I grew up within the range of WPIX and therefore watched a lot of Yankee games on TV back in the day. In 1989, when Bucky Dent took over from Dallas Green as manager, Dent moved Mattingly from his customary position in the batting order, 3rd, up one slot to #2.

In the first inning, Mattingly showed bunt. I can't recall whether he actually attempted to bunt, or did bunt, or only showed bunt. What I vividly remember is Phil Rizutto immediately singing Mattingly's praises for adjusting his game along with his new position in the batting order.

I found that box score rather easily, as Mattingly batted in the #2 position in just one game in 1989. See here for the Event Finder search that revealed it.

Now here's where it gets interesting. In Joel Sherman's book that I mentioned in this post, he characterized Mattingly's bunt as his way of ridiculing Dent for moving him to second in the lineup, and recalled some nasty words that Mattingly had after the game.

How interesting to see the different perspectives between Rizutto and the truth, at least as Sherman presents it.

One thing we know for sure...Mattingly was moved back to the #3 hole the next day.

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