Don Mattingly Makes First World Series Appearance

After 40 Years, Don Mattingly Has a Chance To Win the Fall Classic

After 40 years in Major League Baseball, Evansville's own Don Mattingly is finally getting a chance to win the World Series. As the bench coach for the Toronto Blue Jays, he was nothing but smiles as they clinched the American League pennant. He's spent 14 years as a player, 12 as a manager, and 17 as a coach, but he's never had the chance to go to the World Series. In his 14 years as a first baseman, he played for only one team, the New York Yankees, which is rare in professional sports and even rarer in baseball. In the league's history, only 192 players managed to play for only one team. Analytic freaks like me can nerd out on the statistics here. See the highlights from game 7 below.

The World Series is Set: Blue Jays vs. Dodgers

Mattingly and the Blue Jays have their hands full in this World Series. Facing the stacked Los Angeles Dodgers, who have a lineup that continues to break records this Postseason. Standing out amongst the rest is Shohei Otani, who struck out ten batters and had three home runs in their pennant-clinching rally against the Milwaukee Brewers. Entering the Postseason, there was speculation regarding the Dodgers' bullpen and whether or not they could get the job done. Not only did they breeze through the National League, but their pitching was up to par and then some. The Blue Jays had the second-best record of the regular season, which will give them home-field advantage for the series. For more on World Series predictions, check out this story from The New York Times.

Mattingly Facing Former Team in Los Angeles Dodgers

Aside from the struggles the Blue Jays will face in simply playing the Dodgers, Mattingly may have mixed emotions. At the conclusion of his tenure with the Yankees as a player, Mattingly became the hitting coach, then bench coach. After being passed over for the head coach position, Mattingly decided to follow Joe Torre to Los Angeles and be the hitting coach. From 2008 - 2015, Mattingly served as a coach or manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers before parting ways, becoming the first Dodger manager to lead the team to three Postseason appearances. Mattingly achieved a lot of his "firsts" with the Dodgers, which may pull at his heartstrings in his first World Series appearance.