Don Mattingly’s last chance to be signed up for Cooperstown will come Sunday night.
The former Yankees first baseman is on the eight-man ballot that the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee will vote on. The results will be announced Sunday at 8 p.m. at MLB’s winter meetings in San Diego.
The rest of the ballot consists of Barry Bonds, Rogers Clemens, Curt Schilling, Albert Belle, Fred McGriff, Dale Murphy and Rafael Palmeiro.
Mattingly spent 15 years on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot, but never got the required 75% vote; the closest he came was in his first year of eligibility in 2001, when he garnered 28.2 percent. Now he has another chance. He needs at least 12 of the 16 votes from the committee, which is made up of seven Hall of Famers, six team executives and three members of the media.
“It’s a desire [to be a Hall of Famer],” Mattingly said earlier this week on “The Show with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman” podcast. “I think every player, it would be something if you felt like you knew you’ve done enough. Obviously people consider it borderline right? There are people who voted for you, people who didn’t, different committees nominated you and things like that. So obviously you’re one of those guys who are on the edge.
“I don’t know how to look at it other than you played your cards proud of my career to some extent. I know it didn’t end the way I wanted it to in terms of production or time. But these are also cards that have been dealt to you and you do your best with them.
A lingering back injury limited Mattingly’s output late in his 14-year career, but from 1982 to 1995 he was a six-time All-Star, nine-time Gold Glove first baseman and three-time Silver Slugger. He won the 1985 AL MVP award, recorded three more top-10 MVP finishes, and earned a batting title by hitting a career-high .343 in 1984.
The former Yankees captain was a lifetime .307 hitter with 2,153 hits, 222 homers, 1,099 RBI and an OPS of .830.
But he was best known for his strong defense at first base. His nine Golden Gloves are the second of any player in that position, behind former Mets star Keith Hernandez (11), who has also been ruled out of Cooperstown to date.
Asked on “The Show” what he thought he missed during his playing career, the former Yankees captain was ready to answer.
“Well, that’s not winning,” Mattingly said. “Obviously winning is key. Not making it to a World Series or going any further in the playoffs or even regularly in the playoffs. can do it [to the playoffs] in 95, it was a huge, for me, almost a monkey on the back. It’s been a long time. I knew I was ready to retire. … I think what’s missing is winning everything.
Mattingly recorded a career 42.4 wins over replacement (per baseball reference) and was in WAR’s top 10 among all position players every year from 1984 to 1987.
JAWS — FanGraphs’ Jay Jaffe’s WAR rating system that measures a player’s Hall of Famer value against the Hall of Famers in his position — rated Mattingly at 39.1, compared to the Hall of Fame first baseman average at 53.8. But his seven-year max war of 35.8 was closer to the Hall of Fame first baseman’s average of 42.1.
Since retiring as a player, Mattingly has remained in the game on the coaching side, including five seasons as Dodgers manager and seven seasons as Marlins manager. Earlier this week, he was named the Blue Jays’ new bench coach.
