The Cubs needed a manager. Dusty Baker needed a job.

So if they weren't quite a match made in heaven, they were at least a match made in Wrigleyville.

After waiting for him for six weeks, what exactly were the Cubs' alternatives if they didn't hire Dusty? Buddy Ryan? Joey Amalfitano? Heck, even Phil Donahue had taken a job since Bruce Kimm filled out his last lineup card.

	Dusty Baker takes over a franchise that has been to the postseason only once the past 13 seasons.

And what were Dusty's alternatives if he didn't take this exalted position? Grand marshall of the Thanksgiving Day parade? Tight ends coach for Steve Mariucci? Oh, there was always an empty chair and microphone he could have occupied in Bristol, Conn., we suppose. But at least in the job he just took, the pizza is better.

So the way to look at this deal is: Some things are just meant to be. And Baker's friends say he became convinced that ultimately, this was one of them.

"Going into the process," said his agent, Jeff Moorad, "I can't say Dusty would have chosen the Chicago Cubs. But it ended up being the best result for everybody. The more he thought about this, Dusty said, 'This one has the feeling of destiny.' "

Not that destiny can't be cruel sometimes, particularly when it leads a man to the manager's office at Clark and Waveland. The Cubs have gone through 33 managers since the last time they played in a World Series, not even counting the College of Coaches. They've gone through 47 managers since the last time they won a World Series.

We're sure a few of those guys thought this was their destiny, too. Instead, they all wound up on a list that now includes everybody from Rogers Hornsby to Charlie Metro -- men who never found the secret to double-switching their way to glory on the north side of Chicago.

That doesn't mean it's impossible, of course -- although Baker said he will canvas the likes of Ernie Banks and Andre Dawson just to make sure of that. And for the Cubs, there was no better way of communicating the belief that it's not impossible than by hiring a manager who just came within six outs of winning the World Series.

If there's one thing Andy MacPhail and Jim Hendry are determined to accomplish, it's to change the mindset of folks everywhere about what the lovable Cubbies are and where they're headed in life. Everything they've done in the last couple of years, they've done in the name of making a serious effort to win. Finally.

From trading for Fred McGriff. From drafting (and paying) Mark Prior. To extending Sammy Sosa's deal. And, now, to hiring Dusty Baker.

But does that mean Dusty is the right man for this job? Who the heck knows?

The Cubs certainly have positioned themselves to be good in the very near future. Who else has young arms like Prior, Kerry Wood, Matt Clement and Carlos Zambrano already in place? From all accounts, Hee Seop Choi and Bobby Hill have glittering futures. If Corey Patterson can just learn to take a pitch or two a week, he can be a star.

If (Dusty Baker) really loves challenges, he's found his nirvana. He becomes the 48th consecutive Cubs manager with a chance to be a hero. He has a chance to be Ditka.

There's even some money to spend. And the Cubs just might spend it on the likes of Greg Maddux, Jamie Moyer and/or Jeff Kent to fill holes you don't have to climb the Hancock Building to see.

But this is a much younger team than Baker has been used to. And there will be those who wonder, with reason, if he'll be OK with that. Even Baker said Friday he needs to disprove his reputation as being tough on young players.

On the other hand, dealing with Sosa should be the least of his problems. After all those years managing Barry Bonds, Sammy ought to look like David Eckstein. When you get right down to it, all Sosa really wants to do is win (OK, and hit 60 homers). And by hiring Dusty Baker, the Cubs are assuring him that's all they want, too.

Dusty needs to know something, though: He'll be managing in a very different kind of community than the one he's used to.

Oh, he'll have a honeymoon period here, and he has earned one. But he is coming from a place where he'd been around so long that just about everyone knew him, liked him and accepted him for what he was. And what he wasn't.

He was second-guessed very little -- until the last weekend in October, anyway. And even the minor second-guessing he did absorb seemed to stick in his gut like a bad serving of Cioppino.

Well, welcome to a place that hasn't won a World Series since the Teddy Roosevelt administration.

He should know going in that patience on the north side wore out sometime around Hack Wilson's final 0-for-5. So tempers might grow short. The words in the local dailies might get a little edgy. No one in Da Bleachers is going to care how Dusty motivated the '97 Giants down the stretch.

So it'll be different. That's all we're saying.

But Moorad says Baker knew what he was getting into, even as he was contemplating the view of the exit door in San Francisco.

"Dusty consulted Mike Holmgren and Bill Walsh," Moorad said. "And they both told him, 'The most important principle is: Don't overstay your welcome.' So rather than philosophize about that, Dusty is going to live that out.

"He's excited about this. Dusty has a great personality, and that personality should be a natural fit in Chicago. It's a sports-crazy town that loves its teams. So in the long run, we see no reason why this shouldn't be as comfortable a fit for him as San Francisco."

Sure. Why not? On Friday night, Baker himself summed it all up in two succinct sentences: