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I'm also intrigued by Mattingly for no other reason than he was a serious candidate for the Yankee job. They must have seen something in him that projected well as a manager.

He was Torre's buddy/bench coach in NY & now in LA, and he's a Yankees legend as a player... imo those are the two main reasons he was considered. Put it this way -- if the Yanks had interviewed Larry Bowa, would you be intrigued by Larry Bowa as a possible Milwaukee manager? Mattingly will probably get his shot at coaching, but I'd rather him learn on the job somewhere else.

Quote from Hank Steinbrenner (from NY Post article) during the hiring process: ""As a player he was very quiet. He was the hardest working guy in the game as a player. The greatest clutch hitter I've ever seen and a great defensive first baseman and a quiet leader," Steinbrenner said today.

When asked if one of Mattingly's drawbacks was his inexperience managing a team at any level, Steinbrenner answered, "He has been in the dugout. He has been a coach and obviously Joe [Girardi] has experience, on the other hand Donnie has experience in the dugout as a bench coach."


Here's Mattingly's post-playing career, per his Wikipedia page:

After retiring as a player, Mattingly spent seven seasons as a special instructor during Yankees' spring training in Tampa, Florida from 1997-2003.

Following the 2003 season, the Yankees named Mattingly the hitting coach. He spent three seasons in that role, receiving much praise from the Yankees organization and his players....

On October 26, 2006, Mattingly was promoted to being Joe Torre's bench coach, replacing Lee Mazzilli.

On October 18, 2007, Don Mattingly was considered the front runner for the Yankee's manager position, after Joe Torre declined a one year contract extension. Mattingly was interviewed in Tampa, Florida on October 23, 2007 for the Yankee Manager search along with Joe Girardi, interviewed on October 22, 2007, and Tony Pena, interviewed on October 24, 2007. On October 28th, 2007 the Yankees front office announced that it had offered the manager position to Joe Girardi, and that neither Mattingly, nor Pena would be offered the position.

I'm not sure who specifically considered Mattingly the front-runner, but I think it was a media and fan-fueled thing. Girardi's name was connected to the Yankees' vacancy (speculation at the time of course) even prior to Torre departing. As best I can tell, Mattingly wasn't ever really the front-runner, and the scheduling of interviews (Girardi first, then Donnie) seems to line up with that.

At the time I remember getting the impression the Yankees kinda felt like they had to get Mattingly an interview since he semi-publicly pleaded his case to Hank Steinbrenner (see that NY Post link above). I'm not a fan at all of Joe Torre's management style (leaning on vets who've 'been through the fires' over the younger players... think Mench getting PT over Hart under Yost), and Mattingly is someone that has meshed quite well with Torre. That's the main reason I would want him avoided, aside from not wanting him learning on the job for us.

Diskono wrote:

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I've always wanted to see more teams try a batting order with the best overall hitter 1st, and down the order all the way to your worst hitter. Aside from the first two spots, that's pretty much what we got last night. Here are the OPS of last night's 1-8 hitters:

833
788
897
863
817
786
659
657

Unfortunately, batting a player like Braun or Fielder leadoff would be like using your "closer" in the 7th inning, so we probably won't see that any time soon.