LOS ANGELES – Don Mattingly has an easygoing disposition, the comfortable aura of a man who chooses to spend his free time mucking stables on his Indiana horse farm. You get the feeling he's content living in his own skin. Amid turmoil, he wears a gentle smile.But over the decades, his bosses have found that he can be dangerous when cornered.Of all the ways to contextualize Mattingly's pointed words about his contract situation at what started out as a routine end-of-season news conference Monday -- comments that blindsided the Dodgers' front office -- thinking back to Mattingly's playing days clears it up best.