Don Mattingly, known to many baseball fans as either “Donnie Baseball” or “The Hit Man,” started his baseball career with the New York Yankees. He was drafted by the team in 1979 (in the 19th round) and played his first game with the team on September 8, 1982. Donnie played first base for the Yankees up until his retirement in 1995.
      The Evansville, Indiana native was a career .327 hitter with 222 home runs and 1,099 runs batted in. Mattingly made 6 all-star game appearances, won the Gold Glove Award nine times and the Silver Slugger Award three times in his career. He was also named the American League MVP in 1985 and his jersey number, 23, was retired. Even though he never appeared in a World Series as a member of the New York Yankees, Mattingly is considered to be one of the Yankee’s greats.
      After retiring as a baseball player, Mattingly became the hitting coach in the New York Yankees organization and moved up to the Yankees as a hitting coach in 2004. He was a hitting coach for two seasons before becoming the bench coach in 2007. Mattingly joined the Los Angeles Dodgers as the hitting coach after the 2007 season, when Joe Torre took over.
      Mattingly also founded his own sporting goods company, Mattingly Sports, in 2005. He owned a restaurant called “Mattingly’s 23” in his hometown in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Mattingly also wrote a book called “Hitting is Simple,” with Jim Rosenthal