Donald Arthur Mattingly, born April 20, 1961, carried the nicknames of “Donnie Baseball” and “The Hit Man.” His baseball career includes being the first baseman for the New York Yankees of the American League from 1982 to 1995, Yankees hitting coach from 2004 to 2006 and Joe Torres bench coach in 2007. Mattingly grew up in Evansville, Indiana, attended Reitz Memorial High School and was one of the nation's top prospects as a High School player and earned a brief write-up in Sports Illustrated magazine.

The Major League Baseball teams thought he would be attending Indiana State University, so they avoided including him in their draft. The New York Yankees decided to try including him and he was drafted in the 19th round of the 1979 amateur draft, and then they signed him up. Mattingly was 21 years old when he broke into the big leagues with the New York Yankees. His stats for All-Star hitting, All-Star fielding and All-Star miscellaneous are all listed on his web site. His salary for 1985 was $455,000, 1986 was $1,375,000, 1987 was $1,975,000, 1988 was $2,000,000 and 1989 was $4,400,000. His uniform number was a consistent #23 for most of his career, except for his first two years (1982-1983) when it was #46. His batting average was .307, home runs 222 and runs batted is 1,099.

During the late 1980s and early 90s he owned a restaurant in Evansville called "Mattingly's 23." After Mattingly's playing career ended, he spent seven seasons (1997-2003) as a special instructor during Yankees' spring training in Tampa, Florida. He was assigned as the Yankees hitting coach after the 2003 season, which lasted three years. The Yankees set an all-time franchise record with 242 home runs in 2004.