PHILADELPHIA — Don Mattingly Phillies turned down a guaranteed seat in the American League dugout for this All-Star Game. Now he’s coaching against the guy who got it instead — in his own ballpark.
Funny how baseball works.
Mattingly was offered a coaching spot under Dodgers manager Dave Roberts at Tuesday’s All-Star Game after stepping away as Toronto’s bench coach in the offseason. He passed. John Schneider, his successor in Toronto, took the Blue Jays all the way to a seven-game World Series loss against the Dodgers — and earned the trip to Philadelphia that could’ve been Mattingly’s.
Instead, Mattingly will be standing across the way, wearing Phillies red, coaching against the staff he left behind.
“It is weird being on the other side,” Mattingly said Monday.
A Decision Made by an 11-Year-Old
Mattingly thought he was done with baseball when he walked away from Toronto. He’d just reached his first World Series. He said in November the move was about time — specifically, more of it with his family.
Then his son had other plans.
“I was kind of torn a little bit,” Mattingly said. “But then I go home and my 11-year-old asked me, ‘Do we get to go on the field for Home Run Derby?’ It’s like, OK, well, I’m done with that. He made that decision.”
It’s not the first time a Mattingly kid has steered his career. Back in January, Mattingly said his son Louis pushed him to take the Phillies’ bench coach job under then-manager Rob Thomson. “He was kind of like, ‘Dad, you can’t stop. You’ve got to keep going,'” Mattingly said at the time.
So he kept going. And he didn’t go alone — his other son, Preston, is the Phillies’ general manager. Two Mattinglys, one front office, one dugout.
From Last Place to Two Games Back
The Phillies didn’t hand Mattingly this job because everything was going well. Thomson was fired in late April after Philadelphia lost 11 of 12 games and sat tied for last in all of baseball. That’s about as close to rock bottom as a defending contender gets.
Since Mattingly took over, the Phillies are 45-24. They’re two games back of Atlanta in the NL East. Six Phillies made the All-Star team under his watch — Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Brandon Marsh, Jhoan Duran, Jesús Luzardo, and NL starter Cristopher Sánchez.
That’s not a fluke stretch. That’s a team that found itself.
Blue Jays All-Star second baseman Ernie Clement, who played for Mattingly in Toronto, said his old coach’s fingerprints are all over it.
“It’s awesome that he teamed up with Preston,” Clement said. “They’re just doing a great job.”
The Interim Tag — For Now
Mattingly has said he’d welcome having the interim label removed, and he wouldn’t rule out running it back for a second season. But he’s not negotiating that in July.
“He said Monday he wanted to table that discussion until the offseason,” which tells you everything about how he’s approaching this: win now, worry about the title later.
He’s earned the right to make that call on his own terms. Twenty-three straight years in a big league uniform, managing or coaching, will do that for a man’s credibility.
A Career Built Without a Ring — And He’s Fine With That
Mattingly’s résumé speaks for itself even without a championship attached. Fourteen seasons at first base, all with the Yankees, from 1982 to 1995. AL MVP in 1985. Captain of the Yankees for his final five seasons. He didn’t sniff the postseason until 1995 — his last shot — when he hit .417 with a homer and six RBIs in a five-game Division Series loss to Seattle.
No ring. He’s made peace with that.
“I’ve been in this game for a long time,” Mattingly said. “I’ve done a lot of tremendous things for my family. I don’t feel unlucky at all.”
At 65, with sons running his front office and pulling him back onto fields he thought he’d left for good, it’s hard to argue with him.
Tuesday, he’ll stand in the same building where his Phillies have been fighting back into October contention, coaching against the franchise he chose to leave. Weird is one word for it. Mattingly’s found a better one: family.
