Donnie Baseball

It's that time of year again when the Sports Writers will be submitting their ballots for the Baseball Hall of Fame. As much as I hold my breath every year that The Hit Man's name we be among those being enshrined, I pretty much realize it's slim to none on it happening. This year does have a particularly weak class of first time balloters which includes Walt Weiss and Hal Morris - so your never know. He was sure first ballot HOFer until his back gave out on him, so throw the guy a bone he played on some truly terrible Yankee teams in the early 90s (a topic I'll discuss another time) and he still gave his all everyday - doesn't that deserve something.

I did find this to be an interesting read about Don Mattingly's qualifications for the Hall though. They make some great parallels between his numbers and Kirby Puckett (who's already in) check out the numbers for yourself.

"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, two more 30-homer seasons, won one more MVP award and the same number of batting titles."



But who needs Copperstown when you've got your number retired at Yankee Stadium and you're being groomed to be the next manager of the club. I'll still keep my fingers crossed for him. Though this might finally be the year for Goose Gossage and Bruce Sutter - arguably the two guys that legitimizing the role of the closer.