Don Mattingly

Explore about the Famous Baseball Player Don Mattingly, who was born in United States on April 20, 1961. Analyze Don Mattingly’s net worth, age, bio, birthday, dating, height-weight, wiki. Investigate who is Don Mattingly dating now? Look into this article to know how old is Don Mattingly?

Don Mattingly Biography

6-time All-Star first baseman who played all 14 seasons of his career with the New York Yankees. He won the 1984 American League Batting Title and the 1985 AL MVP Award. In 2011, he became manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers before managing the Miami Marlins in 2015.

He won 59 straight games with his high school baseball team.

He won 9 Gold Glove Awards across his career.

He had three children named Preston, Taylor and Jordon with his first wife Kim Sexton, whom he was married to from 1979 to 2007. He then married Lori Mattingly in 2010.

He appeared on several episodes of Jerry Seinfeld‘s sitcom, Seinfeld.

Donald Arthur Mattingly (born April 20, 1961) is an American former professional baseball first baseman, coach, and current manager for the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed “The Hit Man” and “Donnie Baseball”, he spent his entire 14-year career playing with the New York Yankees and later managed the Los Angeles Dodgers for five years.

Mattingly is ambidextrous. He pitched in Little League Baseball and was a first baseman also, throwing both righthanded and lefthanded, and was a member of the 1973 Great Scott Little League championship team in Evansville, Indiana under the coaching of Pete Studer and Earl Hobbs. In American Legion baseball for Funkhouser Post #8, Mattingly played at second base, throwing right-handed.

Playing for Reitz Memorial High School’s baseball team, the Tigers, Mattingly led the school to a state record 59 straight victories through the 1978–79 season. The Tigers won the state championship in 1978 and finished as the runner-up in 1979. Mattingly was the L.V. Phillips Mental Attitude recipient in 1979. He was All-City, All-Southern Indiana Athletic Conference and All-State in 1978 and 1979. During the four years he played in high school, Mattingly batted .463, leading the Tigers to a 94–9–1 win-loss record. He still holds Reitz Memorial records for hits (152), doubles (29), triples (25), runs batted in (RBIs) (140), and runs scored (99). His 25 triples is also an Indiana state record. A multi-sport athlete, Mattingly was selected ‘All-Conference’ in the SIAC.

Mattingly married Kim Sexton on September 8, 1979; they are now divorced. They have four sons: Taylor, Preston, Jordon and Austin. Taylor was drafted in the 42nd round (1,262nd overall) of the 2003 Major League Baseball 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 retired from baseball in 2005 after only 58 professional at bats. Of his eldest son, Don observed: “He loved the game, not the lifestyle.”

Following his high school career, Mattingly accepted a scholarship to play baseball for the Indiana State Sycamores. His father, Bill, informed Major League Baseball (MLB) teams that his son intended to honor that commitment and would not sign a professional contract. Mattingly lasted in the 1979 Major League Baseball draft until the 19th round, when he was selected by the New York Yankees. He was not interested in attending college, so he chose to sign with the Yankees, receiving a $23,000 signing bonus.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Don Mattingly was the owner of a restaurant in Evansville, Indiana, called “Mattingly’s 23”, after the uniform number he wore for most of his career.

In the 1980s, while with the Yankees, Don Mattingly was a resident of Tenafly, New Jersey.

Mattingly stated that one of his managerial idols was Tony La Russa. Mattingly admired La Russa from his playing days with the Yankees in the late 1980s. LaRussa had managed the dominant Oakland Athletics teams of the era. Mattingly recalled that despite the A’s superiority to the Yankees, they still played intensely.

For his career, Mattingly never appeared in the World Series, and his tenure with the Yankees marks the team’s largest drought without a World Series appearance. The Yankees made the series both the year prior to Mattingly’s rookie year, 1981, and the year after his last with the club, 1996.

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, although they arguably would have made the playoffs in 1994, when the players’ strike ended the season prematurely with the Yankees having the best record in the American League.

