Pinstripe Alley’s Top 100 Yankees: #14: Don Mattingly: Donnie Baseball was a bright light in a forgettable stretch of years for the Yankees
January 24, 2024
Pinstripe Alley’s Top 100 Yankees: #14: Don Mattingly: Donnie Baseball was a bright light in a forgettable stretch of years for the Yankees
5 comments
> With a fantastic stretch of peak years in the mid-late 1980s, Mattingly’s excellence on the field may not have led the Bombers to any of their 27 championships, but his skill and poise did not go unnoticed. The Yankees could never quite build around their star first baseman, though he can boast a shelf full of personal awards, as well as the admiration of a fan base.
> He finished with six All-Star selections, three Silver Sluggers, nine Gold Gloves in a decade, and the 1985 American League MVP award. During his six-year peak of elite play, he averaged 27 homers and a 143 wRC+ and was one of the game’s most valuable players in every sense of the word.
> Though Mattingly has made a fair mark in the dugout for other franchises, it pales in comparison to his impact on an otherwise dark period for the Yankees. His excellent play was poorly timed as far as the team goes, but that does not diminish its significance. > As his plaque in Monument Park reads, Don Mattingly was “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.”
My Captain
I was 7 or 8 years old and at my third MLB game, but first Yankees game (1985 or 86). Donnie, my favorite player of course, came into the visitors dugout at Fenway after taking BP. I had my trusty autograph book in hand…..”climb up on the dugout and hand it to him!”, my dad said. I peered over the edge of the dugout and Mattingly was sitting there alone. No one else was in the dugout. Meanwhile, security was telling people to get off the dugout roof, so I started to retreat.
“Stay there….you’re a kid…..you’re fine”, my dad yelled. “Stay there until they pull you off.” So I stayed.
“Mr. Mattingly….can you please sign my book?”……..he looked up, grabbed it, and signed it. I still have that autograph book…..with it’s lone autograph inside. Such a simple gesture, but it gave me a lifetime memory that I’ve always cherished.
5 comments
> With a fantastic stretch of peak years in the mid-late 1980s, Mattingly’s excellence on the field may not have led the Bombers to any of their 27 championships, but his skill and poise did not go unnoticed. The Yankees could never quite build around their star first baseman, though he can boast a shelf full of personal awards, as well as the admiration of a fan base.
> He finished with six All-Star selections, three Silver Sluggers, nine Gold Gloves in a decade, and the 1985 American League MVP award. During his six-year peak of elite play, he averaged 27 homers and a 143 wRC+ and was one of the game’s most valuable players in every sense of the word.
> Though Mattingly has made a fair mark in the dugout for other franchises, it pales in comparison to his impact on an otherwise dark period for the Yankees. His excellent play was poorly timed as far as the team goes, but that does not diminish its significance.
> As his plaque in Monument Park reads, Don Mattingly was “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.”
My Captain
I was 7 or 8 years old and at my third MLB game, but first Yankees game (1985 or 86). Donnie, my favorite player of course, came into the visitors dugout at Fenway after taking BP. I had my trusty autograph book in hand…..”climb up on the dugout and hand it to him!”, my dad said. I peered over the edge of the dugout and Mattingly was sitting there alone. No one else was in the dugout. Meanwhile, security was telling people to get off the dugout roof, so I started to retreat.
“Stay there….you’re a kid…..you’re fine”, my dad yelled. “Stay there until they pull you off.” So I stayed.
“Mr. Mattingly….can you please sign my book?”……..he looked up, grabbed it, and signed it. I still have that autograph book…..with it’s lone autograph inside. Such a simple gesture, but it gave me a lifetime memory that I’ve always cherished.
On a lighter note, also had [one of the GOAT baseball posters](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/cu8AAOSwbG9jHg3L/s-l1600.jpg)
If only he did something about those sideburns