’t give young players a chance, even though I had nine National League rookies of the year,” Lasorda said. “What that guy wrote wasn’t true, but it went out all over the wires and everybody started believing it, which is what Bobby has gone through.

“Somebody has written Bobby Valentine is ‘this and that,’ and people pick it up and believe it. When I spoke last year [at a New York function], I said, ‘I want to put a story on the wires that Bobby Valentine is a great guy, a good family man and an outstanding manager.’ That’s the story.”

Met fans are awaiting the next chapter, which will be written after the inter-borough World Series, though co-owner Fred Wilpon has indicated Valentine will be back.

However, there are many managerial openings, Valentine is hot and his price is rising.

The Dodgers haven’t requested permission to interview Valentine and don’t plan to pursue him, but there is speculation that Valentine and his mentor might be reunited soon at Chavez Ravine.

Lasorda said that talk is not his fault.

“I’ve never talked to him about managing someplace else,” Lasorda said. “I would never do that because Fred Wilpon, [co-owner] Nelson Doubleday and [General Manager] Steve Phillips are good friends of mine too, and I would never do anything to hurt my relationship with those guys.

“If Bobby Valentine signed a four-year contract with the Mets today, I would be the happiest guy in the world. I’ve said time and time again that that’s where he belongs. I’m just happy that everyone else is now seeing in Bobby what I’ve seen all along.”