Cleveland - Fate has flipped the hourglass on the baseball career of Don Mattingly. Looking at the remainer of the 1995 schedule, the Yankees first baseman sees so many grains of sand, and each one is numbered.

Mattingly knows there are 17 chances left for the Yankees to make the playoffs. Seventeen games remaining to earn a wild-card spot, and perhaps 17 games left in his major-league career.

That three-week span seems little more than a blink of an eye when compared to the 12 years Mattingly has played for the Yankees. But it could be the end of an era when this season finally draws to a close. So Mattingly must carry that extra burden to the ballpark, and at times, he opens a window into those feelings.

It may have happened Monday night, during a postgame interview with the MSG Network. Reporter Al Trautwig asked the Yankees' captain an innocent question, dealing more with the fall weather than the autumn of a career, but Mattingly provided a little more introspection.

"It just feels like I haven't gotten my body back since the Seattle thing, missing those three games," said Mattingly, referring to the back spasms that sidelined him during the last West Coast trip. "But it's a situation where I feel it's my last 20 games with the Yankees and I really want to be on the field. I don't want to spend it sitting in the dugout."

Mattingly has decided to be coy about his future with the Yankees, a future that is very much in doubt. His off-the-cuff comments about playing in Japan instantly became back-page fodder, as one would expect when a pinstriped legend talks about dusting the Yankees.

But yesterday the first baseman decided to put more spin on his dialogue than a Jack McDowell forkball, and limit the media firestorm he sparked late Monday. He downplayed the brief TV interview, which also was shown nationally on ESPN, and appeared to resent that others would try to read something into his comments.

"It doesn't matter what I meant," Mattingly said. "What I said was a positive thing for me and a positive thing for the remainder of this year . . . It was said in good intentions."

Mattingly should know by now that his words carry more weight than anyone else in the clubhouse, especially with his tenuous situation. He has been besieged by injuries, including a pulled left hamstring, a viral infection of his right eye and the recent back spasms.

And despite the occasional hot streak, his production has lagged. After last night's game with the Indians, Mattingly is hitting .278 with six home runs and 42 RBI, and is in a 3-for-21 slump. But manager Buck Showalter has made it clear Mattingly will be in the lineup.

"I know what he means to this club," Showalter said. "He's our captain. He stands for what we're trying to acomplish here." By David Lennon. STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Copyright 1995, Newsday Inc.