Hall snub for Mattingly as McGriff gets in
SAN DIEGO — Don Mattingly’s wait continues.
The former Yankees first baseman was passed over for the Baseball Hall of Fame again, when he didn’t get the required votes from the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee on Sunday at the winter meetings.
Fred McGriff, who was drafted by the Yankees in 1981 before a 19-year career that earned him the nickname
“Crime Dog,” was the only player elected by the committee.
Mattingly, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro, Curt Schilling, Albert Belle and Dale Murphy all fell short.
Players needed to get a dozen votes among the 16person committee and McGriff was a unanimous choice.
Mattingly was next with eight votes, while Schilling received seven votes, Murphy earned six and Bonds, Clemens, Palmeiro and Belle all got fewer than four votes.
In his 15 years on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Ballot, Mattingly never came close to the 75 percent needed for enshrinement. The most he got was 28.2 percent in his first year of eligibility in 2001.
“It’s a desire [to be a Hall of Famer],” Mattingly said last week on “The Show with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman” podcast. “I think every player, it would be something that if you felt like you knew you’ve done enough. Obviously people look at it as being on the borderline, right? There’s people that voted for you, people that didn’t, different committees put you on and things like that. So obviously you’re one of those guys that’s on the borderline.’’
Mattingly’s playing career was cut short by a chronic back injury that robbed him of his power, but he was an All-Star six times, won nine Gold Gloves at first base and was the American League MVP in 1985, to go along with three other top-10 finishes for the award.
He finished his 14-year career in 1995 with a .307 average, 2,153 hits, 222 homers and an OPS of .830.
“I don’t know how else to look at it other than you played your cards, proud of my career to an extent,’’ Mattingly said. “I know it didn’t end the way I wanted it to as far as production or time. But those are also cards that you’ve been dealt and you do the best you can with it.”
Mattingly was among the trio of noncontroversial players on the ballot, along with McGriff, who hit 493 homers for six teams in his career, and Murphy, a two-time NL MVP for the Braves who played 18 seasons.
Bonds, Clemens and Palmeiro were all strongly linked to steroid use and Schilling and Belle have long been polarizing figures.
McGriff was drafted by the Yankees in 1981, but was traded to Toronto the next year as part of a package for Dale Murray in an ill-fated deal, as Murray pitched poorly for the Yankees over parts of three seasons.
Meanwhile, McGriff went on to star with the Blue Jays, Padres, Braves, Rays , Cubs and Dodgers in a career that ended in 2004.
The lefty-swinging first baseman spent 10 years on the BBWAA ballot and peaked at 39.8 percent in 2019, his final year of eligibility.