Here is where we retell a story that has been told and retold and retold without an ending that most Yankees fans find suitable.<\/p>\n
Don Mattingly has been on a Hall of Fame ballot 18 times and has been rejected 18 times. <\/p>\n
Will it be lucky No. 19, symbolic of a Yankees 19th-round pick?<\/p>\n
The baseball world will find out Sunday, when Mattingly will be one of eight candidates whom the 16-member Contemporary Baseball Era Committee, which meets at the Winter Meetings in Orlando, will consider for induction. <\/p>\n
\u201cDonnie Baseball\u201d needs 12 votes \u2014 which would be four more than he received three years ago \u2014 to achieve baseball immortality.<\/p>\n
Don Mattingly is pictured Oct. 30. Getty Images<\/p>\n
The seven other players on the ballot are Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela. <\/p>\n
Voters, who include Hall of Famers, MLB executives and veteran media members\/historians, can select up to three players.<\/p>\n
The last time this group convened, Fred McGriff received 16 votes to gain enshrinement, while Mattingly finished second with eight. <\/p>\n
Murphy, a contemporary who has been linked with Mattingly, earned six votes. <\/p>\n
In a significant rule change this year, candidates who receive fewer than five votes will not be eligible in the next cycle. <\/p>\n
Any candidate who doesn\u2019t receive at least five votes twice would be off the ballot permanently.<\/p>\n
If he finds those four extra votes to crack 75 percent, Mattingly\u2019s journey to Cooperstown would span a quarter of a century, a would-be Class of 2026 member who first appeared on a ballot in 2001.<\/p>\n
In his first try, the Yankees icon received 28.2 percent of the vote, which became his zenith in 15 years on the general ballot. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Subsequent attempts through the Eras Committee, which meets every three years, have ended similarly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope I get in,\u201d Mattingly said recently on \u201cThe Show with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman\u201d podcast. \u201cObviously everyone would like to be recognized for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mattingly\u2019s numbers remain the same, but maybe his post-career years as a manager and a coach \u2014 the Hall of Fame asks voters to consider candidates\u2019 \u201ccontributions to the game\u201d \u2014 will help. <\/p>\n
Perhaps so, too, will a different set of voters and more time removed and more perspective gained from a playing career that had remarkable highs and a relatively brief duration that has kept him out of Cooperstown.<\/p>\n
Don Mattingly addresses reporters during a World Series media day Oct. 23. AP<\/p>\n
By now the bulk of the case for Mattingly has been well-documented: From 1984-1989, he was among the best players in the sport. <\/p>\n
In that six-year span, he won a batting title, one MVP, finished second, fifth, seventh and 15th in the voting in four other seasons and averaged over 26 home runs and 114 RBIs with a .902 OPS \u2014 all while playing all-time defense at first base. <\/p>\n
He was the leader (and, beginning in 1991, captain) of also-ran Yankees teams.<\/p>\n
But a degenerative disc in his back had sapped much of his power by the 1990s. <\/p>\n
Mattingly averaged fewer than 10 home runs per season from 1990-95. <\/p>\n
Don Mattingly dives for a grounder during a July 1988 game. AP<\/p>\n
The back issues forced him into an early retirement, ending his playing career at just 34 before the Yankees dynasty began.<\/p>\n
His final season became his only trip to October \u2014 and he raked, hitting .417 with a home run and four doubles against the Mariners.<\/p>\n
\u201cI decided to stop a little bit early,\u201d Mattingly said on the podcast. \u201cI probably had three or four, maybe five years left in me. I made some decisions based on family that I don\u2019t regret at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
His cumulative numbers \u2014 six All-Star Games, nine Gold Gloves, 2153 hits, 222 home runs, 1,099 RBIs and zero rings, plus a .307 lifetime average and .830 OPS \u2014 were not enough for Baseball Writers\u2019 Association of America voters from 2001-15.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Maybe the way the game is swinging, with so many modern candidates relying upon peaks rather than length, will matter for Mattingly.<\/p>\n
Maybe so will a bigger r\u00e9sum\u00e9. <\/p>\n
As manager, he won three straight NL West division titles with the Dodgers from 2013-15; he guided the Marlins for seven seasons and took home a Manager of the Year Award in 2020; he served as bench coach of the Blue Jays from 2023 through this past season, which included his first World Series appearance.<\/p>\n
An unknown variable is the Eras Committee, whose members change. <\/p>\n
Sunday it will feature legends Fergie Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Juan Marichal, Tony Perez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell and Robin Yount; major league executives Mark Attanasio, Doug Melvin, Arte Moreno, Kim Ng, Tony Reagins and Terry Ryan; longtime statistician and historian Steve Hirdt and media members Tyler Kepner and Jayson Stark.<\/p>\n
Will they favor strong, if relatively short, careers like Mattingly\u2019s and Murphy\u2019s or higher-profile superstars with PED baggage like Bonds and Clemens?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here is where we retell a story that has been told and retold and retold without an ending…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":430175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[64736,161620,1266,2228,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-430174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball-hall-of-fame","9":"tag-don-mattingly","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york-yankees","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115676196633301478","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}