Mattingly made his Major League debut on September 8, 1982, as a late inning defensive replacement against the Baltimore Orioles. He recorded his first at-bat on September 11 against the Milwaukee Brewers, popping out to third base in the seventh inning. His first career Major League hit occurred in the bottom of the 11th inning against the Boston Red Sox on October 1, a single to right field off of Steve Crawford. He only had 2 hits in 12 at-bats that season.

Mattingly was hitting .325 for the Columbus Clippers of the Class AAA International League when he made it to the majors late in the 1982 season.

Mattingly graduated from Reitz Memorial High School in Evansville, Indiana, and was selected by the Yankees in the amateur draft. Debuting with the Yankees in 1982 after three seasons in minor league baseball, Mattingly emerged as the Yankees’ starting first baseman after a successful rookie season in 1983. Mattingly was named to the American League (AL) All-Star team six times. He won nine Gold Glove Awards (an American League record for a first baseman), three Silver Slugger Awards, the 1984 AL batting title, and was the 1985 AL Most Valuable Player. Mattingly served as captain of the Yankees from 1991 through 1995, when he retired as a player. The Yankees later retired Mattingly’s uniform number, 23. Mattingly is the only Yankee to have his number retired without having won a World Series with the team.

Mattingly spent his rookie season of 1983 as a part-time first baseman and outfielder. He hit .283 in 279 at-bats. He hit his first home run on June 24 against John Tudor of the Red Sox.

Mattingly became the Yankees’ full-time first baseman in 1984. With a batting average of .339, he was selected as a reserve for the 1984 All-Star Game. Heading into the final game of the season, Mattingly and teammate Dave Winfield were competing for the American League batting title, with Mattingly trailing Winfield by .002. On the final day of the season. Mattingly went 4-for-5, while Winfield batted 1-for-4. Mattingly won the batting title with a .343 average, while Winfield finished second with a .340 average. Mattingly also led the league with 207 hits. He hit a league-leading 44 doubles to go with 23 home runs. He was second in the league in slugging percentage (.537) and at bats per strikeout (18.3), fourth in total bases (324), fifth in RBIs (110), sixth in sacrifice flies (9), and tenth in on-base percentage (.381).

Mattingly was also recognized in 1985 for his defense, winning his first of nine Gold Glove Awards. He was considered such an asset defensively that Yankees management assigned him to play games at second base and third base early in his career, even though he was a left-handed thrower. Mattingly appeared as a left-handed throwing second baseman for one-third of one inning, during the resumption of the George Brett “Pine Tar Incident” 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 followed up his breakout season with a spectacular 1985, winning the MVP award in the American League. He batted .324 (3rd in the league) with 35 home runs (4th), 48 doubles (1st), and 145 RBIs (1st), then the most RBIs in a season by a left-handed major league batter since Ted Williams drove in 159 in 1949. His 21-RBIs lead in the category was the most in the American League since Al Rosen’s 30-RBI lead in 1953. He led the league in sacrifice flies (15), total bases (370), and extra base hits (86), and was 2nd in the AL in hits (211) and slugging percentage (.567), 3rd in intentional walks (13) and at bats per strikeout (13.9), 6th in runs (107), and 9th in at bats per home run (18.6). He batted .354 with two out and runners in scoring position.

Mattingly did just as well in 1986, leading the league with 238 hits, 53 doubles, and breaking the single-season franchise records set by Earle Combs (231 hits) and Lou Gehrig (52 doubles); both records had been set in 1927. He also recorded 388 total bases and a .573 slugging percentage. He batted .352 (second in the league), hit 31 home runs (sixth) and drove in 113 runs (third). However, he was beaten in the American League MVP voting by pitcher Roger Clemens, who also won the Cy Young Award that year. Mattingly also became the last left-handed player to field a ball at third base during a Major League game.

In June 1987, it was reported that Mattingly injured his back during some clubhouse horseplay with pitcher Bob Shirley though both denied this. 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.

