Yankees legend Don Mattingly denied Hall of Fame again

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

The former Yankees first baseman once again fell short of induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, coming up six votes shy on the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot, the results of which were revealed on Sunday.

The eight players on the ballot — Mattingly, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela — needed to receive 12 votes from the 16-person committee to earn induction into Cooperstown next July.

Kent was the only member voted in.

This was Mattingly’s 19th time he was up for consideration into the Hall of Fame.

Three years ago, he had fallen short, only receiving eight votes while Fred McGriff was unanimously selected for enshrinement.

In his 15 years on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot, Mattingly topped out at 28.2 percent of the vote, well short of the requisite 75 percent.

“If it doesn’t happen, it’s not going to change who I am, what I think about things,” Mattingly said recently on “The Show with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman” podcast. “No bitterness is going to be in there. But you hope you get that opportunity.”

Mattingly’s next chance for entrance into the Hall of Fame will come in 2028, when the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee votes again. 

If not for a chronic back injury that cut his career short, the 64-year-old Mattingly may have had a smoother and quicker road to Cooperstown.

In 14 seasons as a big leaguer — in which he was a six-time All-Star, nine-time Gold Glover and the 1985 American League MVP — the Yankee hit .307 with a .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 placed second (1986), fifth (1984) and seventh (1987) in MVP voting during his prime.

Mattingly finished his career with a 42.4 bWAR, accruing 33.0 of that from 1984-1989. 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 elected posthumously in 2021 by the Golden Days Era committee.

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

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

He re-entered the spotlight this fall as the bench coach of the Blue Jays, falling painstakingly short of what would have been his first World Series championship.

This year’s Contemporary Baseball Eras Committee — deciding on players whose greatest contributions came since 1980 — featured 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.