Fans often watch their favorite athletes and see the number on their uniform instead of the person who wears it, look at the player and see a statistic instead of a human being. They’re allowed to run and throw and catch but not feel.

The players say they’re used to it; sometimes they even do it to themselves. But just because Yankee left-fielder Shane Spencer can hit a baseball 400 feet,it didn’t mean he knew how to deal with death or cope with heartache. And when both hit him two weeks ago, it sent him into a funk even he didn’t expect.

His maternal grandmother passed away two weeks ago, and he split with his girlfriend; and the result was Spencer sagging into a batting slump. And when he saw how badly he was struggling at the plate – and weighing down the Bomber lineup – he felt he owed somebody an apology.

So when Yanks traveled south for last week’s series against Tampa Bay, Spencer came into Joe Torre’s office and told his manager what had happened, how it had affected his play, and how he wasn’t going to let it drag him down any more.

“I apologized for not letting him know before. Maybe I shouldn’t have been out there,” Spencer admitted before last night’s game with Detroit. “That’s the first time I’ve ever dealt with anything like that, and I didn’t really know how to approach it.

“I usually keep to myself, but going and talking to him was good for me and him. I was struggling and it was my girlfriend, too, so everything was happening at once. But it was good for me to talk to him.”

Obviously so, because Spencer a week later is riding a season-high six-game hitting streak, enjoying a sudden power surge and feeling like a new man. He even has a new look, bleached blond hair, thanks to a spur-of-the-moment jaunt with Chuck Knoblauch to a Soho salon Monday.

But whatever his hair color, his bat is red-hot. He’s hitting .450 (9-for-20) in that six-game streak, and had three homers in his last five games entering last night’s action. And he credits both time healing those wounds and his talk with Torre as a difference.

“I felt like I had to . It was fair to him, fair to the team, and to me. It made me feel better to get it out in the open,” Spencer said.

Spencer is one of five Yanks to start in left this year. He’s started 15 of the last 16 games there – he DH’d last night. If he comes on it would alleviate the need to make a trade.

“He came into me and apologized to me for seemingly how it affected him. His mind was elsewhere, which we can’t allow to happen. We’re not allowed to be human in this game,” Torre said, only half-joking. “But he’s our left-fielder.”