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Sweet Swings and Gold Gloves: Don Mattingly Rookie Cards Still Popular with Collectors

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You’ve got to be a ballplayer’s ballplayer to actually have the word “baseball” attached to your nickname.  When it comes to the phrase “born to play the game,” it’s hard to beat  “Donnie Baseball.” Despite never having competed in a World Series or being in the Hall of Fame, he’s extraordinarily popular.  A brilliant bright spot during a time in which the New York Yankees struggled to reach .500 most years, he was a favorite of collectors then and still today, Don Mattingly rookie cards are in demand.  

Yankees Captain

Mattingly managed to record 2,153 hits and a career .307 batting average while under the national microscope during his 14 years with the Yanks. He was steady, consistent and productive and his name brings back great memories for collectors who loved seeing his cards emerge from packs in the 1980s.  

Mattingly collected some serious hardware during his career as a player. He was the 1985 American League MVP and earned nine Gold Gloves at first base. A Society for American Baseball Research article put it in perspective:  “His .9959 percentage means that every 1,000 times the ball came his way, he made only four errors.”

He was the captain of the Yankees from 1991-1995 and his number #23 was retired by the team after his career ended.

His plaque in Monument Park reads, “A humble man of grace and dignity, a captain who led by example, proud of the pinstripe tradition and dedicated to the pursuit of excellence, a Yankee forever.”

Growing Up Mattingly

Mattingly was a baseball star in his hometown of Evansville, Indiana, leading Reitz Memorial High School to 59 straight victories and a state baseball title in 1978. He was a multi-sport athlete much like many of the professional peers of his day. He was the starting quarterback for his high school football team but his heart was certainly set on baseball. Mattingly was a 19th round selection by the New York Yankees in 1979, receiving a $23,000 signing bonus.

His trek in the minor leagues was relatively quick with stops in Nashville and Columbus before joining the Yankees. Wherever he went, he always hit for average. It helped him earn another nickname, “The Hit Man.” The Yankees called him up for his first taste of the big leagues on September 8, 1982.

The Scoop On Mattingly Rookie Cards

Don Mattingly rookie card

His success in 1983 pushed all three trading card makers to put Mattingly rookie cards into their 1984 sets.  The ’84 Donruss rookie has always been the most popular of the three. It was definitely a favorite of 1980s kids during a time when Donruss packs were considered significantly tougher to find than Topps or Fleer.  The image doesn’t hurt, with Mattingly playing the role of steely eyed Lou Gehrig lookalike.
 
The 1984 Donruss Mattingly rookie card remains the most valuable of the trio.  It’s proven quite tough to land a Gem Mint 10 grade, with such copies often selling for over $1,000 and fewer than 300 currently in existence. A Mint 9 graded example is around $100-$120 and 8s can be had for around $35-40.  
Don Mattingly 1984 Topps
 
Mattingly’s 1984 Topps rookie card shows him in fielding position with a small head shot photo insert. 1984 Topps is plentiful and the card is easily available in NM/MT condition for around $10; Mint 9 copies are easy to find and run only about $25-$35 while Gem Mint 10s typically push over $125 with over 800 on PSA’s Population Report alone.  
In Canada, kids were buying O-Pee-Chee Mattingly rookie cards back in ’84.  They were virtually identical to the U.S.-made Topps cards thanks to a partnership between the two companies, with the exception of the O-Pee-Chee logo and the back text, which was in French and English. 
 
 
OPC Mattingly rookie cards are probably a little underrated.  There are only about 8.7% as many OPC rookies compared to Topps and as of this writing, only 392 9s and 48 10s on PSA’s Pop Report.
There’s also a Nestle version of his ’84 Topps rookie card.  The company offered a promotion where you could send in for an uncut sheet and those who acquired the sheet with Mattingly sometimes opted to cut it up with single cards often found today in a wide range of prices based on condition. Both singles and uncut sheets are sometimes available online.
 
 
The Topps Tiffany sets kicked off in 1984 as a special set offered to dealers during the season.  Only 10,000 were produced.  The cards are printed on a higher quality glossy style but are otherwise identical to the flagship card. Prices are somewhat comparable to the Donruss Mattingly cards, although not nearly as plentiful with only a little over 350 of them rating 9 or 10 via PSA.
 
The 1984 Fleer Mattingly rookie card photo shows him in the field during batting practice at Fenway Park, wearing a warmup top. The picture was taken by longtime Fleer photographer Steve Babineau.
 
Among the three primary Mattingly rookie cards, it’s been graded the fewest times.  NM/MT examples are an easy score at less than $10 with graded 9s running $20-$30 despite a population that’s less than either the Donruss or Topps.  Graded 10s are currently selling at $300-$350.
You can also find Mattingly in the sticker sets issued by Topps and O-Pee-Chee during that 1984 season. He appears on a two-sticker panel with Brewers pitcher Tom Tellman. 
 
 
Except for high-end graded examples, the stickers can usually be had for under $10.
Mattingly also has some minor league cards from his days with Nashville (1981) and Columbus (1982) that are generally inexpensive. He played a good bit of his minor league career in the outfield before transitioning to the position he’d occupy for his entire career:  first base.
 
 
Mattingly is still popular with collectors who fondly remember his career.  With his playing days now a generation in the rearview mirror, he’s become more comfortable in his role as a fan favorite, signing plenty of autographs and doing more than his share of  charity work. He still helps raise money for youth sports charities through his Mattingly Charities foundation.
 
Carrying the pedigree of an all-time great Yankee and one of the top players of the era, Mattingly rookie cards stand as some of the most collected and most popular rookie cards of the post-War era.  

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About Chris Goodman

Chris Goodman is a Midwest-based writer and broadcast pro who has been covering sports for more than 15 years. He's also a licensed insurance agent with experience in all types of coverage.