Toronto Blue Jays coach will work first World Series 43 years after MLB debut

Arguably the most famous member of the Toronto Blue Jays staff has done many things in baseball.

Making his debut Sept. 8, 1982, for the New York Yankees and playing all the way until the end of the 1995 season, Toronto Blue Jays bench coach Don Mattingly was the face of the biggest team in baseball for over a decade.

Mattingly won nine Gold Gloves, made six All-Star Games, and won the American League MVP in 1985. In 2004, he began working as a coach for the Yankees, later joining the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, where he was eventually promoted to manager, while also spending time with the Miami Marlins in the same role.

But despite spending the vast majority of his adult life in baseball, Mattingly will do something Friday for the first time: work in a World Series game.

The Yankees have made 41 World Series appearances in their history, vastly outpacing any other MLB team. But from 1981 to 1996 — perfectly bookending Mattingly’s playing career the year before and after — they weren’t in the Fall Classic.

“Obviously, it feels great to get there, and I feel like we’re gonna play well too,” Mattingly told MLB.com earlier this week. “The feeling of fighting to get there is so tense. So, yes, I’m going to enjoy it. It’s been really fun.”

Blue Jays manager John Schneider grew up with Mattingly as one of his favourite players, even having a poster of him on his wall.

“I think with everything that he’s done for me over the past three years, you want to share that with him. He’s been rock solid steady for me, as has everyone on the staff. But I think our relationship over the past three years has really grown to where we really know one another pretty well,” Schneider said earlier this week prior to Game 7 of the ALCS. “Yeah, a small part of me growing up in New Jersey would think it’s pretty cool to be in a World Series with Donnie.”

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