Port St. Lucie - Four months and seven words later, we finally had our answer. Don Mattingly made the correct call to sit out the season.

"I really enjoy the barn a lot," Mattingly told the Yankees' beat writers yesterday.

Nothing about the bright lights. Nor the big city. Nor even the overbearing owner. Just the barn.

"I'm really looking forward to this horse season," Mattingly said. Now we know for sure. His heart isn't into baseball, and if Mattingly's great career was about anything, it was about heart. Without that enormous heart, Mattingly is just another 5-11 guy with the batting pop of a middle infielder. Without that heart, there is no reason to keep playing. He already had back and wrist and eye trouble, so an indifferent heart puts it over the top.

If this is the same guy who transformed himself from a smallish 19th-round draft choice with middling arm strength, little speed and no appreciable power into a borderline Hall of Famer and maybe the Yankees' most dynamic clubhouse presence in decades, there was no evidence of it yesterday. Other than the barn quote, the highlight came when Mattingly's cat jumped on him. Perhaps Mattingly finally tired of all the distractions and the hurts and the omnipresent owner. Who knows for sure? He didn't get into it all yesterday. Nor was he under any obligation to do so.

Mattingly's thoughts are with his family of five in Evansville, Ind. So he should be, too. This is no crime. In many circles, this would be considered admirable. "I wanted to hang out with the kids, I wanted to be home," he said. "It's really pretty much as simple as that. I wanted to hang around here."

Anyone expecting a full explanation of the Mattingly mystery was sadly disappointed. But really, there was no reason to expect revelations. This is his life, and this is his business. He owes New Yorkers nothing. The relationship worked well for both parties, but now it is over. He gave us 14 years of heart and guts and sweat, and that should be enough.

Ryne Sandberg didn't tell anybody when he retired that he was leaving to try to fix a breaking marriage; it only came out later. Tony Phillips didn't provide any clues as to why he retired for two days, only denials about the clues that others gave. Likewise, Mattingly should not be expected to provide every last detail of his personal life. Nor even the first detail. It is enough to say he lacks interest in baseball now.

Mattingly didn't give a full inventory of his new duties, either. That's OK, too. All he said was that he smokes two stogies a day and often goes with his wife, Kim, and son Taylor, 11, to show horses at competitions. After a season that included numerous physical problems, plus a draining playoff run, Mattingly could use the rest. But seeing how Taylor presumably spends most of his time in school, this can't possibly be Dad's full schedule.

"It seems like I don't know what I do," Mattingly said. "I really enjoy the barn a lot. I feel like my top job now is being the bus driver and traveling secretary for Kim and Taylor, getting them set up."

Mattingly also plays a lot of basketball. This we know only because his friends have told their friends, and word gets around. The friends of Mattingly's friends say he is telling people he is through with baseball for good. Again, he is under no obligation to say this on a conference call. Besides, maybe he will tire of the barn and the basketball and he will change his mind.

Mattingly did admit he doesn't miss the game much. He also admitted to feeling "halfway guilty" for not missing it. That's not reason enough to resume playing. He recalls his career fondly, as do we. He should do nothing to endanger that feeling.

Like almost anyone who ever starred and is under 40 (he turns 35 next month), he believes he can still play. "I know I have gas left," is the way he put it. It is doubtful, however, he could come anywhere close to matching the production of four of five first basemen in the Yankees' division, including Boston's Mo Vaughn, Baltimore's Rafael Palmeiro, Detroit's Cecil Fielder and the Yankees' Martinez.

Yet if Mattingly does eventually miss baseball and does want to come back, George Steinbrenner probably would ignore his scouts and overlook his full roster of signed players. Martinez couldn't be moved to the DH spot because Ruben Sierra's five-year, $27.5-million contract runs through next year, but that is trivia to Steinbrenner, who loves nostalgia and marquee names and still loves Mattingly. Their troubled 1995 season, with Mattingly believing in midsummer that Steinbrenner was trying to force him out, seems forgotten now.

So it is up to Mattingly to continue to be the mature one, to stay in his Indiana barn with his family and a back that still allows him to play basketball daily. Mattingly made a life and career out of doing the wise thing, and there is little reason to believe he will change anytime soon.

Jon Heyman

Copyright 1996, Newsday Inc.