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October 09, 2007
Molding Mattingly
There are some people who say that Joe Torre has been Don Mattingly's mentor - in terms of showing him how to manage a ballclub - since Mattingly started working for Torre four years ago. Thinking about this, I began to wonder what other big league managers may have had an influence on Mattingly? So, I decided to look at the men that Don played for - back when he was an active player.
According to my quick and dirty research, Mattingly played for 8 different managers during his big league career:
Buck Showalter: 4 years
Billy Martin: 2 years+
Lou Piniella: 2 years+
Yogi Berra: 1 year+
Stump Merrill: 1 year+
Bucky Dent: ~ 1 year
Dallas Green: < 1 year
Clyde King: handful of games
Mattingly the player worked under Showalter just as much as Mattingly the coach has worked under Torre. And, Mattingly the player spent as much time with the combination of Billy Martin and Lou Piniella as Mattingly the coach has spent with Torre.
If Mattingly is named the next manager of the Yankees, it will be interesting to see how much of his style is patterned after Torre, Showalter, and the Martin/Piniella types.
And, hopefully, he'll be nothing like Stump Merrill.
Posted by Steve Lombardi at October 9, 2007 10:22 PM
Comments
I would think he's more of a "Torre type" given what I've seen of Mattingly's personality. I would think he would be similar to Willow.
Showalter was a Martin disciple, that came without all the baggage. I think Mattingly is far enough removed from them (Piniella, Showalter, Martin) that they probably won't have that much of an influence on his style.
Posted by: Raf ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.waswatching.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at October 10, 2007 11:04 AM
IMO, it's going to be more like Bucky Dent.
The fans will love him, the players will probably love him, but he'll probably look like he doesn't know what the hell he's gotten himself into.
Posted by: Pete at October 10, 2007 11:12 AM
It's not rocket science managing an AL team. I think Mattingly can figure out when to bunt, let someone swing three-oh, steal a base, or remove a pitcher. It's not like Mattingly has been an accountant the past thirty years. Joe Giradi had no experience when he went to the Marlins and now people talk about him like he's a god.
I think Mattingly has the same feel as Torre, though I get the impression he would be more consistent in how he asked his players to play. And also hopefully he would handle pitchers differently. But to me, with all the complaints of how Torre managed games, how could Mattingly be any worse?
The one thing I remember from one of the Mattingly-managed games was him allowing a cruising Matt DeSalvo to continue to pitch as his performance dictated.
Posted by: baileywalk at October 10, 2007 12:55 PM