 Welcome again to Yes, We're Here. I'm Jack Curry and today I'm joined by the great Don Mattingly. Currently, he's the manager of the Marlins. He was an MVP with the Yankees. He was a captain with the Yankees. He was the provider of many memorable moments with the Yankees. And Donnie, before I get started, I need to ask you, how are you and your family doing during these challenging times? No, we're doing okay. Obviously, we're like, you know, a lot of people in the world and in America, just, you know, trying to do our part with the quarantine, trying to, you know, stay healthy, flatten the curve. Obviously, I'm here in Indiana, so it's a lot different than, you know, what we see on the news in New York and really, Jack, if I can, I just want to send a thank you out to all the people that are out there just working on the front lines. And I know we talk about the health care workers and obviously we should, but so many people in supply chains and truck drivers that are, you know, bringing food all over the country, people are still picking up trash. There's people out there working for us, right, as we try to do that. And you're always thankful for that, you know, for those people. So just a shout out and thank you. Well, I think that's a very appropriate way to start this. And I think all New Yorkers and anyone who is dealing with this would thank you for acknowledging them because you're right. We need to stay safe, stay positive and try and make sure that we all get through this together. You're one of 30 men managing a baseball team right now that you don't have any face-to-face contact with. I'm sure there's some virtual contact. How do you handle that? How do you stay in touch with guys and try to keep yourself as close to them as possible during these times of uncertainty? Well, Derek and I think our ownership has done a great job of keeping everyone connected from the bottom of our organization right to the top. We have meetings every week with our Major League staff and then each there's a member, obviously your coaching staff, that's staying in touch with their hitters, staying in touch with the pitchers, your catchers, trying to do different things with video that we can send out to guys to help them, you know, moving forward. But in general, you're just trying to stay in touch, stay connected, keep those guys on the right track as much as possible. So there's ways to do it, but we're all kind of in the same boat, right? We're home and after a while you're like two or three weeks of that, you know, they're trying to just stay healthy and fill the time. When you flashed back to early February before the coronavirus suspended operations, you've got a team coming off a season in which it won 57 games. It's got a lot of young players, a lot of opportunities. What was your message to the Marlins about making 2020 a different season? No, I think my message was simple. It's time. As I said on the plane last year, late in the year and knowing the season we had it, it was a rough season. There were some good things that happened as far as our young pitchers, you know, getting that experience. And so our message was it's time, right? A lot of our top prospects are at that AA AAA level. We're going to have young starting pitching that has, you know, basically a year of majorly experience under its belt. We went out and signed some pre-agents to help us offensively. And it's just time to make that move. We've been building for two years. That part's been rough. Again, Derek's message, ownership's message has been we're going to build this thing from the bottom up. Our organization, I think, has went from 28th or 29th in the minor leagues to, I think, in the top three or four. So our talent level from the trades and things we've done is really starting to surface. You can see it, you can feel it in camp. So the message basically was it's time to make that move. You coached for the Yankees. You managed for the Dodgers. You now manage for the Marlins. But I want to go back to when you were a player. You played for Pinella, Barra, Dallas Green, Buck Showalter. What part of any of those guys is inside of you as a manager? Or are there a lot of things that you poached from some of the guys you played for? Well, I poached from all of them. Ian played with, right? I think you do it as a player when you're coming up. I was fortunate to come up with, you know, Luke Pinella and Bobby Mercer and Goose and Willie Randolph, Ron Guidry. I mean, just numerous guys that you take the good, right? That you want to be. That's part of you. And the same with managers from Billy Martin to Yogi. And as you mentioned, there was lots of them from Buck, Lou, I mean, Dallas, everyone, right? You take from everyone what you want, right? And what you want to be. And so those, that's how you form your opinions and in your beliefs. Donnie, when I flashback to 1995, I told Paul O'Neill this recently, that team finished its season 26 and 7. Even the Yankee teams that later went on to win World Series, I'm not sure they had a must win mentality in the way that that team had. What do you remember about that dash to the postseason? I remember you in Toronto when it finally happened, leaning down and just taking your fist on the astro turf, like finally, I'm finally there, right? You know what, that was probably those teams were probably as much fun as I had playing because we kind of had went through that period where there were some rough leading years. And to be coming out of that, and after the strike in 94, the way we were playing in that group in 95, we just couldn't get it going. And it seemed like we were getting down to the wire, you know, getting down to that last month, that minute run. And I remember just saying, hey, we got to win every day. You know, we got to think like we got to win every day. And that was probably as much fun as I had playing because you're in that NCAA tournament mode of like, hey, we can't afford to lose. And we played like that. And that was so much fun. And, you know, going down the stretch and playing like that is something that you really never forget. You play this epic five game series against the Seattle Mariners end up losing that game five in excruciating fashion. I remember being in the clubhouse in the kingdom, you spoke for 45 minutes. And there was a strange sense of contentment in your answers as almost I got here. I got here, it didn't end up the way that I wanted it to, but I got here. And I remember leaving the clubhouse that night with other reporters, Michael Kay, Joel Sherman, John Heyman. And we all sort of had the belief this is the end. He may not announce it right now, but you could see in his demeanor that he had gotten there. He had tasted it. And now it was probably time to walk away. Obviously, our intuition was correct. What do you remember about all of that? Well, I remember not feeling content after that game. I feel a feeling pain after that game. That was a tough series. And I know they've been playing those games that game five