Don Mattingly

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Don Mattingly

First base
Batted: Left Threw: Left
MLB Debut
September 8, 1982 for the New York Yankees
Final game
October 1, 1995 for the New York Yankees
Career Statistics
Batting average     .307
Hits     2153
RBI     1099
Teams
Career Highlights and Awards

Donald Arthur Mattingly (nicknamed "Donnie Baseball" and "The Hit Man") (born April 20, 1961) is a retired first baseman who played for the New York Yankees of the American League from 1982-1995. He is currently Joe Torre's bench coach for the Yankees.

Mattingly grew up in Evansville, Indiana and was one of the nation's top prospects as a high school player at Reitz Memorial High School in 1979, earning a brief write-up in Sports Illustrated magazine. However, most Major League Baseball teams avoided drafting Mattingly, expecting him to attend college before entering professional baseball. Taking a chance, the New York Yankees drafted Mattingly in the 19th round of the 1979 amateur draft and subsequently signed him.

Contents

[edit] Personal

Mattingly married Kim Sexton on September 8, 1979. They have three sons: Taylor, Preston, and Jordon,and currently live on a horse farm in Evansville, IN.

Taylor was drafted in the 42nd round (1262nd overall) of the 2003 MLB draft by the New York Yankees, and played in 24 games for the Gulf Coast Yankees in the rookie league before an injury cut short his season. After sitting out all of 2004 and 2005, Taylor returned to the Gulf Coast Yankees playing first base in 2006.

Preston Mattingly was chosen in the first round (31st overall) of the June 2006 MLB draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

During the late 1980s and early 90s, Don Mattingly was owner of a restaurant in Evansville called "Mattingly's 23," after his the uniform number he wore for most of his career. During his first two years (1982-1983), he wore uniform number 46.

[edit] Career

[edit] Making the majors

The sweet-swinging lefty immediately proved it was a wise decision. Mattingly batted .349 in 1979, .358 in 1980, and .316 in 1981. He was hitting .315 for Triple-A Columbus when he made it to the majors late in the 1982 season.

Mattingly spent his official rookie season of 1983 as a part-time first baseman and outfielder, waiting for a full-time spot in the lineup to open up. He played well, hitting .283 in 279 at-bats, but with little power.

Slugger Steve Balboni was the favored organizational prospect at first base, but it became apparent in 1982-1983 that Balboni was too prone to striking out and that his ranging right-handed swing was less than ideal for Yankee Stadium. Mattingly quickly surpassed Balboni on the team's depth chart, and Balboni was traded to the Kansas City Royals in 1984.

Mattingly became the Yankees' full time first baseman, and an MVP candidate. He hit .343 and beat out teammate Dave Winfield in a close race for the American League batting title with a 4-for-5 game on the last day of the season. Mattingly led the league with 207 hits. He also developed a power stroke, slugging a league-leading 44 doubles to go with 23 home runs and 110 RBI.

[edit] Playing prime

Mattingly followed up his breakout season with a spectacular 1985, winning the MVP award in the American League. He batted .324 with 35 home runs, 48 doubles and 145 RBI, then the most RBI in a season by a left-handed major league batter since Ted Williams hit 159 in 1949. His 21-RBI lead in the category was the most in the American League since Al Rosen's RBI title of 1953. Mattingly was also recognized for his defense, winning his first of nine Gold Glove Awards.

Mattingly did just as well in 1986, leading the league with 238 hits and 53 doubles. He also batted .352, hit 31 home runs and drove in 113 runs. However, he was easily beaten in the American League MVP voting by pitcher Roger Clemens, who also won the Cy Young Award unanimously that year.

In 1987, Mattingly tied Dale Long's major league record by hitting home runs in eight consecutive games, as well as setting an American League record by getting an extra base hit in ten consecutive games. Also that season, he set a major league record by hitting six grand slam home runs in a season, (the record has since been tied.) Mattingly's grand-slams in 1987 were the only six of his career.

In June 1987, Mattingly injured his back during some clubhouse horseplay with pitcher Bob Shirley. Nevertheless, he finished with a .327 batting average, 30 home runs and 115 RBIs, his fourth straight year with at least 110 RBIs. Between 1985 and 1987, Mattingly hit 96 home runs with just 114 strikeouts.

Though Mattingly would recover, recurrent back woes would curtail his statistics, and eventually, his career.

1988 was a decidedly off year for Mattingly, who had just 18 home runs and 88 RBI. He rebounded in 1989 to 113 RBI, but his average dipped to .303.

[edit] Career decline: 1990-1995

Mattingly's back problems flared up anew in 1990; after struggling with the bat, he had to go on the disabled list in July, only returning late in the season for an ineffective finish. His stat line-- a .256 average, 5 home runs and 42 RBI in almost 400 at-bats-- came as a shock. Mattingly underwent extensive therapy in the offseason, but his hitting ability never returned. Though he averaged .290 over his final five seasons, he became more of a slap hitter, hitting just 53 home runs over that timeframe. Mattingly's defense remained stellar, but he was not always physically able to play.

