Here he is again, managing in the playoffs as he leads the Los Angeles Dodgers against a Chicago Cubs team looking to break its 100-year championship drought.

While his old Yankees sit this one out, Torre discovered he could again have fun in the dugout.

"The last couple years in New York were not very comfortable," he said yesterday.

And this certainly wasn't his easiest season, going into Game 1 in Chicago tonight.

The Dodgers (84-78) made it despite trailing Arizona by 41/2 games on Aug. 29. They had a losing record as recently as Sept. 3.

But they won their first NL West title in four years thanks to an 18-5 spurt, with late pickup Manny Ramirez providing the big hits and Torre the steadying hand.

"As far as the satisfaction, you never really know when you go someplace new, especially when you've been in one place for 12 years, how you're going to be received," Torre said.

"I know I've had success, but that doesn't mean that the players should believe what you're telling them, because you haven't proven anything yet as far as what you can do with this new ball club," he said.

Relaxed out West, he's loving his L.A. life. Just look at him in that TV commercial - on a surfboard, doing yoga, zooming around the freeways, and pitching a screenplay.

Those days under George Steinbrenner seem like forever ago, when his job status made for daily tabloid fodder. By the end last year, some people made it sound as though he was a failure rather than a guy who had won four World Series.

"Joe's not the kind of guy who's going to say, 'I told you so,' " said third-base coach Larry Bowa, the former Phillie, who spent two years on Torre's staff in New York. "I'm sure maybe deep down he's very happy that some of the negative stuff that you read about that he couldn't do, he came out here and did."

The Yankees never missed the playoffs in Torre's 12 years, but after three straight first-round exits, they offered him a one-year deal worth $5 million - a $2.5 million cut. Insulted by pay incentives for postseason performance, the native of Brooklyn, N.Y., declined even though he still would have been the game's highest-paid manager.

"I thought it was just time for [me] to leave, and I have a feeling they felt the same way," Torre said.

Only Joe McCarthy (1,460) had more wins for the Yankees than Torre, who went 1,173-767.

Torre's reign was the longest uninterrupted stint by a Yankees manager since a 12-year run by Casey Stengel, who was let go after his team lost the 1960 World Series to Pittsburgh in seven games.

Two weeks after he left New York, Torre agreed to a three-year, $13 million contract with the Dodgers and joined Stengel as the second person to manage both franchises.

Piniella's reward. Manager Lou Piniella plans to stick with the Cubs for a while.

They picked up their $4 million option on Piniella's contract for 2010 yesterday, a day before the NL Central champions open the playoffs.

Piniella, 65, guided Chicago to a 97-64 record, the best mark in the league.