On this date ... 1997

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Jan. 21, 1997 Donnie Baseball retires. My favorite non-Pirates player.


Don Mattingly officially announces his retirement, leaving baseball with a .307 batting average and nine Gold Gloves.
I remember his 1987 streak when he homered in eight consecutive games.

 

[Norrin Radd]

Wish he was still playing.

Then he wouldn't be Dodgers manager.

 

[Steak Snabler]

He retired in 1997? Where was he when the Yankees were winning the World Series in 1996?

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

He retired in 1997? Where was he when the Yankees were winning the World Series in 1996?

I gotta be honest I had no idea.
I thought he was out of the game in 1995. So he has a World Series ring? If so, I did not know that.

 

[Uncle.Ruckus]

Who gives a ****?

 

[Steak Snabler]

He retired in 1997? Where was he when the Yankees were winning the World Series in 1996?

I gotta be honest I had no idea.
I thought he was out of the game in 1995. So he has a World Series ring? If so, I did not know that.

He definitely did not play in 1996. Tino Martinez was the Yankees' first baseman that year. Not sure what Mattingly was doing that year.

 

[shockey]

He retired in 1997? Where was he when the Yankees were winning the World Series in 1996?

I gotta be honest I had no idea.
I thought he was out of the game in 1995. So he has a World Series ring? If so, I did not know that.

'95 was his last active season, when the yanks were a wild-card team and donnie played in his only postseason -- ten their REAL dynastic run began under torre in '96. if this presser was in '97 it was just a formality. no rings for donnie baseball.

 

[Small Town Guy]

He doesn't have a ring. He was done with the Yanks in '95. Orioles thought of signing him in '96 and then he finally officially hung it up in '97, as a Yankee.

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/23/sports/mattingly-says-farewell-and-so-does-his-number.html

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Ok.
I was 99.9 percent sure he had no World Series rings.
Shame.. Crappy Yankee teams and a bad back.

 

[jackfinarelli]

Is he wearing a necktie or a tablecloth?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

He retired in 1997? Where was he when the Yankees were winning the World Series in 1996?

I think he was kinda up in the air about retiring after '95, so the Yankees got tired of waiting and went out and got Tino. After a year, Mattingly figured he truly was done.

And then, there's Bernie Williams, who I don't think has still officially retired.

 

[Versatile]

Don Mattingly is an interesting case. In his own era, he was wildly overrated. People acted like he was the second coming of Lou Gehrig when he was in his prime. It's tough to defend this MVP when he wasn't even close to the best player on his own team.

Then he retired and eventually became Hall of Fame eligible as new statistics were beginning to gain footing, and the backlash hit him as hard as anyone. Now some baseball writers and fans look at Don Mattingly as nothing more than an example of the Yankee mystique.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Don Mattingly is an interesting case. In his own era, he was wildly overrated. People acted like he was the second coming of Lou Gehrig when he was in his prime. It's tough to defend this MVP when he wasn't even close to the best player on his own team.

Then he retired and eventually became Hall of Fame eligible as new statistics were beginning to gain footing, and the backlash hit him as hard as anyone. Now some baseball writers and fans look at Don Mattingly as nothing more than an example of the Yankee mystique.

Will Clark was a better player than Don Mattingly (and also had his career derailed by back problems). Clark dropped off the Hall of Fame ballot after one year, while Mattingly continues to hang around for no other reason than he played in New York.

 

[Versatile]

Don Mattingly is an interesting case. In his own era, he was wildly overrated. People acted like he was the second coming of Lou Gehrig when he was in his prime. It's tough to defend this MVP when he wasn't even close to the best player on his own team.

Then he retired and eventually became Hall of Fame eligible as new statistics were beginning to gain footing, and the backlash hit him as hard as anyone. Now some baseball writers and fans look at Don Mattingly as nothing more than an example of the Yankee mystique.

Will Clark was a better player than Don Mattingly (and also had his career derailed by back problems). Clark dropped off the Hall of Fame ballot after one year, while Mattingly continues to hang around for no other reason than he played in New York.

You're right about both things. There's no doubt the New York influence persists. But I think in some circles he's derided for it almost as much as he's helped by it in others.

 

[dooley_womack1]

Manky is gonna be pissed you're working his corners.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Don Mattingly is an interesting case. In his own era, he was wildly overrated. People acted like he was the second coming of Lou Gehrig when he was in his prime. It's tough to defend this MVP when he wasn't even close to the best player on his own team.

Then he retired and eventually became Hall of Fame eligible as new statistics were beginning to gain footing, and the backlash hit him as hard as anyone. Now some baseball writers and fans look at Don Mattingly as nothing more than an example of the Yankee mystique.

Will Clark was a better player than Don Mattingly (and also had his career derailed by back problems). Clark dropped off the Hall of Fame ballot after one year, while Mattingly continues to hang around for no other reason than he played in New York.

You're right about both things. There's no doubt the New York influence persists. But I think in some circles he's derided for it almost as much as he's helped by it in others.

You must be referring to some Jack Clark that I never saw play. The only one I remember was a second-tier power hitter, whose reputation never quite matched what he did on the field. He couldn't field worth **** (unlike Don Mattingly who was a pretty slick first baseman), so bounced from position to position, when not a DH in the AL. And he wasn't nearly the polished hitter that Mattingly was -- who drove balls into the gap. Clark didn't hit for nearly the average of Mattingly (Mattingly before his back fell apart was .320 to .350, including a batting championship; Clark was .260 to .280). Clark struck out twice as much as Mattingly. Mattingly drove in 100 + runs four out of five years. Clark did it twice in his 18 year career. Mattingly was even more of a consistent home run hitter than Clark when he was healthy early on, and Mattingly wasn't a home run hitter, he was a gap (doubles) hitter, while all Clark was known for was being a power hitter.

Clark also bounced from team to team because he was a one-dimensional "slugger" who wasn't worth that much. He had one really good year with St. Louis, and the Yankees as they were doing in the late 80s, gave a guy with only one great year under his belt superstar money. But at no time in Clark's career was he nearly the player Mattingly was for a 5 year stretch.

The ONLY thing that Jack Clark has on Don Mattingly is a bit more longevity.

As for Mattingly being overrated because he was in NY, that was a time when the Yankees weren't particularly in vogue. Mattingly wasn't overrated. He put up a stretch from that first year when he won the batting title with a .343 average to the next year when he led the league in RBIs with 145 to the following year when he had 238 hits to the year after that when he homered in 8 consecutive games and set a record with 6 grand slams. You really are going to put anything Jack Clark ever did close to that? Clark's one career year wasn't even close to typical Mattingly. There is also good reason why Mattingly got all those MVP votes during that stretch, while Clark was never consistently regarded that way.

If you want to argue that Mattingly fell apart too soon and he didn't have enough longevity, fine. But to suggest he gets the Hall of Fame consideration because of Yankees bias is someone who is so clouded by the thought of Yankees bias that he doesn't realize how great Mattingly was for a short stretch; and certainly in a class well beyond Jack Clark.

 

[dreunc1542]

Ahem, Ragu, wrong Clark.

 

[Versatile]

That was awesome.

For what it's worth, Jack Clark played longer and had higher on-base and slugging percentages than Don Mattingly.

 

[Uncle.Ruckus]

That's four minutes of Ragu's life he'll never get back.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Wow. I read Jack Clark and I was incredulous. I feel like an idiot. But I am glad it wasn't Jack Clark and I just didn't read carefully. I was really wondering what the hell I was missing.