It’s a whole new ballgame for Dodgers’ Mattingly

First full day for Donnie Manager and he struggles to answer the easiest question of the day.

When he went out to dinner the other night with Ned Colletti and Frank McCourt, who picked up the tab?

“Next question,” he says, while turning away. It’s probably not the last time he will have to ignore reality as manager of the Dodgers.

We’ll get to the stiffs lined up to play left field, the old catcher and third baseman and the question of whether the Dodgers players will start getting their full pay in April or begin accepting IOUs.

And there will be plenty of time to discuss Las Vegas’ educated guess the Dodgers will win 82 games this season, dropping them behind Colorado at 871/2 and the Giants at 881/2.

But first an encouraging story about the new commander and a side of him maybe not familiar to most.

It begins with Casey Blake, a veteran who has heard it all, but who says Donnie Manager did a “great job” speaking to the team Tuesday. And he wasn’t surprised.

Blake says the calm, even-keeled guy that everyone sees now as manager really went off on the Dodgers last season while serving as hitting coach.

“He got after us one time raising his voice,” Blake says. “It was too late and we were out of it, but he was upset about the way we were showing up to the park. He apologized to the players they had called up from the minors on our behalf. The thing about it, it needed to be said.”

Donnie Manager takes it from there.

“We went through a stretch offensively where there was absolutely no effort. It was like none of this matters,” he says.

“I feel like we have a responsibility to the game and the people that come to see us play. We might be out of it, but if people are paying to see us play, we have to give them our best. And what bothered me, our young guys were there and it was like it was OK.”

So he said something with added emphasis. Had he spoken up earlier, maybe the team wouldn’t have finished 40 or 50 games out of first place, but here we go, the top job is his now.

The first impression is obvious. Nice guy. Doesn’t mean he has to finish last, but did I mention who will be playing left field for him?

He says he’s ready for this, but when someone mentions he has no experience as a manager, he acts as if he’s whipping a dead horse.

He also says the Dodgers are going to be pretty good. He says a lot of ridiculous things like that. He says this team is better equipped to take on the Philadelphia Phillies than it was two and three years ago.

The Dodgers fell short of the Phillies with Manny Ramirez hitting something like .500 the first time they collided. Now the Dodgers have two guys in his place, one a former steroid guy in a tribute to Manny’s memory, and the other not good enough to play against right-handed pitchers.

Vegas, meanwhile, has the Phillies winning 97 games.

As for those two guys in left field, Donnie Manager is quick to tell everyone he’s really excited to have them. They offer the chance to hit the ball into the seats, so long as he plays the right guy at the right time. Then he’ll send in another guy late in the game to account for their defensive limitations.

Ask him about anyone and he’s excited to have him. He’s the perfect manager for a team that can’t afford to put the very best on the field. Ordinarily, you’d expect to find someone like this in the same position with Kansas City, so he feels lucky to be in L.A.

His bench coach, the guy who will be advising him on all tough decisions, is a former manager of the Kansas City Royals. He’ll feel right at home with this roster.

It’s baseball, so there isn’t much intensity right now when it comes to preparing. It would have been hard to know who the manager was if not advised previously.

The former Kansas City manager likes to blow a horn, but no one seems to pay attention to it. There are 162 games to play, so what’s the rush?

There’s just a lot of standing around and talking. As much as coach Davey Lopes talked to Rodney McCray -- the guy who was seen running through a minor league wall years ago -- if McCray ever makes a comeback, then kudos to Lopes.

Donnie Manager was really at his busiest signing autographs at the end of practice with a long line of fans wanting his signature on New York Yankees’ bats, jerseys and photos.

“Everybody knows what we want out of them and what we expect,” says Donnie Manager, one preseason baseball camp pretty much like the next. Wait until the games start.

Meanwhile, poke and tease him and the old first baseman is still pretty quick. Someone mentions John Wooden and he says, “Where was he born?”

The answer is Indiana, and Donnie Manager, who comes from Indiana, says, “Oh yeah.”

When it’s suggested the headline might read, “Mattingly compares himself to Wooden,” he laughs, pretty sure he won’t see it. After all, he’s already been on the radio pronouncing the media here so much softer than that in New York.

He’s got it made, all right, just as he did as a player. He was with the Yankees for 14 seasons, his teams never winning a playoff series, and yet he remains beloved as Donnie Baseball.

He got that nickname at a charity event from former player Kirby Puckett, who kept saying over and over again, “baseball,” and it stuck to Mattingly.

But now he’s Donnie Manager, day one of the new career that will last how long?

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t.j.simers@latimes.com