LOS ANGELES (AP) – Add Joe Torre’s name to the Tinseltown marquee with David Beckham, Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson.

Torre was greeted as the Dodgers new manager on Monday by more than 30 television cameras and some 200 reporters, watching the festivities held on a center-field stage.

It was the grandest introduction of a sports personality in the Los Angeles area in, well, some four months. Beckham was presented with even more fanfare in July, complete with confetti cannons welcoming the English soccer star.

Torre, whose friends include Billy Crystal and David Letterman, has the star quality that would seem a fine fit for a team that plays in a city overlooked by the Hollywood sign.

He’s no stranger to the area. He lived in Orange County when he was a broadcaster for the Angels in the early 1990s, and probably won’t want to make that long commute to Chavez Ravine.

Their 11-year-old daughter, Andrea, may not want her parents to live too far from Hollywood.

“I think she’ll love it,” Ali Torre said of the family’s move to Los Angeles. “Actually, she wants to be an actress, so what better place to come?”

Torre said he and his wife already have been warmly welcomed back to the area, saying people out in public have told him welcome and good luck.

They have grown used to being in the public eye, particularly in recent days as Torre was deciding whether or not to return as Yankees manager.

“The last month in New York was very overwhelming,” Ali Torre said. “It was not a pleasure. The celebrity aspect of it is a bit challenging.”

It does change your life in that you become more confined. You’re not able to have that freedom and have relationships that you had in the past. So you’re confined a little bit.”

Jackson, who along with Bryant provides the star power for the Lakers, believes the Dodgers made a wise choice.

“I think it’s great for the Dodgers. This year they had a great run until the middle of the season, and then for whatever reason they didn’t glue it together there at the end and they lost the West,” said Jackson, who won three of his nine NBA coaching championships in Los Angeles.

“So this is a situation where a guy like Joe, perhaps, can give them that experience and ability to glue the team together down the stretch. I wish him good luck.”

The Dodgers are owned by transplanted Bostonians Frank and Jamie McCourt. She predicted that the Torres are going to enjoy being in Los Angeles.

“I think it’s all about the people here,” Jamie McCourt said. “Weather doesn’t hurt, either. But the people are what make L.A. so special, they’re so inclusive, friendly.”

In a city where people are used to seeing celebrities, Torre probably won’t be besieged every time he goes out in public.

“I think he’ll have a pretty wonderful life here,” Jamie McCourt said. “I think people will give him his space, but admire him. And he’s not afraid of letting them in and talking to them. He’s an accessible guy.”

A Los Angeles headliner from the past, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, said the Dodgers should benefit from Torre’s leadership qualities.

“I think he handles everything with that kind of knowledge and insight,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “He always seems very calm and smooth, and he’s had to deal with serious controversy, like A-Rod and other situations.”

The NBA Hall of Famer had some suggestions for the team, too.

“The thing the Dodgers need most desperately is some bats. They don’t get timely hits. I find myself missing Tommy Davis and Pedro Guerrero very much,” he said.

—

AP freelance writer Joe Resnick contributed to this report.

AP-ES-11-05-07 1956EST