By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MIAMI - Don Zimmer, the most famous bench coach in baseball, has grown weary of talking about his future.

"I'll have something to say about it when all this is over," Zimmer said.

You don't get the feeling it will be: Good-bye, thanks for the memories.

Zimmer, the Western Hills High School grad, has battled George Steinbrenner in the regular season and Pedro Martinez in the postseason

He tearfully apologized after the Martinez incident. Zimmer charged to the mound during a bench-clearing incident in the American League Championship Series and was thrown to the ground by Martinez. The episode was funny to a lot of people, but not to Zimmer. He said he regretted embarrassing the game, himself and the Yankee organization.

You don't get the feeling he's going to apologize to Steinbrenner. Zimmer told the New York Daily News after the ALCS that he wasn't coming back, uttering "I'm a human being and I ain't been treated like one in 11 months." Now he says: "When (the postseason) is over, everybody will know."

Zimmer, 72, could retire comfortably to Treasure Island, Fla., where he lives in the offseason with his wife, Soot. Zimmer retired once before. He quit the Colorado Rockies in the middle of the 1995 season.

But you get the feeling he'd like to continue. Zimmer has been Yankee manager Joe Torre's bench coach for all of the Yankees' incredible eight-year run.

Torre gives Zimmer a lot of credit for the Yankees' success.

"Zim is very valuable," Torre said. "First of all, he's very honest, sometimes too honest. He'll tell me things. I've been on the more conservative side when it comes to managing, and he's on the more aggressive side. I think we've met somewhere in the middle."

Zimmer admits he has his opinions. "But Joe's the boss," he said. "What he says goes."

Zimmer served as interim manager for the 36 games in 1999 while Torre recovered from prostate cancer. Zimmer has managed 13 years in the big leagues with stops in San Diego, Boston, Texas and the Chicago Cubs.

If Zimmer is through with the Yankees, would he consider managing?

He would, but he doesn't think he'll get the chance, despite the success Jack McKeon has had at the same age.

Torre would like him back.

"I don't intend to ask him until things calm down," Torre said. "We've had an emotional postseason. We've had an emotional year. When things quiet down, we'll talk about it. I hope he comes back because he loves it, he loves the kids. The players love him."

This is Zimmer's third stint as a Yankees coach. He worked for Billy Martin in 1983 and for Lou Piniella in 1986.

Torre and he and Zimmer had no history together before Torre brought him out of retirement in 1996.

"Normally you hire friends as coaches," he said. "I hired Zim to be a coach and he became a friend. So that's made it very special."