Yankees Don Mattingly: A Not So Typical 19th Round Draft Pick

In 1979, the Yankees were coming off two consecutive World Series wins. Unbeknownst at the time, it would be another seventeen years before the team won another championship. This is the story of an All-Star first baseman who played with the Yankees during all of those in-between years, just missing a title on both ends of his career.

In 1979, the Yankees drafted 29 players in the June amateur draft. Of those, six made it to the major leagues. Their first pick in the draft, Todd Demeter, is not one of those six.

Freddie Toliver, Stefan Wever, Pete Filson, and Keith Smith all had brief and very anonymous careers in the big leagues. Greg Gagne, a name you probably will recall, was a fifth round…