Don Mattingly will have to keep waiting for a call from the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Evansville native didn’t get the necessary 12 votes from the 16-member Contemporary Baseball Era Committee to be inducted. Mattingly got just six votes.
The now-64-year-old Mattingly’s name appeared on the Contemporary Baseball Era ballot alongside seven others: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Jeff Kent, Carlos Delagado, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela.
Only Kent, a second baseman for 17 seasons, was selected. He received 14 votes.
Mattingly, a 1979 Memorial High School graduate who excelled in baseball, football and basketball in his prep days, spent all 14 years of his Major League Baseball career with the New York Yankees.
He made his debut in the Bronx in 1982, a quiet seven-game window that saw him collect two hits over the course of 13 plate appearances. His career took off in 1984, when he made the first of six consecutive all-star teams, hitting .343 to lead the American League and finishing fifth in the Most Valuable Player voting.
He won the MVP award the following season, batting .324 with 35 home runs and 145 RBIs. But he was also a superstar on defense, winning the first of his nine Gold Glove awards − given to the top fielder at each position in each league − at first base.
His performances were so renowned that he was given the nickname “Donnie Baseball.”
A chronic back injury slowed his production during the second half of Mattingly’s career. He made his first playoff appearance in 1995, sat out the 1996 season and then officially retired in 1997.
He finished with a career batting average of .307.
He has spent the time since his retirement as a coach and manager for the Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and Miami Marlins. He was the bench coach for the Toronto Blue Jays last season, when the team came within a game of winning the World Series.
In 2007, he founded Mattingly Charities. Its original purpose was to provide funding for baseball and softball equipment for kids, according to the organization’s website. It now states that the mission for the organization is to “provide support to organizations who administer educational advancement, social development and athletic programs for underserved youth in the Evansville community.”