Wanted: DePo Man

Paul DePodesta’s first managerial search, it turns out, has been remarkably like a child’s first steps.

A whole bunch of falling down and going boom.

Somewhere at the end of this dizzy, careening ride will be a news conference announcing the new Dodger manager. Until then, hang on to your stomach and season ticket deposits.

To wit:

DePodesta sat down for a face-to-face interview with a candidate from the San Francisco Giants ... yet when a legendary former Dodger came to town for an interview dinner, DePodesta wasn’t there.

One of the best managers in baseball is a former Dodger working down the street, whose owner said he would give the Dodgers permission to interview ... yet DePodesta never even asked.

Three popular ex-Dodgers and one of baseball’s best pitching coaches and bench coaches also work down the street ... and DePodesta never asked permission to talk to them, either.

Yet a guy who was fired from that team down the street is DePodesta’s leading candidate?

This is truly a job search filled with italics and question marks, not the sort of punctuation preferred by a team in need of a solid period.

Hold tight, there’s more:

Shortly after firing a guy who lost 383 games in five years ... DePodesta interviewed a guy who lost 300 games in three years.

Shortly after firing a guy with a .527 winning percentage ... DePodesta’s list of candidates includes four former major-league managers with worse winning percentages.

Six of the seven Dodger candidates played major league baseball.

All eight of the managers in this year’s postseason played major league baseball.

The Dodger favorite is the one who didn’t.

That would be Terry Collins, who is an excellent game manager but a clubhouse nightmare, whose past makes him the strangest of baseball species.

He’s a former major league manager with a six-year winning record who, even though he’s only 56, has not been hired to manage in six years.

How does that happen? With managers these days being plucked out of bullpens and bush leagues and memorabilia shows, how does someone like Terry Collins stay so available for so long?

Those of us who were around the Angels in the late 1990s know it’s all about Collins’ temper, a hot streak that angers veterans, scares kids and stains the image of an otherwise pleasant guy.

Two teams, two mutinies, two firings. He’ll be given every chance here to show that with age comes composure, but, until then, his chief qualification for the job seems to be something totally out of the park.

He’s a FOP.

He’s a Friend Of Paul’s.

In an organization where few people communicate with the general manager, Collins has become a confidant, guiding DePodesta through the farm system that Collins runs, bridging the gap between DePodesta’s hard drive and Collins’ love for hard slides.

In making this hire, it is clear that DePodesta is looking for the buddy that Jim Tracy was not. He’s looking for the yes-man that the old baseball heads in the Dodger clubhouse could never be. He wants someone to manage not only his team but his vision.

Bobby Valentine won’t get this job because he will challenge DePodesta.

Orel Hershiser won’t get this job because he would threaten DePodesta.

Both men would have made DePodesta a better general manager because they would have the credibility to make him blend his new ideas with their traditional realities.

Here’s guessing Collins won’t be that sort of manager initially. He would owe DePodesta for rescuing him from the minors. It would indeed be DePodesta’s Dodgers, which is, apparently, just how Frank McCourt likes it.

Oh, yeah, I tried to talk to the Dodger owner Thursday, ask him to share his managerial vision with fans who will need to be coaxed back to a ballpark still reeking of last year’s misery.

Not to mention, ask him, how can you not even try to talk to Mike Scioscia!

But, four days into the reign of his new spin chief Camille Johnston, McCourt refused to speak.

Through a spokesman, he said he wants to wait until the search is over to address the fans, but, by then, the selection will speak for itself.

If it’s Collins, McCourt has fully surrendered his team and its vision to DePodesta, a generous reward for one of the worst seasons in Los Angeles history.

If the new manager is somebody else, well, turn on the front-office bun warmers.

If it is indeed Collins, there are smart ways to deal with the losing candidates.

Jerry Royster? A lousy season with mostly marginal prospects in Las Vegas shouldn’t keep him from a spot somewhere on the Los Angeles coaching staff.

Alan Trammell? Not a great manager in Detroit, but he would be a good bench coach, especially if he brought Kirk Gibson with him to become the new batting coach.

Tom Lasorda? I know, I know, he didn’t want to be a candidate, but what’s wrong with taking this opportunity to give him back his uniform and let him work with the team at home, before games, like the St. Louis Cardinals used Red Schoendienst and the Boston Red Sox used Johnny Pesky?

And, finally, that Orel Hershiser guy who dined with Lasorda and McCourt but not with DePodesta.

Give him an office next to DePodesta’s. Make him Vice President of Restoring The Dodger Way.

Involve Hershiser in all the meetings, send him to all the events, groom him to become not just the face of the Dodgers again, but their brains and grace.

This organization needs fewer FOPs, and more Bulldogs.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.