Superstar Don Mattingly

I met Don Mattingly on his first road trip to Detroit in 1982 in his first season in the major leagues. He had only 12 major league at-bats that season, but we had a lot to talk about as he was from Evansville, Indiana, the town Detroit used as its top minor league farm team when Mattingly was a youngster. In 1983, the left-handed-batting Mattingly had 279 at-bats, hit four home runs, and batted .283.

In 1984, my first season working for the Detroit Tigers, was a very memorable season for Mattingly and Irwin Cohen. The Tigers had baseball's best record and won the World Series under chatterbox manager Sparky Anderson. The Yankees finished second under a much quieter Yogi Berra. Mattingly, however, finished first in batting average with a hefty .343 average and hit 23 home runs.

Mattingly deserved his newly titled superstar status. In 1985, he batted .324 with 35 homers. The following year, he batted a whopping .352 with 31 home runs. In 1987, he batted .327 with 20 homers. Injuries affected his swing and numbers, but he ended up playing 14 years in the majors (all with the Yankees) and had a career .307 batting average with 222 home runs.

Once, while chatting in the late '80s, he eyed my World Series ring. I took it off and he looked at it closely and said softly, "I don't have one yet." Mattingly went on to coach for 10 years and managed the Yankees, Dodgers and Miami Marlins. After 34 seasons of wearing a major league uniform, Mattingly has never been on a World Series-winning team.

Mattingly enjoyed his time in Toronto as bench coach under Manager John Schneider, but is eyeing joining the Philadelphia Phillies. Everything points to Philadelphia. There's an opening for a bench coach. Phils manager Rob Thomson is a close, old friend. Dave Dombrowski, Phils top baseball man, likes and admires Mattingly.

Most of all, the general manager wants to hire his father. The GM is Preston Mattingly, Don's son.

Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider grew up in New Jersey with a poster on the wall of his favorite player Don Mattingly. Schneider was a good enough catcher to be offered a minor league contract by the Blue Jays and started his pro playing career in 2002. In his seven seasons as a player, he never had a major league at-bat. A career minor league batting average of .206 and several injuries, including concussions kept him in the minor leagues as a coach and manager.

After toiling in the minors for 19 years, the Blue Jays recognized his abilities as a leader and instructor and gave him the title of bench coach (manager's top assistant) in 2020, which led to his appointment as manager two years later.