Don Mattingly Positions: First Baseman and OutfielderBats: Left • Throws: Left6-0, 175lb (183cm, 79kg)Born: April 20, 1961 in Evansville, IN usDraft: Drafted by the New York Yankees in the 19th round of the 1979 MLB June Amateur Draft from Francis Joseph Reitz HS (Evansville, IN).High School: Francis Joseph Reitz HS (Evansville, IN)Debut: September 8, 1982 (14,675th in major league history)vs. BAL 0 AB, 0 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SBLast Game: October…
Joe Torre, who will compile a 2326-1997 (.538.) managerial record during his 30 seasons as a skipper with Mets, Braves, Cardinals, Yankees, and the Dodgers, announces he will be retiring at the end of the month. Los Angeles immediately hires the team’s hitting coach Don Mattingly to replace the 70 year-old.
At Jacobs Field, right-hander Luke Hudson gives up 11 runs in one-third of an inning in the Royals’ 13-0 loss against the Indians. The Tribe’s top of the first frame barrage is the result of eight hits, two walks, and one error.
Derek Jeter, with a dribbler up the third-base line for an infield single off KC’s Scott Elarton, becomes the eighth player in Yankee history to collect 2,000 career hits. The 31 year-old shortstop joins Yogi Berra, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Don Mattingly, Babe Ruth, and Bernie Williams in reaching the milestone.
In front of a crowd of 55,707, Don Mattingly’s uniform number 23 is added to the list of retired numbers on the wall at Monument Park. The former Bronx Bomber first baseman, who served as captain of the team from 1991 to 1995, is the first Yankee to have his uniform number retired without having reached a World Series.
1997 – All-Star first baseman Don Mattingly officially announces his retirement at a media conference in Yankee Stadium.
Mariner Ken Griffey Jr. homers in his eighth straight game to tie a major league record held by Dale Long (1956) and Don Mattingly (1987). In tomorrow’s game, Junior will barely miss breaking the record as he hits a long double off the right-center field wall at the Kingdome.
1992 – The episode of the animated series The Simpsons entitled “Homer at the Bat” gets its first broadcast on FOX. In the episode, Springfield Nuclear Plant owner C. Montgomery Burns hires a team of major league ringers in order to win a bet he placed on a softball game against a rival businessman. In the end, though, it’s the hapless Homer Simpson who saves the day with a walk-off hit-by-pitch. A number of contemporary major league stars, many of them future Hall of Famers lend their voices and likeness to the show, which is considered one of the classic episodes of the series.
1991 – Yankees 1B Don Mattingly is benched and fined $250 for refusing to cut his shoulder-length hair, but the Yankees still beat Kansas City, 5 – 1. He will get a haircut two days later, and the hair will eventually be auctioned off for $3,000 to benefit a children’s charity. Mattingly is not alone; Steve Farr, Matt Nokes, and Pascual Perez have all been told their hair length violates club policy. Mel Hall, who wears his hair in a small ponytail before and after games, is warned his appearance is “borderline.”
During a game at Yankee Stadium, Oakland OF Jose Canseco is bombarded with assorted objects by unruly fans. Included among the objects are an inflatable doll, a transistor radio, and a head of cabbage. Oakland escapes with a 10 – 8 victory, and Canseco strokes a double in four at bats.