For the first time, New York Yankee...

For the first time, New York Yankee first baseman Don Mattingly, plagued by a back problem, has mentioned retirement as an option.

But only a final option.

“I’d think about (retiring) hard,” Mattingly was quoted as saying in Monday’s New York Daily News. “It depends on what (the doctors) tell me. But if I can’t be myself and be productive, then I won’t keep playing. I would walk away from it. But I’ll be fine. I’m not done.”

Mattingly, who is resting at his home in Evansville, Ind., was put on the 21-day disabled list Thursday because of a bulging degenerative disk.

He is planning a trip to Los Angeles to be examined by Robert Watkins, the specialist who performed successful back surgery on Dave Winfield and who is treating Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Mattingly, who in April agreed to a guaranteed, five-year, $19.3-million contract extension through 1995, is hitting only .245 this year. He has not hit a home run since May 20.