here on the MLB network. And it's like, I do not want to watch that at all. But you're right. I knew I really thought 94 was going to be my last year. But when the strike came, I couldn't couldn't finish like that. I had a pretty good sense just from the standpoint of my, you know, where my kids were at, the time of their life. They were not coming back to New York. They were staying home, playing league, you know, didn't want to leave that. And, you know, I remember telling myself during that year, I still love playing and love being around the guys. But even when we were in New York, I was getting to be like I was on the road. It was almost like I was going to the ballpark and going back home, going to the ballpark and going back home. Found myself earlier to the ballpark every day, you know, two o'clock. And it was like, I'm getting here so early, right? Because I didn't have, you know, it was just like that's the only place I was happy. And so I knew it was at that time, right? And, you know, and so I was content from the standpoint, I was happy that I was able to get to the playoffs, get that shot to play, not content, not obviously not getting the chance to win a World Series. I had a chance to win a World Series, but didn't didn't get there. But I just knew it was the right time for my family. And it was something that if I tried to keep playing, I was going to regret it. And so that's where I was at. Don, your teammates talk about your competitiveness, your dedication, how much you wanted to win. I just wanted to run two anecdotes past you. One, I know you've heard before. Derek Jeter, who's now one of your bosses, talks about being in the minor leagues. You're on a backfield. Nobody's around. The workout is over. And on the way back to the clubhouse, which is 400, 500 feet away, you said to him, let's run. We need to run because you never know who's watching. And Derek said from a young age, you told him that was the right way to do things. And recently, Mariano Rivera told me he had a locker near you in 95. And all he did was watch you because through osmosis and the way you had your routines and the way you interact with people, he learned what it was like to be a Major League player. When you hear two players who became Hall of Famers talk about that impact you had when they were so young. How gratifying is that? Well, obviously, you're you're honored when guys like that look to the way you did things. But it's funny when you're playing. I kind of go to the Charles Barkley thing, you know, we're not role models, which is, you know, in a sense, there's truth to that. Kids shouldn't be watching just athletes, but I think you can't deny as athletes that we are in some way. And I think you want to be respected by your teammates and your peers. And I think that's, I just went about my business getting ready to play trying to win a game every day, try to treat people right. I think I learned that from my father, you treat people with respect, no matter if they're young or old or whatever it is, if it's the guy at the door or whoever it is. And that's the way I try to go about it and not try to think about leaving something more than just being myself and doing the right thing. You mentioned Charles Barkley. I have to ask you because I know you're a big Hoops fan and you were a captain and you were a leader and you were a guy who was in clubhouses. And I'm sure there were times where you did have to have a testy exchange with a teammate. Have you watched Last Dance with Michael Jordan and what have you thought of some of the behind the scenes footage and the way he guided those Bulls teams? I've watched probably every moment of it and I've loved it. He reminds me of Derek a lot. It reminds me of Derek and the way that will to win. And some of the behind the scenes, to me, is the most interesting thing about. For me, it's not the athletes themselves, it's behind the scenes. It's the same with being able to go backstage and watch an artist work and watch people work in that scenario. And that's really cool to get that window to look at that. So I've been watching it. I love it. It's kind of like you feel like at the end, right? And I lived a little bit of this where Michael didn't want to leave the hotel room, right? And I felt like that's the last probably couple years of my career where it was like he didn't really leave the hotel until it was time to go to the field. And because you couldn't really walk around without like in relax. It was like the only place to really relax is in your room. And that's kind of how I lived that way of my last two or three years of playing. So that part of that with Michael, I was like, you knew exactly what he was feeling. Don, you've been autographing some items from Mattingly Charities recently. I want you to tell us who it benefits and how people can help out and be a part of it and where they can find the information. Well, Mattinglycharities.org is what we're able to do it through. And there's a top set of cards that are coming out. It's the 2020, I forgot exactly what they call it, but there's only going to be 20 cards and I don't think there's maybe 20 players that they're doing. They're taking your rookie card and like special artists creating their own version of that card. Yeah. So we sold that card. Everything goes to Mattingly Charities. But it was really cool because we put them on and I think we sold like 190 cards in like 15 minutes or something, which was really kind of cool. But it's a cool set, right? And to be able to do something like that. And really going to put out a video here in the next couple of days, just thinking our followers because it's really cool what happened yesterday. Mattinglycharities.org, we'll make sure that we promote that. Before I let you go, one final question. I'm going to take you into the future now. 50 years from now, there's an older fan who saw you play and he's approached by a younger fan who's not familiar with Don Mattingly's career. And he says to the older fan, who was this guy? What should I know about him? What would you want or hope that the older fan would say about your career and who you were? I would hope that he would say, hey, this was a guy that played the game right, played hard every day, worried more about winning than anything else. That's what I wanted to stand for. I wanted to go out and do my best every day. I always looked at it as a responsibility to the fans and to my family to get my best effort every day and just tried to do that. And there's days you don't feel like you lived up to that, but obviously it's something that I tried to do. As someone who covered you, I can concur that that absolutely was the case. Don, we really appreciate you giving us some time today and we look forward to the day that we can see you back in a dugout. We can see baseball back and that everyone's back to some sense of normalcy. Yeah, thanks, Jack. I'm with you on that. Love to get a little bit more sense of normalcy for everyone and appreciate you having me on today.