NEW YORK -- There aren't many nervous winter minutes spent waiting by the phone these days for Don Mattingly, not unless they concern the possible moves his Dodgers are trying to pull off.
Mattingly's name has appeared as a candidate on the National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the 14th year, but the former Yankees captain has acknowledged the likelihood that enshrinement in Cooperstown, N.Y., just isn't in his future.
"My first year of eligibility, I pretty much knew I wasn't going to make it or anything," Mattingly told ESPN earlier this year. "I don't pay that much attention to it, to be honest with you. It's to the point now where it comes up and you're like, 'Oh, it's over,' and you go on."
The sweet-swinging first baseman certainly appeared as though he might have been on a Hall of Fame track early in his playing career, which saw him represent the Yankees proudly for 14 seasons in pinstripes.
One of the most popular players in franchise history, Mattingly has been enshrined in Monument Park with his No. 23 retired by the Yankees, and the nine-time Gold Glove Award winner is not holding out hope for his phone to ring about the Hall of Fame.
"When I retired [after the 1995 season], I was 34," Mattingly told ESPN. "If I had kept playing another five years, I may have ended up with 3,000 hits and reached some other milestones and gotten in. I made the decision for my boys, because I wanted to be around.
"When you do that type of thing, you know what you're doing, you know you're not going to make the Hall of Fame. If I was worried about making the Hall of Fame, I wouldn't have retired."
Mattingly's best showing was 28 percent in 2001, his first year on the ballot. Last year, Mattingly appeared on 13.2 percent of ballots cast, a slight dip from his 13.8 percent showing in 2011.
A candidate must receive 75 percent of the vote from Baseball Writers' Association of America members to gain election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. No players reached that threshold in 2013. Second baseman Craig Biggio (68.2 percent), starting pitcher Jack Morris (67.7 percent) and first baseman Jeff Bagwell (59.6 percent) are the top returning vote-getters from last year's ballot. Results of the 2014 election will be announced on Wednesday, Jan. 8.
Over a six-year run that started in 1984, Mattingly averaged 26 home runs, 114 RBIs and a .327 average, representing the Yankees on the American League All-Star team in each of those seasons. No player during that stretch had more RBIs than Mattingly's 684, while only Hall of Famer Wade Boggs (1,269) had more hits than Mattingly's 1,219.
"Donnie Baseball" also accomplished an incredible feat in 1987, setting or tying five Major League records. He hit six grand slams to set a new single-season mark, a record that was tied by Travis Hafner in 2006. From July 8-18, Mattingly went deep in eight consecutive games, tying Dale Long's 1956 record (an achievement later matched by Ken Griffey Jr. in 1993).
Mattingly's 10 homers during that streak are a big league record for most in an eight-game stretch, and Mattingly also recorded extra-base hits in 10 consecutive games, breaking Babe Ruth's 1921 record. On July 20, Mattingly tied a Major League record by recording 22 putouts at first base.
Many believed that Mattingly was on the fast track to the Hall of Fame, but he was slowed by back injuries over the next six years. Mattingly won the AL MVP Award in 1985, batting .324 with 35 homers and 145 RBIs, and he also finished in the top five in the MVP Award voting in '84 and '86.
Mattingly edged teammate Dave Winfield in a memorable race for the the AL batting title in 1984 by hitting .343. But from 1990-95, Mattingly averaged fewer than 10 home runs and 64 RBIs per season, topping the .300 mark just once, in the strike-shortened 1994 season.
"I was pretty good for a short period, and when I got banged up and hurt my back, it kind of robbed me of some things, things I wasn't able to do after that," Mattingly told ESPN. "That's just the way it is. There are a lot of guys who are probably in my boat, good players who got banged up and found it hard to be productive after that.
"For me, it was hard just to stay on the field. I was on the DL once a year, maybe twice, for the last five years. When you do that, it's really frustrating because you start rolling a little bit and the next thing you know, you're on the shelf. Couple that with my kids and everything and it's enough."
While voters may not feel that Mattingly's career matches up, his supporters raise the comparison to the Twins' Kirby Puckett, a first-ballot inductee in 2001 whose career was cut short after the 1995 season due to irreversible retina damage in his right eye.
Mattingly retired with 2,153 hits to Puckett's 2,304, 442 doubles to Puckett's 414, 222 homers to Puckett's 207 and 1,099 RBIs to Puckett's 1,085. Mattingly posted three more 100-RBI seasons than Puckett and two more 30-homer seasons, while winning one more MVP Award and the same number of batting titles.
Puckett's apparent advantage came in team hardware, as he played an integral part in the Twins' two World Series titles in 1987 and '91. Mattingly appeared in the postseason just once, losing in the AL Division Series in his final season, 1995.
So for now, Mattingly's Monument Park tribute may have to do. When his number was retired by the Yankees in 1997, a plaque was posted beyond Yankee Stadium's outfield wall to honor his career.
"A humble man of grace and dignity," reads the plaque. "A captain who led by example. Proud of the pinstripes tradition and dedicated to the pursuit of excellence. A Yankee forever."
Bryan Hoch is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @bryanhoch and read his MLBlog, Bombers Beat. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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