If Your Birthday is April 20th


...you share it with Donnie Baseball. Don Mattingly earned that nickname while starring for the Yankees during the 1980s. A hard-hitting and defensively superior 1st baseman. he might have been on a Cooperstown track. In 1987, he set a major league record with six grand slams and tied Dale Long's mark of homers in eight consecutive games. But back problems from 1990 on changed the course of his career and sapped his power. Though far from the player he'd been during his glory days, he starred in the only post-season series of his career, the 1995 ALDS between the Yankees and Mariners. After a few years away from the game, he coached under Joe Torre, and followed him to the Dodgers before succeeding him as the L.A. manager. Dropped by the Dodgers after three division titles but no trips to the World Series, Mattingly is now in his third season as the Marlins skipper -- a job made far more challenging by ownership's offseason teardown.

Also getting their cake and candles today:




  • Donovan Hand has a great name for a pitcher, but wasn't effective in stints with the 2013 Brewers and 2015 Reds.
  • Todd Hollandsworth, the 1996 National League Rookie of the Year with the Dodgers and currently, a broadcaster with the Marlins.
  • Tommy Hutton also came up with the Dodgers -- though he played most of his career with the Phillies and Expos. Like Hollandsworth he was a member of the Marlins broadcast team.
And we remember another former Dodger: Preston Gomez. The longtime 3rd base coach under Walter Alston played eight games in the majors during World War II. He later managed the Padres, Astros and Cubs.

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