Don Mattingly's Hurt - Bring in the next Babe Ruth

I never was much of a Yankees fan growing up, but I was a Don Mattingly fan.  I was from Indiana, and he was from Indiana (southern Indiana no less), so you really didn’t need much more of a connection.

Mattingly was drafted in the 19^th round (493^rd overall) of the 1979 draft by the Yankees.  Other 19^th round draftees had baseball names like Teixeira (not Mark), Howe (not Arte), Rice (not Jim), Orosco (not Jesse), Dunn (not Adam), Rodriguez (not Alex/Ivan), etc.  But none of these baseball names ever made the majors.  He was actually drafted two spots ahead of Tom Henke, who was the first pick of the 20^th round by the Seattle Mariners.

In 1984, in his first full season in the majors, Mattingly led the American League with a .343 batting average, 207 hits and 44 doubles.  He was an All Star and finished fifth in the MVP race.  The following season, he would win the MVP award, leading the league with 48 doubles and 145 RBIs, and again making the All Star team.  He would also win his first Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards.

Remember cool 80's baseball posters?
This is one of them.

In 1986 and 1987, he would finish in the top 10 in the MVP race, make the All Star team, and wing Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards.  In 1987, he set a major league record with SIX grand slams, a feat that has since been matched by Travis Hafner in 2006.

1988 and 1989 saw more of the same from Mattingly.  He didn’t have any votes for the MVP race in 1988, but he was still an All Star and won a Gold Glove.  He finished 15^th in the MVP race in 1989, and again was an All Star and Gold Glove winner.

We all know the Gold Glove award is kind of a sham, but don’t let the fact that Mattingly was an offensive force mask your appreciation for his defense.  He earned those awards.  From his debut in 1982 through the end of the 1989 season, he made 44 errors in 8630 chances.  That’s good for a fielding percent of .995 friends.

But time catches up with every man, and it caught Mattingly earlier than most.  For most of the 1990 season, Mattingly battled back problems.  In early June, Mattingly was still hitting .283, but from June 4^th through July 24^th, he would only hit .201.  Surrendering to his back, he would go on the DL through the middle of September.  When he came back, he hit safely in 12 of 16 games through the end of the season with a .333 average.

With Mattingly on the shelf, someone had to play first base.  The 1990 Yankees were not a good team, finishing 65-97 on the year.  The only player with over 100 at bats that hit over .300 was 36 year old backup catcher Rick Cerone.  As a team, they only hit .241.  So the bar for Mattingly’s replacement was set pretty low.

Enter the next Babe Ruth – Kevin Maas.  Through the end of June of 1990, Maas had hit .284 with 13 home runs at AAA Columbus, giving him a total of 58 through 1505 minor league at bats.  Divided out, this was a home run every 53.75 at bats.  As unbelievable as it may sound, Babe Ruth’s minor league stats aren’t exactly complete, but what does appear is that what records there are, he only hit one home run in 121 at bats.  Given those facts, we know that Maas was clearly about to hit well over 1000 home runs.

Maas would make his debut on June 29^th, 1990, going 1-3 with a strikeout as the designated hitter in a 1-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox.  The next day, also at DH, he would go 1-3 again with a walk and he would pick up his first career RBI.  But he still had no home runs.  As a matter of fact, he would play another two games before finally hitting a home run in career game number five, off of the Royals’ Brett Saberhagen.  For those of you keeping track at home, this was now an average of one home run for every 15 at bats.  Not Ruthian.

Three games later, he would connect for home run number two off of the Twins’ Kevin Tapani.  It was a three run shot early on in the Yankees 5-4, 12 inning victory.  The home run ratio was now one to every 12 at bats.

Bear with me here, this will probably be boring for a few minutes, but it will get better.  Hopefully it will anyway.

Let’s skip the next two homerless games, and go to July 14^th, where Maas would go 3-5 with two home runs and five RBIs in the Yankees 8-7 loss to the White Sox.  Maas would tag the Sox’ Adam Peterson for a two run home run in the second inning, and again for a solo shot off of Peterson in the fourth inning.  Just for good measure, he’d add a two run, game tying single in the eighth.  Unfortunately, Lee Guetterman couldn’t hold the lead, surrendering a go ahead solo home run from Ron Karkovice in the top of the tenth.  The Yankees would get a leadoff double off of the Sox Donn Pall before retiring the next two, issuing an intentional walk to Mattingly.  They survived Bobby Thigpen entering the game and immediately hitting Jesse Barfield with a pitch before Thigpen struck out Bob Geren to earn his 29^th save of the season on his way to 57 saves.  Back to Maas.  That now gave him an average of one per 7.5 at bats.  Now we’re cookin’!

