Happy Birthday, "Donnie Baseball"!

:birthday:

Bill James had a short comment about Mattingly in his "Historical Baseball Abstract".

Don Mattingly: 100% ballplayer. 0% B.S. (although James actually spelled out the B.S. word in his book lol)

Too bad his career ended as soon as it did. Back problems forced him to retire when he was only about 34 years old... based on his play during his prime seasons, he was on his way to having a decent shot at making the Hall of Fame. But his productive seasons ended when he was only 29.

Even though I didn't like the Yankees during those years (I grew up as a Mets fan), I liked Mattingly.