He’s Not the Swinger He Was in His Prime : Yankees’ Mattingly Has to Cut Down on Practice Time as Back Trouble Continues to Cut Down His Statistics

The Hit Man is hitting less in the hope he can hit more.

He is hitting less in the hope he can continue to play.

“I always took the driving range approach to hitting,” New York Yankee first baseman Don Mattingly said in an interview in Oakland the other day.

“Two hundred to three hundred swings a day, two to three hours a day,” Mattingly said. “It got to the point where I didn’t think I could play unless I took the extra swings. It was a Mental crutch of sorts.”

He would hit all winter in the cage in his garage at his Evansville, Ind., home, then hit all summer in cages throughout the American League. He hit, period--prompting people to call him baseball’s best player, one of the best in Yankee history.

In fact, after his first three seasons, he had driven in more runs than Lou Gehrig at a similar point in his career, hit more home runs than Mickey Mantle, had more hits than Babe Ruth and had a higher batting average than Joe DiMaggio.

He won the AL batting title with a .343 average in 1984, his second full season, and he won the most valuable player award in 1985 with a .324 average, 35 home runs and 145 runs batted in.

The Sporting News selected him AL player of the year in 1984, ’85 and ‘86, a span in which he averaged 30 homers and 123 RBI. He had 238 hits and 53 doubles, Yankee records, in 1986, when he batted .352, and he won the Gold Glove award five consecutive seasons, starting in 1985.

But then, taking infield practice before a game in Milwaukee on June 4, 1987, the year in which he tied a major league record by hitting home runs in eight consecutive games, Mattingly went down for a ground ball and couldn’t get up.

His back had spasmed, and he went on the disabled list for the first time in his career, the first of three times in four years that the back would put him on that list.

Mattingly’s statistics began to ebb, but he continued to cope, continued to tee it up in the cages until last year, when he signed a five-year, $19.3-million contract extension in April and then missed a career-high 60 games, batted a career-low .256 (his career average had been .323) and hit five home runs with 42 RBI.

A summer of recurring spasms and uncertain availability bottomed out in late July when George Steinbrenner, still operating the Yankees before his removal by Commissioner Fay Vincent, called Mattingly in Texas and said that was enough, that it was time for rest, therapy and an extensive examination.

“It was a frustrating, disappointing and depressing year,” Mattingly said. “I was struggling, the team was struggling and there was the thing with Steinbrenner and the commissioner. It was as if everything was going to hell, and it was especially tough fighting the feeling that my body was that far gone.

“There was no way my career could have continued the way it was, but I never felt I was through. I knew I could come back with the right program. I had just never stuck with one before.”

Mattingly visited Dr. Robert Watkins, a Los Angeles specialist, and learned that the bulging disk in his lower back was a congenital defect that didn’t require surgery and could be handled by strengthening the abdominal and lumbar muscles with 30 minutes of exercises per day.

Watkins asked Mattingly how much extra hitting he did and pulled the plug, telling him to try to keep it to 70 or 80 swings two or three times a week.

Mattingly accepted the program and has stayed with it. He views the exercises as a daily challenge and does them at home or in the hotel, getting to the park at the prescribed time for pregame batting practice.

“People always used to tell me I worked too hard, but when you’ve had success doing it a certain way, it’s hard to tell yourself to change,” Mattingly said.

“I suppose the body can only take so much, but I don’t think the extra hitting really hurt me physically as much as it helped me mentally. I feel strong enough now that I think I could handle it if I felt I needed it, but I cut it off after 75 or 80 swings now no matter how I feel.”

How does he feel? Friends and strangers ask him daily and he pushes the button and says he feels fine, excited, confident of his ability to prove he can stay on the field, letting the statistics take care of themselves.

“It’s a new beginning, a new chapter for me, the post-back chapter,” Mattingly said. “My only goal is to stay healthy. I’m not going to try to compare myself with the past. That’s kind of like a cross I have to carry.

“It gets under my skin when people say I won’t be the hitter I was in ’84. All I ask is for people to let the season play out and judge me when it’s over.

“I mean, I don’t want to feel like I have to defend myself. People ask what kind of a year I’m going to have and I want to say I can still do it, but then I tell myself to shut up, go play, let your performance talk for you.”

Based on his performance, Mattingly would be talking quietly.

After appearing in 16 games when he returned from six weeks on the disabled list last September, he went into Saturday night’s game in Seattle with five RBIs and a 1991 average of .263. He had only one home run in his past 337 at-bats.

Mattingly said he thinks he can still get 200 hits a year, still hit 20 to 30 homers. He is only 30, but his status as one of baseball’s premier hitters is uncertain. He must prove that he can still twist that back on a 90-m.p.h. fastball.

“Naturally, I wanted to come back with a bang and get hot right away,” he said. “I’m disappointed that I haven’t done that and am not driving the ball better, but it’s a long race.”

MATTINGLY’S DECLINE

From 1984 through 1989, Don Mattingly was one of baseball’s premier hitters. But back problems in 1990 reduced his effectiveness in every offensive category. A look at 1990 in relation to his average performance from 1984-89:

YEARS G AB R H 2B HR RBI AVG 84-89 153 622 97 203 43 27 114 .327 1990 102 394 40 101 16 5 42 .256