Mattingly gets offseason training
PHOENIX -- A trip home to Indiana would have been nice after sixweeks of spring training, a 162-game schedule and theunderachieving season the Los Angeles Dodgers had.
Don Mattingly just didn't have time for it.
The former player known as Donnie Baseball had more baseball tocoach, more on-the-job training to get after being named theDodgers' next manager.
So, after the season was over, Mattingly headed to the desert tohonor his commitment to manage in the prospect-rich Arizona FallLeague, the training ground for his turn in the spotlight next yearwhen he takes over for the departed Joe Torre.
"It's been really good for me," Mattingly said. "It's kind ofthe price you pay to get where you're going."
Mattingly is skipper of the Phoenix Desert Dogs and will spendsix weeks -- until the third week of November -- in Arizona,managing every day with a handful of off days as he gets ready forhis first shot as a big-league manager.
"I feel like I'm ready to manage," Mattingly said. "Am I readyfor next year? We've been working on it ever since the seasonended. ... Kind of getting ready for next year as I'm doingthis."
Mattingly has been pulling some double duty while he's here.
With the Dodgers' spring complex, Camelback Ranch, located innearby Glendale, he often goes there after Desert Dogs games forevening meetings with general manager Ned Colletti, Dodgerscoaches, minor-league staff and members of the scoutingdepartment.
"It's been fun to see these guys and be around it and have toactually do it," Mattingly said recently. "A lot of these guys I'veseen, but really you get to see young guys all over the league, soyou kind of get a view of what guys have going on, you have abetter feel for players as you start to see them in the bigleagues."
The Desert Dogs, like the five other teams in the league, are acollection of younger, highly regarded players from a variety ofmajor-league teams. Mattingly gets to work with Dodgers prospectshe knows from spring training; the Desert Dogs have eight playersfrom the Los Angeles organization.
"This is an opportunity for me to show him what I can do,"Dodgers outfield prospect Trayvon Robinson said, "Just in case hegets it in the back of his head like he does need somebody. Needs abaserunner. Needs an outfielder. Needs an outfielder who can comeoff the bench and switch-hit."
Arms draped over the padded dugout railing, Mattingly offers afew words of wisdom and encouragement to his players every so oftenduring games. He's using this fall as a chance to make decisions ingames and watch bullpen sessions, and also to make sure he spreadsout the playing time and teaches.
At 49, he's come up with his managerial style from 14 years as aplayer, seven as a bench coach and hitting coach, and seven as aspecial instructor with the New York Yankees in springtraining.
"You draw off of everyone," Mattingly said. "Everyone you'veplayed for, played against, guys I played with, they create who youare and what you think about how the game should be played and whatyou would do."
Mattingly learned from his former managers, Lou Piniella, BillyMartin, Dallas Green and Buck Showalter, and observed the way teamsplayed under Tom Kelly, Tony LaRussa and Jim Leyland. He decided hewanted to manage later in his playing career.
"You watch all the time, so you're paying attention to everybodyyou play against. So you take from everybody," Mattingly said."Your club kind of tells you how you have to play."
The Dodgers are a club that will be trying to regain control ofthe NL West after winning the division in 2008 and 2009, then beingcontenders in 2010 until things fell apart right after the All-Starbreak.
As hitting coach, Mattingly was along for the bumpy ride as theDodgers parted company with Torre following an 80-82 season.
"A lot of things went wrong, but I don't think we can forgetwhat we did in '08 and '09," Mattingly said. "We were a club thatwas a couple of games from getting to the World Series, with a lotof these same guys, so we can't get too far away from how we gotthere. These guys got us there."
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