Mattingly is a big hit with the Dodgers

The offensive awakening of the Dodgers can be labeled a 3-M production: Manny, Mattingly and Maturity.

If, as an extension of Manager Joe Torre, the work of hitting instructor Don Mattingly -- Donnie Baseball at 47 -- has been overshadowed by the mass mania generated by Manny Ramirez, the latter’s pyrotechnics have served to validate what Mattingly has been preaching.

“I’m talking about a work path that’s simple and steady,” said Mattingly, the credibility of his 2,153 hits with the New York Yankees coming when many of his Dodgers students were still in grade school.

“Have a plan for every at-bat. Understand what the pitcher is trying to do to you and what you need to do to him.

“Manny would rather die than go to bat without a plan. He likes to say, ‘I’ll give the pitcher this much of the plate, but if he misses here, then he’s mine.’ ”

Energized by Ramirez, adapting to their hitting instructor’s concept, the Dodgers have become a confident juggernaut of sorts.

And as Mattingly has watched the maturation, and seen the Dodgers advance to the National League Championship Series, he has emerged on the upside of a “difficult and emotional” 12-month period -- October to October -- and he remains the managerial heir, be it at the end of Torre’s three-year contract or beyond.

Nothing has changed in that regard since Mattingly agreed to come west, an opportunity to familiarize himself with the National League and more, if the managerial plan materializes.

Even Frank McCourt, the owner, has said that he wants to build a line of succession from within, and Torre’s opinion of Mattingly hasn’t changed.

“I recommend him highly,” Torre said. “The ballclub that gets him as a manager will benefit for a long time because there’s a lot he brings to the table. . . . There are things he brings to my attention, as instructor and strategist, I never thought about. We’ve seen here again how players and people relate to his communicative skills.”

Mattingly wants to manage, and thought he was in line as Torre’s bench coach to become the Yankees’ manager last October. But the Yankees first insulted Torre with a World Series-or-else contract offer he rejected, and then chose Joe Girardi over Mattingly to manage -- the first of the body blows that was compounded more seriously by the dissolution of his 29-year marriage to his wife, Kim.

Those proceedings are ongoing, and Mattingly won’t discuss them, but, with three children, there were and are issues that transcended baseball.

Mattingly went to spring training as the Dodgers batting instructor but then asked for a leave. Mike Easler replaced him, and Mattingly watched via television from his home in Evansville, Ind., occasionally dropping in when the Dodgers were in the Midwest.

It wasn’t until mid-season that he felt ready to return as the full-time batting coach, and Easler was reassigned in the organization.

“Life experiences,” he said of what began a year ago. “You can’t replace them or be swallowed up by them. You move on and try to do it in a positive way. . . .

“I’ve been through a lot in the last year, and some of it I wish hadn’t happened, which is obvious. Some of it is still with me and will be for some time, but as a coach here with this team, working with Joe and the players, I generally feel great.”

Not every player will agree with every coach. Stubbornness can be exhibited in different forms -- a Jeff Kent openly critical of the younger players, for example. Veteran Mark Sweeney said that Mattingly brings the credibility of having been a great hitter and the work ethic that went with it.

“Not many hitting coaches come back from the cage with a sweat, and he does. He puts everything into it, and he’s there with you throughout the game,” Sweeney said. “We have some guys who need that credible person staying on them, evaluating on a daily basis, at-bat to at-bat. There may be some guys who disagree, but I’m one guy who understands that hard work translates into better performance, and our at-bats have definitely gotten better.”

The Yankees of Torre and Mattingly forced opposing pitchers into huge pitch counts, but Mattingly said it goes beyond patience.

“If a guy is pumping strike after strike, you can’t just stand up there taking to run up the pitch count,” he said. “What I saw when I’d see the Dodgers on TV in the first half was easy innings that all looked the same to me, and I’d sit there saying, ‘These pitchers can’t be this good, we’ve got to make them work.’ A major league pitcher is going to get his outs, but let’s make him earn them. Let’s have a plan.”

The plan came to full bloom in the sweep of Chicago’s Ryan Dempster, Carlos Zambrano and Rich Harden in the division series. The Dodgers drew 13 walks and got 23 hits in three games, setting the tone in the opener when they let Dempster keep bouncing his split finger, drawing seven walks and forcing him to deliver 109 pitches in 4 2/3 innings.

Progress may be the Dodgers’ most important product.

“It’s like night and day,” Mattingly said of where the hitters are now compared to what he saw from a distance in the first half, “but I don’t take the credit or worry about where I fit in. It’s satisfying to see the progress, but they hear it from all sides. Joe preaches it, Manny preaches it. They’ve grown into it.”

You have to have a plan, and Mattingly is the first to say that getting Manny for free was a very good one.

Who would have thought that validation would come with dreadlocks.