If you’ve listened to Brandon Tierney on the radio at any point, you surely know he’s a diehard Yankees fan, and his all-time favorite from growing up is Don Mattingly.
Joe Torre never actually managed Mattingly, although he watched from afar and got to know him when Donnie Baseball was a special instructor and coach for him with the Yankees and Dodgers from 1997-2009, and eventual successor as manager in Los Angeles.
So, of course, when Torre joined Tiki & Tierney Thursday while the show emanated live from Torre’s Safe at Home Foundation golf outing, BT had to ask: if Donnie Baseball hadn’t gotten hurt, and kept up his pace from the mid-1980s, could he have been an all-time great?
“That’s not crazy to think,” Torre said. “When you know what a certain player means to a team, it was so much more than his ability on the field. Don Mattingly, I don’t think there’s any question that if he had more exposure in the postseason, could be in the Hall of Fame right now.”
What made Mattingly even better, though, was that while even he knew how good of a ballplayer he was and could be – and showcased it easily – he was as down to Earth as they came.
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“He’s special; he’s remained that way as a manager, but you pretty much knew it watching him,” Torre said. “But he loved to play the game.
He took some guff from George (Steinbrenner), but he was who he was, comfortable in his own skin.”
Mattingly remained on the Hall of Fame ballot for the full 15 years, from 2001-15, and his fate now rests in the hands of the Modern Baseball Committee, who have failed to vote him in twice but will meet next in 2023 to determine any selections for the Hall of Fame Class of 2024.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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