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TORONTO – When Don Mattingly steps onto the field for infield drills, the Blue Jays tense up.
As Mattingly heads toward first base to catch, players know they have to be sharp. They can’t let Donnie Baseball down.
“Every time he catches balls at first base, I’m nervous,” second baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa told me at Rogers Centre on Thursday. “I’m throwing across to him, and just from my time with the Yankees, and all the stories I’ve heard about him, and what he’s meant to the organization, I get nervous to throw the ball to him. Being able to throw to him every day, it’s a special thing that I don’t take for granted.”
Back on the bench as a coach, Don Mattingly has another shot at an elusive World Series ring (Photo by Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Mattingly is a living legend, and everyone around him knows it, even more so after he accomplished the one feat missing from his storied pilgrimage through baseball. Finally, after the Blue Jays clinched the American League pennant, Mattingly reached the World Series for the first time in his career. He did it after spending 36 years as a player, coach, and manager in the uniforms of the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Miami Marlins, and Toronto Blue Jays.
“Man, I could sit here and talk about Donnie forever,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Donnie was my favorite player growing up. So to have him here in his first World Series with me is unbelievably special. But he’s done so many things behind the scenes to help get the staff prepared, and to really help the players get prepared for how we’re rolling out our lineup.”
Mattingly takes his responsibilities as the Blue Jays bench coach just as seriously as his illustrious 14-year playing career for the Yankees. Famous for his intensity and dedication to his craft, that’s the same attitude he still takes to first base when he’s closely watching the Blue Jays work on their defense.
He never takes a day off. Even Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doesn’t catch throws pregame as consistently as Mattingly does. Players have noted how impressive that is, especially at 64 years old. The last thing they want to do is disappoint one of the best first basemen to ever play the game.
“When he’s out there catching balls for us every single day, that’s a nine-time Gold Glover catching balls for us,” Kiner-Falefa said. “So we’re out there making plays, but we know how much defense means to him. So we go out there with the intention of making him look good — and him not getting mad at us. We do everything we can to make him proud.”
Sure, Mattingly can be fiery; 19 career ejections as a manager have earned him that distinction. And he knows all about pressure and expectations, having played in pinstripes under George Steinbrenner in the Bronx. Players can feel and understand that tension — his demand for excellence — even today when they field ground balls in front of him.
Some things never change.
“Anytime I make a bad throw, I’m like, ‘Ughhh. I made Donnie Baseball jump.’ It’s just a bad feeling whenever you have to make him move,” Kiner-Falefa said. “But when you do make a bad throw, and he picks it, it’s just like butter. It’s like, wow. He’s still got it.”
‘It was just like a relief’
How could he not? Mattingly, the 1985 MVP for the 97-win Yankees, was a six-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger, and arguably the best franchise player who never reached the World Series. He thought the 1994 and ‘95 Yankees teams, led by Paul O’Neill, Wade Boggs, and Bernie Williams, had a real shot at winning a title. But the ‘95 Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs after the Seattle Mariners won Game 5 in the 11th inning of the Division Series.
Mattingly retired after that October. Then the Yankees went on a dynastic run. They reached the World Series six times over the next eight years, winning the championship four times in that span. But Mattingly never stopped trying to win a championship, even if that’s not his only source of motivation these days. He accepted the bench coach job with the Jays not to win a ring, but to impart his knowledge of the game to a new generation in Toronto. Working alongside Schneider, then entering his second year as skipper, it seemed like a good fit.
A Yankees great, Don Mattingly fell short of winning a World Series as a player. (Photo by Chuck Solomon /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
“I think you try to put it out of your mind, kind of,” Mattingly said of a World Series appearance eluding him until now. “You do what you do. You get ready. You get ready as a player, you get ready as a coach, or a manager. And then you try to get it to come together. You know how hard it is. In a sense, it was just like a relief, I guess. But I don’t know if that’s the right word.
“But really, more just happy about getting there. Number one, having this opportunity. But again, it goes back to our team. Watching them play and how they’ve responded to everything and what we’ve had to do to get here has been fun.”
Mattingly’s stamp on the game hasn’t just shown up in the way the Blue Jays hit, field, and play. Since joining the organization in 2023, he has reminded the Blue Jays to keep their heads up during tough stretches. He has asked players to show up, no matter how painful last night’s loss was, or how dreadful the team had been playing. He appreciated that they listened to him, arriving to work with the same look on their faces before it finally translated into results.
After finishing last in the AL East last year, the Blue Jays edged out the Yankees to win the division this year. Then they eliminated the Bronx Bombers, the only team Mattingly has ever played for, from the playoffs in the Division Series. Then they bounced the Mariners after a thrilling Game 7 in the Championship Series, which was fitting for Mattingly, since his Yankees lost to Seattle in the 1995 postseason. Even though Yankees fans have every reason to despise their Blue Jays, they’ve found themselves rooting for them – if only for Donnie Baseball to win his first ring.
“It’s a really humbling feeling that people want that for you,” Mattingly said.
‘I Believe in the Best Teams’
It’s not just Yankees fans — who included Mattingly in their traditional bleacher-creature roll call during the Division Series — that are happy to see the former first baseman enjoying the World Series stage. Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who infamously shared a heated interaction with Mattingly in the 2015 Division Series, is thrilled for his former manager. But that doesn’t mean he’s rooting for him to win.
Mattingly managed Kershaw from 2011-15 with the Dodgers. Instantly, Kershaw understood that Mattingly was cut from the same cloth as Joe Torre, who managed Kershaw from 2008, his rookie year, through 2010. Both skippers knew just what to say at exactly the right time. There wasn’t a lot of hand holding or pats on the back. But from Mattingly, Kershaw learned what it’s like to play under a certain expectation.
Don Mattingly’s shot at a World Series ring will come against the team he once managed. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
“Just do your job,” Kershaw said of Mattingly’s philosophy. “Baseball is awesome. It’s a lot of fun. But if you do your job, and everybody does their job, then you’ll be ready to go. Donnie just had that expectation for us to do our job. Nobody has to do more or less than what they’re asked to do. He didn’t have to tell us what to do. It’s what’s expected. You learn how to do things on your own a little bit.
“For me, I loved it. It was a great way for me to figure out how to become a professional baseball player and get better.”
After Mattingly helped make the Blue Jays better, the organization is four wins away from winning its first championship in 32 years. The only team standing in their way is the star-powered Dodgers, led by manager Dave Roberts. Coincidentally, Roberts also played a hand in stopping Mattingly from reaching the World Series when he launched the Red Sox comeback by stealing second base in the 2004 ALCS. Mattingly, who was the Yankees hitting coach that season, was one win away from reaching the World Series before Boston won the next four games.
Now, Mattingly has the chance to exact revenge on Roberts and the Dodgers for his first championship. It all feels like destiny.
But not for Donnie Baseball, who trusts the work and the work alone.
“I don’t know if I necessarily believe in destiny,” Mattingly told me. “I believe in the best teams and who plays the best.”
Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.
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