The two old friends had played phone tag for about a week before finally talking yesterday and Joe Torre came away with the sense that Bernie Williams wanted to continue his career as a Yankee, though Williams knows that he'd be a sub rather than the team's starting center fielder. And Torre made it clear that he'd be happy to have Williams back. "I hope that's the case and I hope that our team, with the makeup, that it's going to work," Torre said last night before accepting an award from Child Magazine at a midtown gala. "I think he'd like to stay. Nobody's making commitments either way and he knows center field isn't what I've had for 10years, where he's been the first man on the field.... I sense that he wants to come back in a different role." Williams, 37, batted .249 with 12 homers and 64 RBI last season. The Yankees declined a contract option on him, so he's a free agent now. The move opened up center field, which Torre called the winter's "biggest mystery." The Yankees also have a vacancy in left field, though they are trying to re-sign Hideki Matsui, a move which Torre called "number one to me. "That's the best move. When we had our meetings, that was the one thing, first and foremost, in all our heads. He's so important to us and he seems to really thrive in New York, which isn't easy to do. And I think he wants to come back, I really do. "I don't think there's a question he's enjoyed his time here."