The next five games saw a mini slump from Maas as he only hit .200 with no home runs.  The next three games saw him connect for three home runs off of the Texas Rangers’ Kevin Brown, Bobby Witt, and Nolan Ryan.  Unfortunately, these were the only hits he had in 13 at bats, with six strikeouts.  The Yankees lost all three games, but that’s not what this is about.  Maas’ home run average was now one for every eight at bats.

Fast forward through the next homerless (and hitless) games, and Maas would connect for another home run off of the Detroit Tigers’ Dan Petry.  His home run ratio was now one to every 8.63 at bats.

Two days later, he would connect for two more home runs off of the Tigers’ Walt Terrell and Paul Gibson.  Both were solo shots, and the Yankees lost 6-5 to the Tigers in 14 innings, a game that would see Angels and Tigers legend Frank Tanana get his only career save in 638 games pitched.

I had 2.4 career WAR!

Maas’ two home runs gave him 10 through his first 77 career at bats.  This was the fastest that anyone had ever hit 10 home runs, besting the previous record of 79 at bats set in 1966 by the Red Sox’ George Scott.  Maas was not finished.  He would also set records for fewest at bats to reach 13 home runs (110; Sam Horn did it in 123), 15 home runs (133; Wally Berger did it in 135) and tied for the major league record for most home runs in his first 100 at bats (12, tied with Dave Hostetler).

All in all, in 1990 in 254 at bats, Maas would hit .252 with nine doubles, 21 home runs, 41 RBIs, and 42 runs to go along with 43 walks and 76 strikeouts.  Being a left handed hitter in Yankee stadium, you probably would imagine that would have helped him quite a bit.  It did, but not so much in power as it did in batting average.  In 43 games at home, spanning 135 at bats, he hit .281 with 12 home runs.  In 36 games on the road, spanning 119 at bats, he hit .218 with nine home runs.

One aspect of his game we overlooked was his defense.  That’s because in 57 games at first base, he made nine errors.  Project that out over a full season, and you’re sitting around 25.  That’s over halfway to Mattingly’s total in the previous eight seasons.  He actually finished tied for third in the AL for errors as a first baseman, despite only playing a third of a season there.

Maas’ 21 home runs in 1990 set a Yankee record for a left handed rookie, which still stands to this day.  Maas would finish second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting in 1990 behind unanimous winner Sandy Alomar Jr.

After his age 25 season, Babe Ruth had 103 home runs, 54 of which had came in his age 25 season.  Maas clearly had some catching up to do, but there was clearly nothing to be worried about, right?  Uh, sure.

Maas was the Opening Day DH for the Yankees in Detroit in 1991.  Being the next Babe Ruth, he hit a two run home that day.  Unfortunately, he’d only have one more in April.  He hit four in the first 10 days in May, and three more later in the month.  He only had four the entire month of June, and only one in July.  He only added four more in August, and three in September.  If he hadn’t hit two home runs on the last day of the season, he would have had the same number of home runs as the year before in nearly twice the at bats.  For the ’91 campaign, he finished hitting .220 with 23 home runs and 63 RBIs paired with 83 walks and 128 strikeouts.  The pressure of playing in New York may have got to him, as only eight of his 23 home runs were at home.

1992 saw reduced playing time for Maas, only hitting .248 with 11 home runs in 286 at bats over 98 games.  In 1993, shuffling back and forth between AAA Columbus and New York, he only hit .205 with nine home runs in 151 at bats over 59 games.

Before the 1994 season, he was released by the Yankees, and signed by the San Diego Padres.  In 4 games and 15 at bats for AA Wichita, he hit .533 with three home runs.  He was quickly advanced to AAA Las Vegas, where he came back to reality, hitting only .244 with 4 home runs in 90 at bats.  The Padres released him at the end of May, and he was signed by the Reds shortly after.  He put up decent numbers at AAA Indianapolis, hitting .290 with 19 home runs, but the Reds released him after the season.

1995 saw Maas sign with the Minnesota Twins.  He was released at the end of June after hitting .193 with four doubles and a home run in 57 at bats for the big club.  The home run he hit off of the Royals’ Mark Gubicza on May 2^nd would be the last of his career.  He was signed by the Yankees after being released by the Twins, and was assigned once again to AAA Columbus.  He spent the 1996 and 1997 seasons in the minors for the Brewers, Reds and Astros, but he would hang it up after that.


The real Babe Ruth had just hit 60 home runs in his age 32 season, and sat at 416 home runs for his career.  The next Babe Ruth finished his career at age 32 with 65 home runs.  Let's forget all of this ugliness, and salute Kevin Maas, Patron Saint of Unhatched Chickens.