In his long-awaited first trip to the World Series, Don Mattingly came up crushingly short of winning his first title on Saturday with the Blue Jays.
But the former Yankees great will have another shot at a different top honor before this year is over.
Mattingly was announced on Monday as part of the eight-person player ballot to be considered by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The results of the vote — needing 75 percent from the ballots cast by a group that will be announced later this fall — will be revealed on Dec. 7.
The seven players joining Mattingly on the ballot are Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela.
Mattingly was also on the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot in 2022, but did not receive the requisite votes — he was second with eight votes, needing 12 — as Fred McGriff gained induction that year. In his 15 years on the BBWAA ballot, Mattingly peaked at 28.2 percent of the vote in his first year of eligibility in 2001, well short of the 75 percent required.
Across his 14-year career with the Yankees, Mattingly hit .307 with a .830 OPS and 222 home runs. He won the 1985 AL MVP, the 1984 AL batting title (hitting .343), nine Gold Gloves at first base and was a six-time All-Star and three-time Silver Slugger.
His career was derailed late by a chronic back injury, forcing him to retire after the 1995 campaign, just before the Yankees re-emerged as a dynasty.
Mattingly, who went on to manage the Dodgers and Marlins, finally got his first trip to the World Series last month as the Blue Jays’ bench coach, though they squandered a 3-2 series lead and fell to the Dodgers in a heartbreaking Game 7 on Saturday night.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
