Mattingly Author to Speak at Whittemore Library

Is Don Mattingly, the former sweet-swinging first baseman with the extraordinary work ethic, worthy of a plaque in the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Mike Shalin, author of the new book, Donnie Baseball: The Definitive Biography of Don Mattingly (Triumph Books; $24.95), believes he is.

“I think he is…I didn’t at first, and I’m a (Hall of Fame) voter,” Shalin responded in a telephone interview. “Forget the cumulative numbers garbage. For a five-year period, he may have been the best player in the American League, so you can invoke the Koufax rule. He belongs.”

Shalin, a former baseball beat writer with the Boston Herald and New York Post, will share some of his thoughts about Mattingly and other baseball subjects on Wednesday, May 11 at the Whittemore Memorial Library (www.WhittemoreLibrary.org).

The period Shalin referenced actually encompasses the six seasons (1984-89) in which Mattingly was the face of the New York Yankees. During this span, he won a batting title (.343, 1984) and Most Valuable Player Award (1985), led the league in RBIs (145, 1985), hits twice (207, 1984; 238, 1986), total bases twice (370, 1985; 388, 1986) and doubles three straight seasons (44, 48, 53, 1984-86).

In the field, Mattingly demonstrated that he was a whiz by winning the first five of his nine Gold Glove awards.

There’s more. In mid-July of 1987, the Yankee first baseman tied the major league record by hitting a home run in eight consecutive games. And that was also the season in which he walloped six homers with the bases filled – an accomplishment since duplicated by Cleveland’s Travis Hafner (2006) but not surpassed.

Mattingly, who will mark his 50th birthday on April 20, has been on the Hall of Fame ballot since 2001, but his support from voters has steadily declined since that first year (28.2%). For election, a player or manager must be named on 75 percent of the ballots.

Shalin points out that Mattingly’s 14-year record – all with the Yankees – is comparable to that of the late Kirby Puckett, the stocky Minnesota Twins center-fielder who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001. Let’s look:

He’s right.  So, hopefully the voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America will correct this oversight before too long. 

Shalin, the author of several other books and an official scorer at Fenway Park since 2003, learned of the Mattingly book opportunity last year, via a Facebook message from a friend. Joe Torre agreed to write the foreword, and Mattingly was cooperative to an extent. 

“I probably needed more time” to flesh it out, conceded the author, who relented to the publisher’s desire to have the book in print for the start of the baseball season and Mattingly’s debut as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“I think Don’s got the demeanor for (managing). I think he has the ability to manage guys who weren’t as good as he was,” Shalin said.

The author also believes that Mattingly, and not Joe Girardi, would have succeeded Torre as Yankee manager in 2008 “if George Steinbrenner was 100 percent there” as principal owner.

In the book, Shalin addresses Mattingly’s retirement from the playing field following the 1995 season, even after he’d finally reached the playoffs and batted a robust .417 (with four doubles, a home run and six RBIs) against the Seattle Mariners. In his final game in Yankee Stadium, he walloped a go-ahead homer in what would become a 7-5 Yankee victory in 15 innings. Seattle won the series 3 games to 2 at home.

“Don insists it was his kids. They were growing up and he wanted to be there,” Shalin said.

Recurring back woes contributed to Mattingly’s decline in power during his final six seasons with the Yankees, and undoubtedly weighed in his decision to retire, even though he was just 34 years old.

The Yankees retired Mattingly’s No. 23 and dedicated his plaque in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 31, 1997.  The plaque reads:  “A humble man of grace and dignity, a captain who led by example, proud of the pinstripe tradition and dedicated to the pursuit of excellence, a Yankee forever.”

Mike Shalin’s author's talk at the Whittemore Memorial Library, 243 Church St., on May 11 will begin at 6:30 p.m. For information, contact John Wiehn at the library, (203) 729-4591.