Don Mattingly. Dennis Rasmussen. Ron Hassey. Sam Militello. Kevin Maas. Phil Niekro. Henry Cotto.

They are the Yankees from the lost years, the 14 seasons between 1981 and 1996 that did not end in a Yankees World Series. They are the lost years even if only a handful were actually losing seasons. Each ended as a year of lost promise.

As players they were Yankees all, and most of them worked just as hard as the current crew, but there was no middle-of-the-diamond celebration for them to end a playoff series, no October to remember, not even a distant whiff of sweet, pungent champagne.

Brian Fisher. Randy Velarde. John Habyan. Scott Sanderson. Butch Wynegar. Wayne Tolleson. Don Mattingly.

They were seasons that started like any other, with hope, fresh faces, and bright Florida sun, and then year upon year, for the most famous sports franchise in the world, there was the burden of not making it to the World Series.

If you are the Yankees, this burden builds with a national public viewing, like a large hole in the ground alongside a busy highway that grows bigger and deeper every day. And everyone passing sees the hole until its depth is a dungeon for the team, and for everyone who comes on board each spring as the man who is going to help the Yankees climb out of the hole to reclaim the team's rightful place in baseball.

Rick Rhoden. Jesse Barfield. Melido Perez. Bob Tewksbury. Dan Pasqua. Charles Hudson. Joe Niekro. Don Mattingly.

So many good teams, so many good players. In 14 seasons, there is a lot of toil and sweat. How many hundreds of hours of batting practice? How many hours of fielding drills? How many warm-up pitches? How many signs signaled from dugout to the third base coach to the basepath? How many postgame meetings? How many scouting reports?

But still no World Series.

Scott Nielsen. Roberto Kelly. Steve Kemp. Mike Easler. Buck Showalter. Don Mattingly.

Some of these teams got close to the postseason and who knows what might have happened after that? Some missed a division title by a game or two. One team was denied its chance to shine by a players' strike. Another team, in 1995, was probably one pitch away from a league championship series.

They all thought they would be the ones to bring the World Series back to its historical center, to Yankee Stadium. They put on the uniform worn by Ruth, Gehrig, and DiMaggio and they felt bigger, better.

They were Yankees and they were going to be where Yankees always were: the World Series.

Bob Geren. Andy Hawkins. Claudell Washington. Ron Kittle. Don Slaught. Cecilio Guante. Don Mattingly.

They were contributors to the Yankees timeline. They may not have made it to baseball's grandest spectacle, but they helped bridge the gap. It has been a long road from 1981 to 1996, each victory and loss along the way a step in the journey.

These Yankees from these years wanted it as much as today's Yankees did. They had the same hopes in March. Some carried the hope to September.

They all went home in October unfulfilled.

Rich Monteleone. Bob Wickman. Mike Stanley. Stump Merrill. Andy Stankiewicz. Rod Scurry. Don Mattingly.

You feel for all of them. You feel especially for the one man whose name symbolizes these seasons. He played in every one of the lost years, from 1982 to 1995, the only Yankee to do so. In this moment of joy, with a Yankees community agog in celebration, with three states and beyond giddy over seven Yankees October victories, with the World Series coming to Yankee Stadium -- coming home . . .

How can Don Mattingly not be here?

But like everything else in Mattingly's career, there is a style and grace even to this. Mattingly, and so many of those who played with him, kept the flame for Yankees fans in this long, sometimes dark period. There was always at least one reason to be a Yankees fan, to have a Yankees jacket, or a No. 23 jersey. Mattingly was a knit from one Yankees World Series team to the next.

And now, we know they were not truly lost years either. Disheartening maybe, but every at-bat, every pitch, every game was a piece to an eventual pennant, to another World Series.

And Yankees everywhere, all those names now scattered across the land, can today feel proud of that.

Mike Witt. Chuck Cary. Brian Dayett. Doug Drabek. Richard Dotson. Juan Espino. Vic Mata. Don Mattingly.

After 14 empty Octobers, the Yankees are back in the World Series.

Bill Pennington

Copyright © 1996 Bergen Record Corp.