Episode 8

Don Mattingly Interview

Guest

Don Mattingly

Host

Shane Herman 

About This Episode

Shane Herman: Hello, I’m here with Don Mattingly of the Miami Marlins. How are you Don?

Don Mattingly: I’m good.

Shane Herman: Is it hard work being a manager?

Don Mattingly: I don’t know if I’d consider it hard work. There’s a lot of work because you have a lot of different things going on. So I wouldn’t, I don’t look at it as like manual labor type stuff, but more a lot of just thinking, planning, different groups of guys. ‘Cause you have the hitters, the hitting coaches, pitching coaches, infielders, outfielders. So you’ve got a lot of things going on.

Shane Herman: Yeah. So what’s your favorite food?

Don Mattingly: Favorite food? Like all food maybe?

Shane Herman: Yeah.

Don Mattingly: I’d say probably my favorite, you know, like I love good pizza. Pizza would be one of my favorites.

Shane Herman: Yeah. Pizza’s really good.

Don Mattingly: Yeah. You like pizza?

Shane Herman: Oh yeah. What’s your favorite place to get pizza at?

Don Mattingly: My sister has a pizza place back home.

Shane Herman: That’s really nice.

Shane Herman: It’s called Turoni’s Pizza.

Shane Herman: Oh yeah.

Don Mattingly: It’s awesome pizza.

Shane Herman: Yeah. Do you like managing or playing better?

Don Mattingly: I think playing’s always the best.

Shane Herman: Playing is really fun. So, how many hours a day did you practice when you were playing?

Don Mattingly: Well it depends. Different Times. You know, like during the off season when I was playing is probably, I would be in the gym like three days a week, lifting weights. So, that’s probably a couple of hours. And then I would hit usually late at night going until I can get into a gym to hit was, it’d be like late at night, so I hit like 10 o’clock at night. We’d probably hit for two hours when we hit. And then, you know, just throwing, it’s hard to take ground balls or any kind of work like that in Indiana cause it’s, it’s really cold during the winter.

Shane Herman: Yeah. Do you think you’ll return next year here in Miami?

Don Mattingly: I don’t know. That’s a question for somebody else. So No, I love it here though. It’s been, it’s been fun and I wanna, you know, trying to build this thing and get to the next step is, is something that’s, you know, for me is something that I want to be a part of. So hopefully I’m a part of that.

Shane Herman: Yeah. So you visited the new Yankee Stadium, I believe last year. Did you like new or old Yankee Stadium better?

Don Mattingly: Well probably for me. I like the old Yankee Stadium. Yeah. Just ’cause I played there and it just felt like home. The new one’s very nice and obviously more modern, but you know, I have to say the old one was, for me, it was better.

Shane Herman: Yeah.

Shane Herman: Who’s your favorite player that you manage on the Miami Marlins?

Don Mattingly: On the Marlins?

Shane Herman: Yeah.

Don Mattingly: Oh, so many. So many. You know, probably one of my favorites ’cause I loved him so much. It was, was Jose Fernandez. He was, it was a sad thing, but I loved his energy and what he brought to the team. So he, he was one of my favorites.

Shane Herman: Yeah. So when the Miami Marlins, like two years ago, they made a lot of trades. They traded Yelich away and Stanton away. And the return is starting to pay off. How do you feel about the return from those trades? Like, like in managing them?

Don Mattingly: Yeah, I think that’s the thing. It’s, you know, when you trade those kinds of guys that never looks good at first and then you just see what happens over time. And like, like you said, now we’re starting to see like Yisan Diaz is in the big leagues. Sandy Alcantara is in the big leagues. Zac Gallen got to the big leagues. We traded him for Yaz Chisholm. So, you know, you start to see all the moves.

Shane Herman: That wraps up the interview. Thank you so much Don Mattingly.

Don Mattingly: Alright, you’re welcome.

Shane Herman: Thank you.