FORT MYERS, Fla. – The moment he turned the corner, emerging from the clubhouse runway into the visitor’s dugout at City of Palms, the image was jarring.

There was Joe Torre, in uniform, wearing not the familiar – and famed — New York Yankee pinstripes, but rather, the royal blue of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Torre left the Yankees last October following a contract dispute and weeks later, in a bizarre bit of symmetry only a Red Sox fan could truly appreciate, replaced Grady Little as manager of the Dodgers.

In some ways, the dramatic change may not have crystallized for Torre until Thursday, when, managing his eighth spring-training game for the Dodgers, he found himself across the diamond from the Red Sox – and for the first time in a long time, didn’t feel like was about to take part in some Holy War.

The Red Sox-Yankee rivalry lives on, but it will do so without Torre, who has gone from the American League to the National League, from the East Coast to the West Coast, and from one fabled franchise to another.

“It feels different,” conceded Torre before his Dodgers edged the Sox with a seven-run rally in the ninth, “because of the uniform I’m wearing. But (the Red Sox) still get your attention.”

It felt different for Red Sox fans, too, who long have held Torre in high regard – their emotional welcome when he returned from cancer surgery in 1999 remains a cherished memory – but never could quite fully embrace him while he wore the Yankees’ uniform.

That changed yesterday when, 15 minutes or so before the first pitch, Terry Francona came out to greet Torre behind home plate and wrapped his arm around him, something Francona could never do while Torre managed the Sox’ arch-rivals. The two managers then sought some privacy in the visitor’s dugout, where they continued to visit for about 10 minutes.

“It was nice,” said Torre after the game, “to chat with him without someone thinking there was some sort of covert operation going on.”

When the Dodgers lineup was announced and Torre was introduced at the end, the crowd of 8,006 let loose with all the affection that had been stifled in past seasons.

If life can begin again at 67, Torre is experiencing a renewal this spring. Freed from stress of the Bronx, baseball is fun again. Even the over-the-top nature of the Red Sox-Yankee rivalry had become a drain.

“I think there’s going to be some stuff you don’t miss,” said Torre, “because I had had enough of it. It was too much.”

Things began to turn for Torre in the 2004 ALCS when his team couldn’t finish off a 3-to-0 lead against the Red Sox. The Sox won the next four and capped their comeback with a World Series sweep of St. Louis.

Torre’s Yankees never won another postseason series and Yankee ownership never let the manager forget it. Perhaps he had such too high a standard in winning four World Series in five years between 1996 and 2000, but he struggled with the notion – advanced by owner George Steinbrenner – that anything less than another championship constituted failure on his part and that of his players.

“I had trouble dealing with that,” said Torre, noting that his clubs continued to win division titles and frequently won the most regular-eason games of any team in either league. “That bothered me.”

Torre was asked whether he felt motivated to show Steinbrenner and the rest of baseball that he can win elsewhere, without the game’s highest payroll.

“I’m not in the validation game,” he said. “Sure, I want to win and I’d really be cheating the McCourts (owners of the Dodgers) if I came here just to get another paycheck. When you’ve been around baseball your whole life, you understand there’s one reason to play the game or manage – and that’s to get to the World Series.

“So it would be very satisfying for me to come to a new ballclub and the result would be a World Series. But that certainly wouldn’t be my motivation. I mean the motivation, yes, is to get to the World Series. But not to prove anything.”

Torre has already done that. Now, for a change, it’s time for some fun again.

smcadam@projo.com