TAMPA, Fla. - Late in 1989, Mike Blowers, then a struggling young New York Yankees slugger, was taking early batting practice in Seattle and trying desperately to learn to hit to right field.

Champ Summers, the hitting coach, was having trouble reaching him. Then Don Mattingly ventured out of the Kingdome tunnel in street clothes and spied the frustrated Blowers. Within moments, Mattingly was in the box with Blowers, providing helpful tips. Quickly, Blowers felt much better about his swing, and himself.

Mattingly cared.

When the future Yankees icon came to the Bronx as a 22-year-old from Evansville, Ind., the only big talk was coming from George Steinbrenner, who claimed this unknown would be better than Darryl Strawberry. And Steinbrenner was right.

Back then, Mattingly spoke only with his stick. Yet, by the time he left, he was the unquestioned leader of his clubhouse.

They will miss Mattingly around here. Not necessarily for his seven home runs and 49 runs batted in - that might be a good month and a half for Tino Martinez, the new first baseman. They will miss Mattingly for his inspiration, his expertise and his aura. It isn't possible to measure how much.

"He was the stabilizing force," said reliever Paul Gibson. "He had ridden so many lows and highs. The way he handled himself, he was a model for how to play in New York."

Now they're looking for new models. There will be no captain this season, which makes sense. Mattingly is that revered. There is still a great mystery as to why Mattingly retired, and whether it is merely temporary. The more pertinent question now, however, is whether anyone can fill the leadership void left by the former captain.

With the Yankees' lineup stacked with sluggers and the rotation reinforced with $5 million-a-year pitchers, the big talk here is what to do for inspiration. Not everyone believes it is necessary to have one leader, or leaders, in this game of individuals. But here, where the media can be overwhelming and the owner overbearing, players can be overcome with anxiety.

Sometimes, the out-of-towners and young players need guidance about how to deal with the press or the owner. Sometimes, they need a shield. Mattingly was that shield.

"He soaked up a lot of the media attention," Gibson said. "If they were talking to him, that means they weren't talking to somebody else."

Mattingly reluctantly accepted the captaincy from then-manager Stump Merrill before the 1991 season.

At first, Mattingly squirmed in his new role. He never was a talker. But by the end, he was as comfortable with his captaincy as he was around first base. In the end, the quiet, young Midwesterner who hardly spoke when he arrived in 1983 was knocking Steinbrenner in the papers. Last year's team was Mattingly's.

"When it got close to playoff time, he got a little more aggressive, a little more enthusiastic," Jim Leyritz said.

Steinbrenner isn't taking applications for the leadership position. In the owner's mind, David Cone should get the first crack. Whether it has anything to do with the club-record $6.5 million Steinbrenner is paying him, the owner didn't say.

Nobody seems more confident and composed than pitcher Jimmy Key.

"Nothing ever fazes him," third baseman Wade Boggs said. "He's the Rock of Gibraltar in a baseball uniform."

Of course, to have any chance replace Mattingly, Key's surgically repaired rotator cuff has to remain in one piece.

By JON HEYMAN

Copyright © 1996 The Evansville Courier,