I’ve noticed a lot of people really like Mattingly. It’s almost a cult.
They all seem to be from New York or the mid-West.
Why is this?
Yankees fans like Mattingly because he was a team leader and the team's best player in their long postseason drought of 1982-1994. Fans liked his loyalty to the team and his gritty, never-say-die attitude.
Mattingly is also an Indianan, and a proud Midwesterner who did not go all "Hollywood" (or "Broadway"?) when he played in New York, but lived a low-key lifestyle and came back to visit and get involved in the Evansville area often.