page_title: Don Mattingly
section_title: Minor League Baseball
hierarchical_section_title: Don Mattingly / Playing career / Professional career / Minor League Baseball
caption_attribution_description: English: First baseman Don Mattingly of the 1981 Nashville Sounds Minor League Baseball team of the Southern League
context_page_description: Donald Arthur Mattingly is an American former professional baseball first baseman, coach, and current manager for the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball. Nicknamed "The Hit Man" and "Donnie Baseball", he spent his entire 14-year career playing with the New York Yankees and later managed the Los Angeles Dodgers for five years.
  Mattingly graduated from Reitz Memorial High School in Evansville, Indiana, and was selected by the Yankees in the 1979 amateur draft. Debuting with the Yankees in 1982 after four seasons in Minor League Baseball, he emerged as the Yankees' starting first baseman after a successful rookie season in 1983. Mattingly was named to the American League All-Star team six times. He won nine Gold Glove Awards, three Silver Slugger Awards, the 1984 AL batting title, and was the 1985 AL Most Valuable Player. He served as captain of the Yankees from 1991 through 1995, when he retired as a player. The Yankees later retired Mattingly's uniform number, making him the only Yankee to have his number retired without having won a World Series with the team.
context_section_description: Mattingly began his professional career in Minor League Baseball with the Oneonta Yankees of the Class A-Short Season New York–Penn League in 1979. He hoped to bat .500 for Oneonta and was disappointed with his .349 batting average, which never went lower than .340. He batted a league-leading .358 in 1980 for the Greensboro Hornets of the Class A South Atlantic League in addition to recording a league-best 177 hits. He won the league MVP award and was named to the postseason All-Star team. With the Double-A Nashville Sounds in 1981, he hit .316 and led the Southern League with 35 doubles. He was selected to play in the Southern League All-Star Game and named to its postseason All-Star team.
  Despite Mattingly's hitting ability, there were concerns about his lack of speed and power. Bob Schaefer, his manager at Greensboro, said that the organization considered moving him to second base, from which he would throw right-handed. Mattingly was batting .325 for the Columbus Clippers of the Triple-A International League when he made it to the majors late in the 1982 season. He was named to the league's postseason All-Star team and finished third in the voting for the International League MVP Award.
caption: Mattingly with the Nashville Sounds in 1981
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