![\"Toronto](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/toronto-blue-jays-bench-coach-114383449.jpg\")
Don Mattingly is pictured Oct. 28. AP<\/p>\nORLANDO \u2014 A long wait just got a little longer for Don Mattingly.<\/p>\n
The former Yankees first baseman once again fell short of induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, coming up six votes shy on the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot, the results of which were revealed on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Jeff Kent was the only player elected from the eight-player ballot \u2014 which also included Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela \u2014 after being named on 14 of 16 ballots. Mattingly received only six votes, two fewer than he garnered in his last time on the ballot, while Delgado placed second with nine votes.<\/p>\n
\u201c[I was] certainly rooting for him,\u201d Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Sunday night. \u201cOne of the game\u2019s great players of his time, on both sides of the ball \u2014 obviously the back injury derailed him \u2014 and one of the great human beings. He obviously was a great baseball player, but he\u2019s a great person, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
By getting more than five votes, Mattingly remained eligible for inclusion on the next Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot in 2028, but it will be another long wait until then.<\/p>\n
Don Mattingly is pictured Oct. 28. AP<\/p>\n
This was the 19th time that Mattingly has been up for consideration for the Hall of Fame. Three years ago, he fell four votes shy, only receiving eight votes while Fred McGriff was unanimously elected for enshrinement. In his 15 years on the Baseball Writers\u2019 Association of America ballot, Mattingly topped out at 28.2 percent of the vote, well short of the requisite 75 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it doesn\u2019t happen, it\u2019s not going to change who I am, what I think about things,\u201d Mattingly said recently on \u201cThe Show with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman\u201d podcast. \u201cNo bitterness is going to be in there. But you hope you get that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
If not for a chronic back injury that cut his career short, the 64-year-old Mattingly may have had a smoother and quicker road to Cooperstown. In 14 seasons as a big leaguer \u2014 in which he was a six-time All-Star, nine-time Gold Glover and the 1985 American League MVP \u2014 the Yankee hit .307 with a .830 OPS, 2,153 hits, 222 home runs and 1,099 RBIs.<\/p>\n
Much of that production came from 1984-89, when he was one of the game\u2019s best players, before a degenerative disc in his back began to take its toll. In addition to winning the MVP in 1985 \u2014 when he hit .324 with 35 home runs, 145 RBIs and a .939 OPS \u2014 Mattingly also placed second (1986), fifth (1984) and seventh (1987) in MVP voting during his prime.<\/p>\n
![\"Don](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/don-mattingly-new-york-yankees-116584572_5f4aba.jpg\")
Don Mattingly is pictured during a 1988 game. AP<\/p>\n
Mattingly finished his career with a 42.4 bWAR, accruing 33.0 of that from 1984-89. Using JAWS \u2014 Jay Jaffe\u2019s WAR-based scoring system that evaluates players\u2019 candidacy for the Hall of Fame \u2014 Mattingly\u2019s 39.1 ranked 40th among all first basemen, just ahead of Gil Hodges, the former Mets legend who was elected posthumously in 2021 by the Golden Days Era committee. Mattingly\u2019s seven-year peak WAR of 35.7 was tied for 33rd, just behind McGriff (36.0).<\/p>\n
Following his injury-forced retirement after the 1995 season \u2014 made official in 1997, just before the Yankees entered their dynasty \u2014 Mattingly went on to serve as a hitting coach for the Yankees and Dodgers before managing 12 seasons with the Dodgers and Marlins. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He reentered the spotlight this fall as the bench coach of the Blue Jays, falling painfully short of what would have been his first World Series championship.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Contemporary Baseball Era Committee \u2014 deciding on players whose greatest contributions came since 1980 \u2014 featured Hall of Fame members Fergie Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Juan Marichal, Tony Perez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell and Robin Yount; major league executives Mark Attanasio, Doug Melvin, Arte Moreno, Kim Ng, Tony Reagins and Terry Ryan; and veteran media members\/historians Steve Hirdt, Tyler Kepner and Jayson Stark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO \u2014 A long wait just got a little longer for Don Mattingly. The former Yankees first baseman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[33708,132609,363,369,99],"class_list":["post-336571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball-hall-of-fame","tag-don-mattingly","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}