Jimmy Sez

It's impossible to overstate how much Don Mattingly meant to me when I was growing up. In second grade I had a homework assignment to write about my heroes and present it to my class. The two heroes I chose were my dad and Don Mattingly. A few years later the Yankees made the playoffs for the first time since I was born and the team was clearly rallying around Mattingly in what was likely his final season as a player. When things got tight late in the decisive Game 5 in Seattle, I ran to the bathroom during a commercial break and prayed like I never prayed before. Pleading to let a few bounces go the Yankees way so that Donnie could finally play in the World Series. Spoiler alert: he didn't. In my late teens I spent many hours applying to colleges, most of them requiring essays. The topic of the majority of my essays was Don Mattingly. What he taught me about leadership, work ethic, and the two-way street called respect, even though we had never spoken a word to each other. I w