Don Mattingly's Last Chapter: Is the Time Finally Right for Donnie Baseball?

The world of sports is full of people who stand out. Whether due to their athletic prowess, their personalities, or perhaps their train-wreck life decisions, they become household names, even if you don’t follow their team or even their sport. For example, I care little about soccer, but somehow my kids know who Ronaldo is.

Then there are the players who don’t get the limelight but don’t really want it, the ones who aren’t after attention but just want to work hard at their trade. These are the people who may not always make headlines, but often become fan favorites. This is the category Don Mattingly firmly falls into – both as a player and manager – and it’s perhaps why he hasn’t gotten the recognition he deserves.

As a player, Mattingly was as old-school as they came. Shaggy ‘stache, eye black, a guy who didn’t mind getting his uniform dirty. He spent his entire 14-year career with the Yankees and, for a big chunk of the 80s, was arguably the best player in baseball. In 1985, he was named AL MVP, batting .324 and leading all of MLB in RBIs and doubles. The next year he came in second in the MVP race, but had an even better season, hitting .352, with a whopping .967 OBS, and belting out 238 hits.

Unfortunately for Mattingly, although it wasn’t his fault, his timing just happened to be terrible. While he played on some good teams, he only went to the postseason once, a losing effort against the Seattle Mariners in the ALDS in 1995, his final season. In fact, the longest stretch the Yankees have ever gone without winning a World Series is 18 years, and his tenure on the team was smack dab in the middle of this. He was the bridge linking two dynasties, as he played with Dave Winfield and Willie Randolph early in his career and Bernie Williams and Paul O’Neil at the tail-end of it. The only difference was that those guys got rings and he didn’t.

Chronic back issues forced Mattingly to retire early, but many still think he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame (as does another mustachioed first baseman who played in New York in the 80s).

The bad timing continued when Mattingly became a coach. He was the Yankees’ hitting coach from 2004-2007, and while the team made it to the playoffs in all four years, they lost all but one of their series. (They won the WS in 2009.)

In 2011, Mattingly became manager of the Dodgers. And while they had a solid five years under his leadership, again, there was only one series win in the postseason. (From 2017-2020, the team made three WS trips, including a victory in 2020.)

Notice a pattern? Mattingly seems to have an uncanny ability to arrive too late or leave too early. In 2016, he began managing the Marlins, and while there was a little playoff success – he won Manager of the Year for taking the team to the postseason in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season – it was short-lived and he was out in 2022. (The Marlins are currently on pace to have their best season in about 20 years.)

In 2023, Mattingly joined the Toronto Blue Jays as bench coach, and it finally looked like his luck might be changing, as the team made it to the World Series in 2025. And then came that heartbreaking loss to the Dodgers in Game 7.

Mattingly pondered retirement, but was convinced to join the Phillies as their bench coach by their GM – who happens to be his son. It perhaps wasn’t a surprise then that – after two first-place finishes in the previous four years, as well as a trip to the World Series – the Phillies proceeded to have their worst start to a season in probably half a century. After beginning 9-19, which included a 10-game losing streak, manager Rob Thomson was out, and Mattingly was in. So, more bad luck? As it turns out, not this time.

With Mattingly as manager, the team immediately went 16-4 to climb out of the NL East basement. The turnaround wasn’t just quick, it was historic, and eventually the Phillies became the first club in MLB history to go from 10 games under .500 to 10 games above before July 1.

What’s changed? Pretty much everything. Through May, the Phillies’ team batting average was a paltry .220. In June, that climbed to .266. In April, the team ERA sat at a dismal 4.56. By the end of June, that was nearly sliced in half to 2.79. And while a lot of this is almost certainly due to a talented roster playing better, Mattingly’s influence can’t be understated. Said Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski: “Don has changed the overall feeling of the club.”

There is, of course, a lot of baseball left to play, and it remains to be seen if the Phillies can keep the good vibes going. Even if they do make it to the postseason, almost certainly Mattingly will once again be haunted by his old team the Dodgers. What a fantastic story it would be though, if at what will probably be his last stop in baseball, the timing is finally right and he gets to win it all.