MLB

NO BITTER END FOR MATTINGLY

There’s no need to change his nickname to Donnie Bitter. Don Mattingly still considers himself a Yankee, even as he’s unsure when he’ll wear the pinstripes again.

Speaking to reporters a day after he was spurned in his attempt to become the next Yankees manager and announced he was leaving, Mattingly wouldn’t rule out eventually returning to the club.

“I like it there, I’ve always liked it there,” Mattingly said. “They treated me great, the fans treated me great. I enjoyed it. It’s exciting there. I don’t feel any ill-will toward anybody. I’ve been treated fairly and I’m happy with all that.

“If the Yankees are playing Boston, trust me, I’m rooting for the Yankees.”

On a day when the Yankees were introducing Joe Girardi as their new manager, Mattingly was contemplating a future that might include employment by another organization.

Though he danced around the topic, Mattingly – after 18 seasons with the Yanks as a player and coach – could be headed to Los Angeles in a coaching capacity since Joe Torre replaced Grady Little as Dodgers manager yesterday.

Mattingly called it a “fallacy” that he was anointed the heir apparent to the manager’s seat when he returned to the Yankees in 2004 as the hitting coach, after an eight-year hiatus from the game.

“I was never guaranteed anything,” Mattingly said. “[George] Steinbrenner never said, ‘Hey, Donnie, I want you to be the next manager.’ And I wouldn’t want that, anyway. You have to earn your place and prove that you can do something.”

Mattingly praised the organization’s selection of Girardi and said he was leaving because it wouldn’t have been fair to Girardi if he remained as bench coach, even though GM Brian Cashman extended that offer to him.

“There’s going to be a streak this year where you lose a few games in a row and then [people] start talking,” Mattingly said. “It’s just not right.”

On the possibility of one day managing the Yanks, Mattingly said it’s not the right time to consider that scenario.

“[Girardi] is signing for three years, so that’s three years down the road, maybe 10 years, maybe 15 years down the road,” Mattingly said. “Maybe he’s one of the greatest managers of all-time, so it’s not a situation you realistically look at.”

Mattingly said he still wants to manage. He doesn’t regret not having served an apprenticeship as a minor league manager, noting that Girardi went straight from bench coach to Marlins manager in 2006.

But when it came to the most prominent managerial job in baseball, the Yankees, there’s no question in Mattingly’s mind that Girardi’s one year of experience calling the shots was a plus.

“It’s obviously something you consider when you’re choosing someone,” Mattingly said. “Joe obviously went to Florida . . . he ended up being Manager of the Year there.

“I don’t have experience, but you don’t get it unless you’re given a chance. I look at guys like Billy Martin and Lou Piniella, different people who have managed and been very successful, somebody had to take a chance on them.”

mpuma@nypost.com