In 1987, Mattingly tied Dale Long’s major league record by hitting home runs in eight consecutive games, from 8–18 July (the All-Star game occurred in the middle of the streak; Mattingly, starting at first base, was 0 for 3). This record was later tied again by Ken Griffey, Jr., of Seattle in 1993. Mattingly also set a record by recording an extra base hit in ten consecutive games. Mattingly had a record 10 home runs during this streak (Long and Griffey had eight during their streaks). Also that season, Mattingly set a major league record by hitting six grand slams in a season (two during his July home run streak), a record matched by Travis Hafner during the 2006 season. Mattingly’s grand slams in 1987 were also the only grand slams of his career.

Mattingly hit 18 home runs and recorded 88 RBIs in 1988, but nonetheless was still in the top 10 in the league in batting average at a .311 clip. He rebounded in 1989 to 113 RBIs, but his average dipped to .303. Mattingly’s five runs scored on April 30, 1988, marked the 12th time it has been done by a Yankee.

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 RBIs in almost 400 at-bats—came as a shock. Mattingly underwent extensive therapy in the offseason, but his hitting ability was never quite the same. Though he averaged .290 over his final five seasons, he became more of a slap hitter, hitting just 53 home runs over that timeframe. He did see a brief resurgence in power in 1993, hitting 17 home runs and driving in 86 runs in 134 games as the Yankees finished second in the division behind Toronto. In the strike-shortened 1994 season, he posted a .304 average, the first time since 1989 that he hit over .300. Mattingly’s defense remained stellar, but he was not always physically able to play.

Coincidentally, in 1991, before the episode aired but after it was produced, then-Yankees manager Stump Merrill told him that until he cut his hair, he would not play. This was in accord with Yankee owner George Steinbrenner’s policy requiring his players to maintain well-kept head and facial hair. Mattingly was sporting a longish or mullet-like hair style, and when he refused to cut it, he was benched.

Mattingly appeared in a baseball-themed episode of The Simpsons, “Homer at the Bat”. In the episode (originally aired on February 20, 1992), team owner Mr. Burns repeatedly demands that Mattingly trim his sideburns, even though Mattingly has no sideburns (and in fact wonders if Mr. Burns even knows what sideburns are). A confused Mattingly returns with 1/3 of his head shaved from one ear over the top of the head to the other. The irate Burns cuts him from the team because he would not “trim those sideburns!” As he departs, the exasperated Mattingly says to himself, “I still like him better than Steinbrenner.”

In 1994, Mattingly was inducted into the South Atlantic League Hall of Fame; he led the South Atlantic League with a .358 average and 177 hits in 1980 while leading the Greensboro Hornets to a league title. He was an All-Star and was awarded the league MVP.

Mattingly finished his career with 2,153 hits, 222 home runs, 1,007 runs scored, 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, not to mention the Yankees had the best record in the American League in 1994 before the strike. This World Series drought (1982–1995) was the longest in Yankees history since the start of the Babe Ruth era and it was worsened by the player’s strike in 1994, which ended a promising chance for a World Series title.

Mattingly finished his career with 2,153 hits, 222 home runs, 1,007 runs scored, 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, not to mention the Yankees had the best record in the American League in 1994 before the strike. This World Series drought (1982–1995) was the longest in Yankees history since the start of the Babe Ruth era and it was worsened by the player’s strike in 1994, which ended a promising chance for a World Series title.

In 1995, Mattingly finally reached the playoffs when the Yankees won the AL wild card on the next-to-last day of the season. In the only postseason series of his career, facing the Seattle Mariners, Mattingly batted .417 with six RBIs and a memorable go-ahead home run in Game Two, his final game at Yankee Stadium. In the final game of the series (and of his career), Mattingly again broke a tie with a two-run double. The New York bullpen faltered and Seattle won in the 11th inning of the decisive Game Five.

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.” Mattingly’s jersey number (18) was also retired by the Nashville Sounds in 1999.

After retiring as a player, Mattingly spent seven seasons as a special instructor during Yankees’ spring training in Tampa, Florida from 1997 through 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 with 242 home runs in 2004. After the 2006 season, Mattingly shifted to bench coach, replacing Lee Mazzilli.

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