Unluckily, Mattingly made his major league debut in 1982, the year after the Yankees lost the World Series. The team did not reach the postseason in any of Mattingly's first 13 years. In 1995, Mattingly finally reached the playoffs when the Yankees won the AL wild card on the next-to-last day of the season. Their opponents were the Seattle Mariners.

In the only postseason series of his career, Mattingly batted .417 with 6 RBI and a memorable go-ahead home run in Game Two. In the final game of the series (and of his career), Mattingly again broke a tie with a two-run double. But the New York bullpen faltered and Seattle won in the 10th inning.

[edit] Retirement

Mattingly finished his career with 2,153 hits, 222 home runs, 1,099 RBI, and a .307 lifetime average. He is commonly cited as the best Yankee player to have never played in a World Series. His career had bad timing, as the Yankees lost the World Series the year before he broke into the big leagues and they ended up winning the World Series in the first year of Mattingly's retirement. Ironically, this World Series drought (1982-1995) was the longest in Yankees history since the Babe Ruth era.

The Yankees retired Mattingly's number 23 and dedicated his plaque for Monument Park at Yankee Stadium on August 31, 1997. The plaque calls him "A humble man of grace and dignity, a captain who led by example, proud of the pinstripe tradition and dedicated to the pursuit of excellence, a Yankee forever."

[edit] Cooperstown consideration

As to Mattingly's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, detractors point to his relatively short career and that all of his offensive credentials were compacted into five quality seasons between 1984 and 1989. Mattingly has never been named on more than 28% of ballots; in 2006 he was down to 12% of the ballots. (For election, a player must be listed by 75% of the voters.) Mattingly's offensive numbers and his historically exceptional Gold Glove defensive skills are comparable with his contemporary Kirby Puckett, who was a first ballot Hall-of-Famer.[1] Mattingly's career was also similar to that of Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, both of whom were MVPs and nine-time Gold Glove winners. However, Puckett's career was far more consistent than Mattingly's, his postseason performances added to his credentials, and his position (centerfield) is more difficult to play than Mattingly's. First basemen with similar career offensive numbers to Mattingly, such as Will Clark and Cecil Cooper, have generated little Hall of Fame interest. Interestingly, it was Puckett who dubbed Mattingly "Donnie Baseball."[2]

[edit] Post-retirement activity

[edit] Back with the Yankees

After retiring as a player, Mattingly spent seven seasons as a special instructor during Yankees' spring training in Tampa, Florida from 1997-2003.

Following the 2003 season, the Yankees named Mattingly the hitting coach. He spent three seasons in that role, receiving much praise from the Yankees organization and his players. Under Mattingly the Yankees set an all-time franchise record 242 home runs in 2004.

On October 26, 2006, Mattingly was promoted to being Joe Torre's bench coach, replacing Lee Mazzilli.

[edit] Future with the Yankees

It is rumored that Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman has already picked Mattingly as his choice to replace current manager Joe Torre, whose contract expires after the 2007 season. In fact, Michael Kay, the lead play-by-play man for the YES Network says:

"From everything that I have heard the Yankees are absolutely blown away by how great Don Mattingly has been as the hitting coach, his work ethic and his level of preparedness. I think when Joe Torre leaves, the next manager will be Don Mattingly."[1]

[edit] Trivia

  • Mattingly appeared as a left-handed throwing second baseman for one-third of one inning, during the resumption of the George Brett "pine tar" game in 1983. He also played three games as a left-handed throwing third baseman during a five-game series against the Seattle Mariners in 1986.
  • Mattingly appeared in a baseball-themed episode of The Simpsons, entitled Homer at the Bat. In the episode, team owner Mr. Burns orders Mattingly to shave off his sideburns, even though he did not have any sideburns and later was kicked off Mr. Burn's team even though by then the entire middle third of Mattingly's head was shaved. This was a spoof on a real life incident where Mattingly was ordered by management to trim his long hair, and was briefly dropped from the team lineup for not doing so. It was assumed that the hair-cutting order originated with Steinbrenner (who to this day does not allow his players to wear long hair or beards).

[edit] See also

[edit] Reference

  1. ^ http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1208/is_2_225/ai_69404547/ 1
  2. ^ "Ask Don 1996" http://www.donniebaseball.com/mattingly/askdon96.html

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Wade Boggs		 American League Batting Champion
1984		 Succeeded by
Wade Boggs
Preceded by
Willie Hernandez		 American League Most Valuable Player
1985		 Succeeded by
Roger Clemens
Preceded by
Dale Long		 Home runs in eight consecutive games
July 8 - July 18, 1987		 Succeeded by
Ken Griffey Jr.
Preceded by
Willie Randolph		 New York Yankees team captain
1991-1995		 Succeeded by
Derek Jeter
Preceded by
Cal Ripken Jr.		 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award
1993		 Succeeded by
Barry Larkin
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