As the Yankees flew across the country following their heartbreaking, five-game series loss to the Mariners in the 1995 ALDS, Don Mattingly huddled up with manager Buck Showalter and general manager Gene “Stick” Michael.
While others on the plane mourned the continuation of a 17-year championship drought — the franchise’s longest since becoming the Yankees — Mattingly shared his future plans with the two. Burdened by a barking back and, more importantly, prioritizing some issues at home, Mattingly made it clear that the Yankees should start looking for a new first baseman.
“He had a lot of things pulling on him. But we had a long talk on the plane coming back from Seattle, and I knew Donnie wasn’t gonna play anymore when we landed,” Showalter told the Daily News this week. “He was at peace with it. He really was. When you played the way he played and with the work ethic he had, you leave with no regrets.
“His family always came first. They needed him more at home than the Yankees needed him in his mind. And he told Stick and I on the plane, ‘I can no longer do the things that a New York Yankee first baseman needs to do, and I want to tell you guys early so you have time to go out and get a [replacement].’ If he hadn’t told us that, we’d have probably gotten bent over.”
Instead, the Yankees got Tino Martinez from the Mariners. He ended up becoming a key cog as the team began a dynastic run in 1996, winning that year’s World Series and three straight titles from 1998-2000. Mattingly, meanwhile, never played again.
A star on some bad Bombers teams, the 1995 postseason marked his first and last trip to the playoffs as a player. He retired as one of the greatest Yankees to never win a championship, and he fell short on several other occasions as a coach and skipper.
“That’s how I knew that the game wasn’t always fair,” Showalter, a minor league teammate and coach of Mattingly’s before becoming his manager in 1992, said before adding, “He did win in his own way. It may not be with a World Series ring, but Donnie won in his own way. Hell, [the Yankees] should have given him a ring after he left, just for the things he established.”
Now 30 years removed from the 1995 ALDS and more than four decades into Mattingly’s career in professional baseball, “The Hit Man” is finally in the Fall Classic. The Blue Jays’ bench coach has already watched Toronto take down the Yankees in the ALDS and enjoyed some revenge against the Mariners in the ALCS.
The Jays must now upset the Dodgers, whom Mattingly used to coach and led to the 2013 NLCS as a manager, from repeating as champions if “Donnie Baseball” is to win the ring that has eluded him for so long.
“I think down deep, it would mean a lot to him,” said Showalter, who also saw his pinstriped tenure end with the 1995 season and never appeared in a World Series. “He’d probably, down deep, wish it was with the Yankees, but he’ll take it anyway. And I’ll bet you he’d have a lot of private emotions that he will never express right now, because he wants the focus on anything but him.”
Even before reaching the World Series, friends of Mattingly’s have suggested that this could be the 64-year-old’s final season as a coach. Showalter, who remains close with Mattingly, didn’t dismiss that possibility, though he noted no final decisions have been made regarding another retirement.
“I would not be surprised to see Donnie, especially if they win, go off into the sunset,” Showalter said.
With Mattingly trying to add one more feat to his decorated career, Showalter went on to reminisce. He recalled long minor league bus trips, conversations in the manager’s office at old Yankee Stadium, and how Mattingly “protected” a young Bernie Williams from “shitty veterans” and mentored his successor to the captaincy, Derek Jeter.
Showalter also recounted Mattingly’s home run in Game 2 of the 1995 ALDS, the only longballs of his postseason career and the biggest one of his life. The go-ahead blast off Andy Benes left the Bronx ballistic — and Showalter a bit fearful.
“There’s never been a louder ovation than Don Mattingly in the pregame introductions, except when he hit the home run,” Showalter insisted. “I can say that’s the only time that I actually thought a building might fall that I was in. People think I got out of my seat to congratulate him. I was getting out of my seat because I swore the dugout was getting ready to collapse. Shit was actually moving around, those old pillars.”
With Mattingly now four wins from a championship, Showalter would like to see Yankees fans rally around him once again. He knows that’s a tough ask, as the division rival Blue Jays tormented the Yankees all season and eliminated the club from postseason play in the ALDS.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, beat the Yankees in last year’s World Series and then mocked them throughout the offseason. As far as temporary rooting interests go, this matchup doesn’t have any perfect choices for the Bronx faithful.
Showalter, however, will be tuning in to support his friend. He hopes the Yankees’ universe joins him.
“I’ll be pulling for Donnie,” Showalter said. “He kept at it. He’s a grinder in all phases of life.”
