Don Mattingly denied Hall of Fame for 19th time as Yankees legend’s long wait continues

ORLANDO — The long wait just got a little longer for Don Mattingly.

The former Yankees first baseman was once again ineligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, falling six votes short in the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee vote, the results of which were announced Sunday.

The eight players on the ballot – Mattingly, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela – had to receive 12 votes from the 16-member committee to be admitted to Cooperstown in July.

Kent was the only member to vote.

This was Mattingly’s 19th time being considered for induction into the Hall of Fame.

Three years ago he came up short, receiving just eight votes, while Fred McGriff was unanimously selected for enshrinement.

In his fifteen years on the ballot with the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, Mattingly received 28.2 percent of the vote, well below the required 75 percent.

“If it doesn’t happen, it’s not going to change who I am, how I think about things,” Mattingly recently said on “The Show with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman” podcast. “There won’t be any bitterness in it. But you hope you get that opportunity.”

Mattingly’s next chance at Hall of Fame entry comes in 2028, when the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee votes again.

Had the 64-year-old Mattingly not been held up by a chronic back injury, he might have had a smoother and quicker path to Cooperstown.

In 14 seasons as a big leaguer – during which he was a six-time All-Star, a nine-time Gold Glover and the 1985 American League MVP – the Yankee hit .307 with an .830 OPS, 2,153 hits, 222 home runs and 1,099 RBIs.

Much of that production came from 1984-1989, when he was one of the game’s best players before a degenerative disc in his back began to take its toll.

In addition to winning the MVP in 1985 — when he hit .324 with 35 home runs, 145 RBIs and a .939 OPS — Mattingly also finished second (1986), fifth (1984) and seventh (1987) in MVP voting during his prime.

Mattingly finished his career with a 42.4 bWAR, including 33.0 from 1984 to 1989. Using JAWS – Jay Jaffe’s WAR-based scoring system that evaluates players’ candidacy for the Hall of Fame – Mattingly’s 39.1 ranked 40th among all first basemen, just ahead of Gil Hodges, the former Mets legend who was posthumously elected in 2021 by the Golden Days Era committee.

Mattingly’s seven-year peak WAR of 35.7 ranked 33rd, just behind McGriff (36.0).

After his injury-forced retirement following the 1995 season — made official in 1997, just before the Yankees entered their dynasty — Mattingly went on to serve as hitting coach for the Yankees and Dodgers before managing 12 seasons with the Dodgers and Marlins.

This fall, he returned to the spotlight as the Blue Jays’ bench coach, falling just short of what would have been his first World Series championship.

This year’s Contemporary Baseball Eras Committee, which decided on players whose greatest contributions came since 1980, included Hall of Fame members Fergie Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Juan Marichal, Tony Pérez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell and Robin Yount; Major League executives Mark Attanasio, Doug Melvin, Arte Moreno, Kim Ng, Tony Reagins and Terry Ryan; and veteran media members/historians Steve Hirdt, Tyler Kepner and Jayson Stark.