Baseball Legend Don Mattingly Joins Music City Baseball, LLC As Baseball Advisor

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Don Mattingly. Photo: Courtesy of the Miami Marlins

The Nashville Stars organization has added MLB legend Don Mattingly as its newest Baseball Advisor.

Mattingly, who will start his first season as the Toronto Blue Jays bench coach this upcoming season, will provide counsel on key strategic matters and work to gain support in bringing a Major League Baseball franchise to Nashville.

“The approach that Dave Stewart and his team have in Nashville is exactly what the game of baseball needs,” says Mattingly. “I am glad to see MLB taking an active approach on these important issues. We need more diversity in the game, and it starts from the top-down.”

Mattingly spent all 14 seasons of his MLB career with the New York Yankees, winning the 1985 AL MVP Award and nine Gold Gloves, while being named to six All-Star teams. He was named as the franchise’s 14th captain in team history in 1991, serving until the end of the 1995 season.

After his playing days, he served in coaching positions with the Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. He accepted his first managerial job with the Dodgers in 2011 and led the team to five winning seasons. Afterwards, Mattingly managed the Miami Marlins from 2016-22 and won the NL Manager of the Year Award in 2020.

His support will help advance a plan to develop a diverse investor group with a goal of becoming the first MLB franchise to have majority Black ownership, expanding on the league’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The ownership group is led by former MLB pitcher and front office executive Dave Stewart, who won three World Series titles as a player with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, and Toronto Blue Jays.

The Stars name pays homage to the Negro Leagues teams that played in Nashville in the 1940s and 1950s and is supported by an ongoing partnership with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City.

“Simply put, Don Mattingly knows baseball,” says Stewart. “He was a pure hitter, played near-flawless defense, and has been successful as a manager and coach because of his baseball mind. He is well-respected around the game of baseball, and we are lucky to have him with us.”

Mattingly is familiar with the city of Nashville as he spent one year of Double-A with the Nashville Sounds in 1981. Mattingly was named the Yankees’ Minor League Player of the Year after batting .316 with seven homers and 98 RBIs in his lone season with the Sounds.

Steven Boero
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