THE SIDELINES : Mattingly on Disabled List

New York Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly was placed on the 21-day disabled list today on orders of owner George Steinbrenner.

While the Yankees traveled from Texas to Cleveland, Mattingly returned to his home in Evansville, Ind., to rest his ailing back. It remained possible that he would miss the remainder of the season.

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner reportedly ordered Mattingly to place himself on the disabled list.

“If he’s out the rest of the season, it’s not going to make a difference,” Steinbrenner was quoted as saying in today’s USA Today. “I said ‘I just don’t want you walking around a cripple when you’re 50 years old.’

“I told him he had no choice; it was my order.”