MIAMI — He says there are no regrets wearing him down, and if we came to know anything about Don Mattingly back when he was ours, when he and New York engaged in a baseball love affair we assumed would last forever, it is this: He is pathologically incapable of deceit or mistruth.
“I like my job,” he says, and so you have to believe him. You have to take it on faith that Mattingly rejoices in the small victories, the only ones mostly available to a team that has already lost 77 games and remains on pace for 98 despite handing the Yankees their hats Wednesday night, 9-3.