ANALYSIS : Move Could Leave Dodgers Blue : Baseball: Front-office offer from St. Petersburg group might unite Lasorda with lifelong friend Piazza.

ATLANTA —  Tom Lasorda likes to tell the story about having lunch with Vince Piazza when Lasorda was a minor league player and Piazza owned one used-car lot.

“I would meet him at work, and there would be one car left on the lot, and Vince would say, ‘Let’s see if we can’t sell this one car before we eat,’ ” Lasorda said.

Piazza and Lasorda, who were as close as brothers while growing up in Norristown, Pa., always have been men of big dreams.

The one dream they have always shared soon could become a Dodger nightmare.

Don’t be surprised if Piazza, one of five major investors who agreed to buy the San Francisco Giants Friday, attempts to persuade fellow owners to bring Lasorda to St. Petersburg, Fla., as the team’s general manager.

If that happens, don’t be surprised if Dodger President Peter O’Malley, who wants to make Lasorda happy, sadly allows him to leave.

Yes, last week O’Malley indeed said that he “absolutely” wants Lasorda to return for the final year of his managerial contract in 1993.

That is why if Piazza wanted Lasorda only to manage, O’Malley probably would deny permission.

But if the opening is in the front office, O’Malley also has said he is uncertain what would happen.

“If team XYZ called in here tomorrow and asked for permission to offer Tommy a job as general manager . . . that’s hypothetical, and I will cross that bridge when I come to it,” O’Malley said last week.

The bridge is shaky, however, because O’Malley knows he could not make Lasorda a suitable counteroffer.

The Dodgers already have a general manager, Fred Claire, and it would not be O’Malley’s style to kick Claire upstairs after one poor season.

O’Malley is nearly as close to Lasorda as Piazza is and will do everything possible to repay him for his 43 years of service to the organization.

But, ironically, the ultimate reward might be to say goodby.

“He has given this organization his full effort and concentration for many, many years, and that is something that is very important to us,” O’Malley said last week.

It is not that Lasorda wants to leave the Dodgers. If O’Malley could make him the general manager, he would never leave.

But given the option of taking a logical next step in his career or remaining in a managerial position that probably would end after next season, he probably would jump.

The future for him in St. Petersburg is a job where he could, for once, make his own trades and sign his own players. The future with the Dodgers is probably a job as team ambassador.

For the highly driven Lasorda, that choice is no choice.

Sources close to Lasorda say that when he was given a team that was not deep enough to compete this season, Lasorda finally realized how much he wants to become a general manager.

Although Lasorda has never said anything publicly, the sources say that his suggestions about several players this spring went unheeded.

They also say he is worried about having the same sort of team next spring, although both O’Malley and Claire have promised that will not be the case.

There is, of course, a reasonable chance that Piazza could not influence his new partners to hire Piazza’s best friend. Piazza is not from the Tampa Bay area and he probably will be the least visible of the partners.

“He is just one of the individuals involved, and it would be untrue to say that he will have all that power,” said Phil Stripling, Piazza’s lawyer.

But with Roger Craig and Al Rosen expected to abandon their posts--or be replaced--as manager and general manager when the Giants move, there figure to be openings.

And Piazza, who has become wealthy through cars and computers, will do almost anything for Lasorda.

That is because Lasorda has done almost anything for him.

“We lived three blocks apart,” Lasorda said. “We were like brothers. I can’t tell you how much time he spent at my house, eating dinner.”

Lasorda is the godfather of two of Piazza’s sons, Mike and Tommy, who was named after him.

Lasorda used his influence to help Mike become recognized as a baseball prospect, first in college and then as the Dodgers’ 62nd-round pick in the 1988 free-agent draft.

He was drafted only as a favor to Lasorda, who then persuaded the Dodgers to sign him after bringing Piazza to Dodger Stadium for a tryout.

Today Piazza, a catcher at triple-A Albuquerque, is the top prospect in the Dodger organization. And his father, who occasionally joins Lasorda on the road during the season, has not forgotten.

“It’s funny, but Vince never told me anything about this Giants thing,” Lasorda said Friday.

Then he smiled.

* LEAVING THEIR PARK IN SAN FRANCISCO

Owner Bob Lurie, unable to get a new stadium in the Bay Area, agreed to sell the San Francisco Giants to a group of investors who will move the team to St. Petersburg, Fla. Story, A1