Sandwiched in there, however, is the 1961 birth of the Greatest Living Ballplayer, Donald Arthur Mattingly, who set the standard by which all future major leaguers will be judged, a man who continues his fight against discrimination of the porn 'stache.

If you were a Yankees fan growing up in the 1980s, Donnie Baseball was your favorite player. Period. I'd imagine it was the same way with George Brett in Kansas City, Rusty Kuntz in Detroit and Pedro Zamora in Real World San Francisco. He was the guy.

Here are some interesting tid-bits on the life and times of No. 23:

• Donnie was named one of the 50 Greatest Athletes ever to come out of Indiana by Sports Illustrated in 1999. And, hey, only two places behind Stephanie White-McCarty, the state women's high school basketball scoring champ!

• Mattingly was one of those "Faces in the Crowd" in a 1979 issue of Sports Illustrated. Other famous Faces: Chris Evert in 1969, Vincent (Bo) Jackson in 1981 and Emmitt Smith in 1986.

• Baseball-Reference.com has a new MVP award share leaderboard, whereby players are ranked by the year-end votes they received. Mattingly had seven top-20 finhishes: 1, 2, 5, 7, 15, 18 and 19, which ranks him at No. 72 all time (2.22), though we know a lot of that is bunk, because Babe Ruth won only one MVP (instead of the 10 he deserved) because of some whack-ass rules.

Among that list, Eddie Murray has the highest rating (3.33/19th) of players who never won a single MVP award. Murray did place in the top-five a whopping six times. Among the best players Mattingly outdistances are Dave Winfield (2.20/72nd), Duke Snider (1.97, 85th) and Mark McGwire (1.94/88th).

• Mattingly's records of most consecutive games with a home run (8) and most grand slams in a season (6) will never be broken. And I'll break the legs of any man who comes close.

• In 1994, Mattingly hit .412, with 79 home runs and 248 RBIs. Well, he would have if the season wasn't cut short by the strike.

• In 1986, baseball fans broke my heart by voting rookie dork Wally Joyner to start the All-Star Game at first base. Thanks a lot, assholes.

• Mattingly's plaque in Monument Park reads, in part, "A Humble Man of Grace and Dignity. A Captain Who Led by Example. Proud of the Pinstripes Tradition and Dedicated to the Pursuit of Excellence. A Yankee Forever."

And in conclusion...

Tonight in Toronto, I implore the Bombers to win one for the Hitman. Actually, just win one, period. That would be nice for a change.

Today's Sports Links:

• Satellite View of Yankee Stadium — Pretty decent shot supplied by the highly addictive Google Maps. Check out this huge collection of interesting map locations that I found on Gorilla Mask.

• Who Is, and Who Isn't, a True Yankee — ESPN.com Page 2's latest sarcastic rip on the Bombers. Here's hoping they meet their quota of 500 this month.

• Ranking the Last 15 No. 1 Overall NFL Draft Picks — Fellow 'Cuse alum C.J.'s interesting analysis of everyone from Tim Couch to Peyton Manning.

• Sheffield Seems Unlikely to be Punished by MLB — Good. It's about time someone took a stand against the boorish fans that poison the stands. We like to define the Malice at the Palace as a low point for sports, but I thought something like that was necessary to spotlight the type of shit players and surrounding fans have to put up with. And who didn't enjoy seeing that towel-carrying fat guy on the court get his clock cleaned? We'll look back on that day as a time when teams got their heads out of the sand and stopped ignoring the trashy behavior was so obvious to everyone else in the crowd.