Don Mattingly Gets Another Hall Of Fame Chance; Still Wants To Manage

Donnie Baseball wants to manage again, but is not brimming with confidence over his latest selection to a Hall of Fame ballot.

During an appearance Thursday night at Joe Torre’s “Safe at Home” gala at Gotham Hall in Manhattan, former Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly sported longer locks and business casual attire, and appeared relaxed only a month and half removed from his manager exit in South Florida.

Mattingly, 61, parted ways with the Bruce Sherman-owned Marlins baseball club in late September, stepping down days before the team finished 69-93, fourth in the National League East and miles behind the ’22 postseason contender Braves, Mets and Phillies. Mattingly’s contract with Miami expired after the 2022 season, but the former Yankees player decided it was time to move on before then.

“It was time for a change for me, quite honestly,” Mattingly said Thursday at Torre’s event. “I really thought that was the best thing for the (Marlins) organization and I knew it was the best thing for me.”

It was a year of Marlins front office tumult, with Hall of Fame Yankee Derek Jeter — part of the ownership group that purchased the club in 2017 — stepping down as the team’s CEO before the season began.

“I didn’t realize there was going to be an ownership change. Obviously when Derek came in, I was surprised by that,” said Mattingly, whose first season managing the Marlins was 2016. “When Derek goes, that’s a surprise also. Kind of a shock at that point. A lot of things happened down there. But whatever it was, it didn’t get to where I wanted it to go.”

But Mattingly added that his managing creative juices are still there, and that he’d welcome an opportunity to patrol the dugout of a major league club again.

“I do. I do think I want to,” he said about managing again. “I went to Miami to basically build something that was sustainable. I wanted to leave the organization in a good spot where they were competing every year to get into the playoffs and have a chance to win. I wanted to leave it like that and that just didn’t happen.”

Despite his future job opportunities in a state of flux, Mattingly’s past playing career — all with the Yankees (1982-1995) — is again up for consideration for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The Contemporary Baseball Era Committee, a 16-member panel comprised of Hall of Famers, executives and veteran baseball writers, will vote on eight candidates — including Mattingly — during the upcoming Winter Meetings. Mattingly was already considered by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) but did not get elected during his time on that ballot.

“I don’t know if I feel confident,” Mattingly said of getting another chance to join the immortals in Cooperstown. “I just look at it as I’m honored that somebody thinks of it and puts you on that list. To be honest with you, as that (BBWAA) list kept going, those years keep going and you’re on that, it’s kind of like you hated seeing that day come up, because you’d talk about it, you knew the trend, or whatever, and you knew you weren’t going anywhere. It was like, ‘Get past this day.’”

Still, Mattingly appreciates his name and career getting consideration. During his Yankee career, Mattingly was the 1985 American League MVP, earned Gold Glove honors at first base nine times and had a career .307 batting average. He reached the postseason only once, in 1995, when the Yankees were ousted by the Seattle Mariners in the division series.

“Obviously, it’s an honor for somebody to still put you on that ballot and have an opportunity,” said Mattingly. “It would be the greatest honor of all for a player.”

Mattingly joins Albert Belle, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Fred McGriff, Dale Murphy, Rafael Palmeiro and Curt Schilling on this Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot, which considers former players’ contributions from 1980 to present. Bonds, Clemens and Palmeiro all have steroid links, and most recently, the career home run king (Bonds) and seven-time Cy Young award-winner (Clemens) failed to get elected by the baseball writers in their 10th and final year of eligibility on the BBWAA ballot.