Don Mattingly is an American former professional baseball first baseman and coach.
Mattingly is known by many to be the greatest New York Yankees player to never appear in the World Series.
He spent his entire 14-year career playing with the New York Yankees, making his debut in 1982.
In 1984, he led the American League with a .343 batting average, and in 1985, he was the American League Most Valuable Player.
Mattingly hit over .300 each season between 1984 and 1989. He was also an excellent defensive first baseman, winning nine Gold Gloves in his career.
He was on the Hall of Fame ballot for 15 seasons, starting in 2001, but his support hovered around 15% only.
In 2012, it reached a peak of 17.8%, still well below the total that would make him a serious candidate for election, with his time on the ballot running out, but in 2013, it fell to 13.2% and in 2014, it fell further, to 8.2%.
In his final year of eligibility through the BBWAA in 2015, he received 9.1% of the vote.
He first came into consideration by the Veterans Committee in 2020, as one of ten candidates from the “Modern Baseball” period (1969-1987) but failed to gain election.
Mattingly was signed as a 19th-round pick in the 1979 amateur draft by the Yankees.
He was named to the American League (AL) All-Star team six times. He won nine Gold Glove Awards, three Silver Slugger Awards, the 1984 AL batting title, and was the 1985 AL Most Valuable Player.
He served as captain of the Yankees from 1991 to 1995, when he retired as a player.
The Yankees later retired Mattingly’s uniform number (23), making him the only Yankee to have his number retired without having won a World Series with the team.
Don Mattingly is the current manager for the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball.