On a cool, wet day in April of 2002, I used to be visiting with Don Mattingly on his farm in Evansville, Ind., for a ebook I used to be writing, “Pride of October,” on the event of the one centesimal anniversary of the Yankees.
It had been almost seven years since Mattingly had walked away from baseball after the Yankees’ heartbreaking season-ending loss to the Seattle Mariners within the 1995 American League Division Collection, and I wasn’t certain how a lot the injuries nonetheless stung inside him on the considered all he’d been disadvantaged of due to the debilitating again damage that had flared up seven years into his profession. All through the afternoon we reminisced about his 14 years with the Yankees, starting with that first spring coaching in 1982 when he and his then-wife Kim drove into camp in Fort Lauderdale in a beat-up Chevy Monte Carlo with their pet cocker spaniel within the again; to the 1984-87 glory years when he was arguably the most effective participant in baseball with a batting title in ’84, an MVP award in ’85, a runner-up MVP in ’86, two hits titles and three of his 9 Gold Gloves at first base.
It was not till the tip of the day that I dared broach the elephant within the room — the topic he had declined to debate within the seven years since he’d retired — which was how he was reconciling by no means attending to a World Collection when, the 12 months after he left, the Yankees started a streak of 4 world championships over the following 5 seasons?
“You know,” he mentioned, “you’ll be able to take a look at it a variety of methods. I received to play for the best group in skilled sports activities which was only a nice, nice expertise and allowed me to do all types of issues. I keep in mind at some point late in ’85, I used to be standing at first base in Yankee Stadium and searching throughout the sector and noticed this man within the third base field seats holding up an indication that mentioned ‘Don Mattingly, the Chosen One’ and I puzzled to myself ‘What does that mean?’
“But sometimes in life, you don’t get what you want. You can work hard for it. You can try your hardest and do everything you think you need to do to get there and sometimes you still don’t get there because you’re not supposed to get there. Maybe I was just chosen to be the one guy who never gets there.”
The closest Don Mattingly received to a World Collection as a participant was with the Bombers within the 1995 ALDS. (AP Photograph/Kevin Larkin)
I confess that, as he spoke, tears welled up in my eyes as a result of I had been with him all through his total journey, lined all his early triumphs and his later decline and ache, and I had by no means heard him categorical himself so philosophically about something. He stays beloved in New York as a result of he all the time carried out himself with class, by no means used his unhealthy again as an excuse for these good however not nice final six years of his profession that price him the Corridor of Fame.
So when he lastly minimize ties eternally with the Yankees after Brian Cashman handed him over for the supervisor job in favor of Joe Girardi in 2007, his legions of mates and followers continued to root for him in his subsequent managerial tenures with the Dodgers and Marlins. He received three division titles for the Dodgers in 2013-2015 and was voted Nationwide League Supervisor of the Yr with the Marlins in 2020, however the World Collection remained elusive.
After which in early November 2022, Mattingly was sitting dwelling in Evansville, pondering one other future with out baseball after quitting as Marlins supervisor, when he received a most sudden name from Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins providing him the job of bench coach for rookie Toronto supervisor John Schneider. At first he was reluctant to simply accept the supply, making it clear to Atkins he wouldn’t be coming aboard as a manager-in-waiting in case issues didn’t go effectively for Schneider. However as Atkins defined it: “Experience and credibility are words that get used a lot in professional sports and in corporate worlds, but it’s hard to quantify how valuable that is. I think Donnie’s hiring is something that will have a calming impact and influence here. It will help not only with performance and lack thereof but also with accountability, which will be huge for us.”
Mattingly was then additional assured after speaking to Schneider, who knowledgeable him that, rising up in Princeton, he’d been an enormous Yankee fan with footage on Mattingly on his wall as a child. As longtime Blue Jays announcer Buck Martinez advised me Tuesday: “Everything Ross said was exactly what happened with Donnie who’s had major impact on everything around here — the defense, the professionalism of this team, the emphasis on the hitters putting the ball in play. All of that.”
In order I watched Blue Jays nearer Jeff Hoffman strike out Julio Rodriguez (with Cal Raleigh hovering on deck) for the ultimate out of the pennant-clinching 4-3 Blue Jays victory over the Mariners Monday night time, I may solely think about the enjoyment Mattingly will need to have felt at that second, perhaps even some lengthy pent up revenge from the crushing loss to Seattle 30 years in the past.
He was nonetheless feeling it Tuesday morning once we talked by cellphone from Toronto.
“To be honest I still don’t have the words,” Mattingly mentioned. “It’s been a long road but I always believed, although I didn’t think it would be Toronto. But this is a real team, a tough team that’s grown together and shown what can happen when you play good defense, put runners on base, keep making contact. All of that.”
“So can we cross the last thing off your bucket list?” I requested him.
“I wouldn’t say that,” he replied. “I still want to win one.”
I wanted him effectively on that, however for me the most effective story of the 2025 baseball season had simply been written. Donnie Baseball lastly received there.
Initially Printed: October 21, 2025 at 4:22 PM EDT
