Evansville native Don Mattingly misses out on another Baseball Hall of Fame nod

EVANSVILLE — Don Mattingly has missed out on another chance to be enshrined in Cooperstown.

The Evansville native was considered on Sunday to join the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee, which gathered in San Diego for the annual Winter Meetings. They reviewed the candidacies of eight players who were not elected when they previously were on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballots.

Mattingly needed at least 12 votes from the 16-member committee. He received eight, the second-most among the candidates. Fred McGriff was the only one to surpass the threshold with a 100% approval rate.

Albert Belle, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Dale Murphy, Rafael Palmeiro and Curt Schilling were the other candidates on the ballot. The committee was comprised of seven Hall of Famers, six team executives and three media members.

“I am honored to be considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame,” Mattingly recently told the Courier & Press when the ballot was released. “Baseball has had a huge impact on my life and I am grateful for everything it has given me.”

The Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee is one of three groups eligible for consideration as part of the Era Committee process, which provides a way for Hall of Fame consideration to managers, umpires and executives, as well as players retired for more than 15 seasons.

Mattingly, 61, previously spent 15 years on the BWAA ballot, but never received the required 75% of the vote; the closest he came was in his first year of eligibility in 2001 when he garnered 28.2%. Later, the Modern Era Ballot named him a finalist in 2017, but he received fewer than seven votes with 12 needed for election. Mattingly was considered again by the Veterans Committee in 2019 but failed to get enough votes to make Cooperstown.

A three-time Silver Slugger award winner playing first base for the New York Yankees, Mattingly was the 1984 American League batting champion and 1985 Most Valuable Player. He earned six All-Star selections and nine Gold Glove awards.

Mattingly was slowed by a back injury in the latter half of his career, but when he was healthy, there were few better at the plate. He compiled a .307 batting average in 14 seasons, many with non-contenting Yankees teams but was named the 14th captain in club history in 1991. He finally reached the postseason for the first time in his final season in 1995.

Since retiring as a player, Mattingly has remained in the game on the coaching side, including five seasons as manager of the Dodgers and the last seven with the Marlins. He stepped down as Marlins' manager on Sept. 25; his contract expired at the end of the season. Last week, he was named the Blue Jays’ new bench coach.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Don Mattingly misses out on Baseball Hall of Fame again