NEW YORK - He's won nine Gold Gloves, more than any other American League first baseman in history.

He won a batting title in 1984, his first full major league season.

He won the league's Most Valuable Player award the year after that.

But for all of the individual awards New York Yankees captain Don Mattingly has won, he has never known the joy he will experience Tuesday night as his team meets the Seattle Mariners in the opener of the American League Divisional Series.

Mattingly, who had gone longer than any other active player without reaching the post-season, will end that drought.

"It's just a joy for me to be able to sit here and talk about us winning," he said Monday. "It's been a tremendous relief for me personally to get in and get rid of that asterisk."

Mattingly, 34, always felt his name bore an asterisk indicating that, for all of his success, he had not won anything.

"In a sense, I know I resented it," he said. "It was not representative of myself and what I was all about. But it was a fact.

"It's just something you don't want mentioned whenever they talk about you. I've done things in 12 or 13 years I'm proud of, but that `asterisk' always seemed to be there."

Heightening the presence of Mattingly on the Yankees' first playoff team since 1981 is the knowledge that this might well have been his final shot.

He batted .288 this year, 21 points lower than his lifetime mark entering the season. The former superstar who drove in 100-plus runs in five of six seasons from 1984-89 produced only 49 RBI. His seven home runs were a painful reminder that back and other injuries have robbed him of the power he once possessed.

Mattingly is at the end of a five-year contract extension with the Yankees, and few expect him to return.

"He's talked about not playing as a Yankee, he's talked about not playing any more - this was possibly the last chance for him," catcher Mike Stanley said. "I think maybe somebody was looking out for him that he got to post-season play."

Mattingly will not discuss his future. "All those questions come in the winter for me," he said. "I don't know the answer to those right now."

"It's great to put that beside Donnie's name - playoffs and hopefully World Series," right fielder Paul O'Neill said.

Mattingly no longer may be the best player in the league or at his position or on his team. Respect for him, though, is as high as ever.

"He's somebody who comes to the park every day with a winning attitude; he does the things that need to be done to win," Stanley said. "You don't see that in every single player who walks through that door."

"Everbody follows his lead," manager Buck Showalter said.

Mattingly sets the tone for the unflappable, resilient Yankees, who overcame injuries, the meddlesome nature of principal owner George Steinbrenner, and two terrible West Coast trips that produced a combined 3-15 record.

"His words carry a lot more weight than anybody else in this clubhouse, bar none," Stanley said. "When we have a meeting or we're on a bus and he says something, other guys chime in but you remember what Donnie said."

Whether the Yankees advance or not, the image that will likely endure from this season is that of Mattingly dropping to one knee at Toronto's SkyDome and pounding the artificial turf to celebrate the clinching 6-1 victory in the regular-season finale.

"That body language spoke volumes," teammate Randy Velarde said. PEDULLA, TOM

Copyright 1995, Gannett News Service, a division of Gannett Satelitte Information Network, Inc.