Even before he played his first game as a professional, it was obvious that Don Mattingly was on course for a magnificent careeer.
As a youngster playing in youth leages around Evansville, Indiana, Don began to display the promise that has blossomed in the major leauges. Don always was in higher leagues than his peers. He played in leages such as Babe Ruth league and American Legion Ball at ages when his peers were playing t-ball and little leaguge baseball.
In 1975, Don arrived at Memorial High School as a very special athlete. Quentin Merkel was his coach back then and he had the priviledge to winess Don's talent in those early years."I started coaching Don when he was a freshman." Merkel recalls. "There he was our 15 year old first baseman. Even then I always felt he was three or four years ahead of the other players his age. I had already been coaching 12 years when I first met Donnie and he was the first freshman who played for me. He hit over .300 that year."
Mattingly helped his team to an 18-2 record in his first year. In his sophmore year, he hit .345 and Memorial held strong with a 17-6 season. His play soon began to amaze Merkel.
"Not only did he have the physical part of the game down,"he said,"but he had the mental part too. He knew what he was doing. You only had to tell him something once and he had it in his head. It's fun working with a guy like that. He also had intelligent teammates on those teamsand that's why we had such good teams."
Memorial went 30-0 and won the Indiana State Championship in Don's junior year and went 29-0 in his final season before losing the state title game in extra innings. Both years Mattingly hit over .500 and made the Indiana All-State Teams.
He had already built a solid foundation as a hitter, even at such a small level. "He was an amazing individual." Merkel says. "Many high school players fall apart when they have two strikes on them, but not Don. He would even take a strike or two and he'd thrive with two strikes. Basically, he hit anything they threw up there."
Merkel still shakes his head when he thinks of the success that Don has had as a Yankee. "His success has astounded me," he says. "That he has done so well is no surprise, but what he has achieved is amazing. I never dreamed he would do that well. I've coached a bunch of kids, but I never had a kid who could hit the ball as hard and as consistently as that kid."
© 1997 1pmclub@gti.net
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