ONCE, AN entire generation of Yankees fans knew Don Zimmer best as a "gerbil" - the name assigned to him by Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee. He was the guy who managed across the field when Bucky Dent hit his memorable, game-winning home run at Fenway Park on Oct. 2, 1978.

If this generation of Yankees fans wants to satisfy its baseball fix this winter, after this World Series has concluded, it can buy a Zimmer bobble-head doll. Or pick up a copy of his best-selling book. Or meet him in person at a charity event.

"I guess everybody doesn't have a puss like I've got," Zimmer said, laughing, referring to his large-cheeked face. "I guess it's very recognizable."

Nearly all of the primary characters of this Yankees dynasty - Joe Torre, Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams, to name a few - have made their names through the success of this team. Others, like Roger Clemens and David Cone, built on their accomplishments with other teams.

No one, arguably, has rehabilitated his baseball persona through this dynasty as much as Zimmer, the crusty bench coach who speaks lovingly of his "fifty-three years in the game."

"We see Zim's popularity increasing every day," said Maury Gostfrand, the vice president of RLR Associates in Manhattan, which represents Zimmer in his commercial ventures. "He's just a great guy. The fact that the camera is on him and Joe [Torre] 90 percent of the time doesn't hurt.

"I'll walk into a restaurant in Westchester, and half of the people want to start talking about baseball," Zimmer said.

"He's a national treasure," Torre said.

It was Torre who brought about this new phase in Zimmer's life. Shortly after George Steinbrenner hired him as the Yankees' manager in November 1995, Torre made a list of prospective bench coaches. Zimmer topped that list, and once Torre convinced Zimmer that he had chosen him on his own - that he hadn't been ordered by Steinbrenner to call him - the two men became co-workers. A strong friendship followed.

Zimmer has countless friends from his journey throughout baseball, which began in 1949 in the Dodgers' minor-league system. He also has made his share of enemies, as he has never been one to hold his tongue and has always been extremely excitable. This past year, as Torre's 70-year-old right-hand man, he managed to get thrown out of two games by umpires.

His promising career as a shortstop was cut short by a pair of beanballs, one of which put him into a coma in 1953. But he stuck around and kept playing, serving 12 seasons in the majors, until he landed a minor-league managing job in 1967.

That ultimately brought him back into the majors, first as an Expos coach and then as the Padres' manager in 1972. That job lasted two seasons, and a coaching gig with the Red Sox landed him another managing chance when Boston fired its skipper, Darrell Johnson.

It was the four-and-a-half seasons with the Red Sox that put him on the national baseball map, as his expressive mug characterized the struggles of the organization to win its first World Series title since 1918. There, Lee came up with the "Gerbil" title, and while Lee had some serious credibility issues of his own, the name stuck.

Zimmer managed the Texas Rangers for an unmemorable year-and-a-half stint in 1981-82, and for the next five years, he bounced from team to team, including parts of the 1983 and 1986 seasons with the Yankees, as a coach.

WHEN his high school friend Jim Frey took over the Cubs' general manager job before the 1988 season, he called Zimmer and asked him to be his manager.

In 1989, Zimmer won the only division title in his 13 years as a manager, bringing joy to a Cubs' fan base that had grown accustomed to losing. Zimmer now calls that season the most fun of his career.

It was there when Zimmer's re-imaging began in earnest. "That camera was on you all the time in Chicago," Zimmer said, referring to the Cubs' superstation, WGN, "and it's the only game that you're watching in daytime.''

He had an excellent relationship with Arne Harris, the late producer of WGN's telecasts. "He used to kid my wife. He said, 'I'll make him a movie star yet,'" Zimmer said.

At the start of the 1989 season, Zimmer signed an endorsement deal with Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits; his nickname has long been "Popeye" because of his resemblance to the cartoon character. Then, a representative from NutriSystem called, and Zimmer accepted that endorsement deal, too.He was getting paid to both put on weight and take it off.

"In Chicago, if I walked down Michigan Avenue tomorrow with you at noon, twenty people would walk by me. Fifteen of them would say, 'That looks like Zimmer,'" he said. "Sometimes I have a lot of fun with it. I can tell by their eyes. They don't want to say anything.

"Somebody will usually say, 'Are you who I think you are?' I'll say, 'You know something? I don't know who in the hell you think I am.' I'll have fun with it."

The Cubs fired him in the middle of the 1991 season, and he spent another 3 1/2 years as a bench coach with the Rockies. On June 6, 1995, unhappy with the way things were going with Colorado, he quit in the fifth inning of a game between the Rockies and the Cardinals. It appeared an appropriately kooky ending to a kooky career.

But then Torre called his Treasure Island, Fla., home, and six years and four (so far) World Series rings later, Zimmer is a cult hero of sorts. At a January 1999 New York Athletic Club dinner honoring Torre, Zimmer received a bigger hand than the guest of honor.

He has achieved this status by admittedly not doing much. At that NYAC dinner, he explained that his job consisted of talking over in-game decisions with Torre - for example, whether the team should bunt.

"If it works, I say, 'Good call!'" Zimmer said. "It if doesn't, then I get up and get a drink of water."

His autobiography, "Zim: A Baseball Life," sold about 100,000 copies and spent five weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. He has filmed commercials with Torre and Jeter, who has added to Zimmer's mystique by rubbing his head before each game.

Perhaps most incredibly, corporations have begun to book Zimmer for speaking engagements. Whereas Torre makes such speeches regularly, instructing executives how they can adapt his winning attitude to their workplace, Zimmer isn't quite as polished.

"Is he going to give a keynote speech? No," Gostfrand said. "It's more like a conversation. He takes questions."

He has an appearance booked for John Hancock Financial Services and another for the Darby Group, a manufacturer of dental supplies. There are charity golf outings; a January charity appearance at the Jacob Javits Center; and, of course, the bobble-head dolls, available this winter.

As Jeter has said, "Zim is bigger than ever." The shortstop jokingly calls him "Hollywood." Zimmer threatens to retire each year, but the truth is, he's doing so well financially that he'd be foolish to quit now.

He knows, after all, that fame is fleeting, and that one person's hero is another's gerbil.

"One thing about this," Zimmer said, "when I go home and decide to stay on Treasure Island, ain't nobody going to remember me anymore, anyhow."

THE FORREST GUMP OF BASEBALL

Don Zimmer has spent 53 years in professional baseball, and through his travels he has worked aside numerous Hall of Famers - as a player, coach or manager. Here's a list of honored men whom he has known:

Richie Ashburn - teammate with the 1962 Mets

Yogi Berra - fellow coach on the 1983 Yankees

Roy Campanella - teammate on the Brooklyn Dodgers, 1955-57

Don Drysdale - teammate on the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, 1955-59, 1963

Carlton Fisk - managed him with the Red Sox, 1977-80

Sandy Koufax - teammate on the Dodgers, 1955-59, 1963

Tommy Lasorda - fellow Dodgers prospect in the-minor league system, early 1950s

Tony Perez - managed him with the 1980 Red Sox

Pee Wee Reese - teammate on the Dodgers, 1954-58

Branch Rickey - Dodgers general manager when Zimmer signed in 1949

Jackie Robinson - teammate on the Dodgers, 1954-56

Duke Snider - teammate on the Dodgers, 1954-59

Casey Stengel - his manager with the 1962 Mets

George Weiss - the 1962 Mets general manager

Dave Winfield - managed him on the 1973 Padres

Carl Yastrzemski - managed him with the Red Sox, 1977-80

Tom Yawkey - the Red Sox owner while Zimmer was a coach, 1974-76