What a difference a season makes!
Prior to the 2013 MLB season, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was a skipper on an island. Mattingly didn’t have a new contract and wasn’t feeling the love from team ownership and management.
Now, as the frost prepares to chap the pumpkins, Donnie Baseball is in a much different situation after turning the Dodgers from a train wreck in June into a team just two wins away from the World Series.
What’s that? Things aren’t different in La-La Land for Don Mattingly after winning the NL West and the NLDS? Hmmm, you might be right! Well, why don’t we do what former ESPN personality Nick Bakay used to do with “Tale of the Tape?”
Bakay, better known as the voice of Salem the cat on “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” used numbers to settle an argument because “the numbers never lie.”
This is the perfect time to see which Don Mattingly is/was in better shape. Is it the Pre-2013 Mattingly, who was on a tight leash to win or else in Los Angeles? Or is it the Post-2013 Mattingly, who is on a tight leash to win or else in Los Angeles?
Glad you asked!
1. Sign of Management Support
Pre-2013 Mattingly: Managing on a one-year contract.
Post-2013 Mattingly: Best friend and bench coach Trey Hillman is fired from his coaching staff without being told beforehand.
Advantage: Pre-2013 Mattingly
2. Setting While Contract Situation Plays Out
Pre-2013 Mattingly: Working in sunny Arizona and balmy Los Angeles
Post-2013 Mattingly: Freezing his keester off in Indiana.
Advantage: Pre-2013 Mattingly
3. Biggest Question on His Mind
Pre-2013 Mattingly: How fat is Juan Uribe going to be when he reports to Spring Training?
Post-2013 Mattingly: What will it feel like to have Magic Johnson’s size 18 Nike in my butt?
Advantage: Pre-2013 Mattingly
4. What Happens If I Get Canned?
Pre-2013 Mattingly: Gets to join ESPN’s Baseball Tonight crew and watch Curt Schilling get fatter every episode and then try to pawn his watch to pay off more debt.
Post-2013 Mattingly: Gets to manage the Detroit Tigers.
Advantage: Post-2013 Mattingly
5. Biggest Challenge
Pre-2013 Mattingly: How do I sit through meetings with GM Ned Colletti and not stare at his spiky toupee?
Post-2013 Mattingly: How can I come back to work in an environment where I’m not respected and appreciated?
Advantage: Push
Okay, let’s add up the numbers to see who has/had it better, the Pre-2013 Don Mattingly or the Post-2013 version:
Pre-2013 Mattingly-3
Post-2013 Mattingly-1
Push-1
So, in a landslide, the Pre-2013 Don Mattingly was in a better situation. After all, the numbers never lie!