Preston Mattingly's unlikely journey: MLB draft at 18, college basketball at 28, back to MLB

INDIANAPOLIS -- He was on a bus headed to a regional high school baseball game when Preston Mattingly was drafted into the ranks of pro baseball. The radio was playing, his teammates were listening, Mattingly's name was announced.

The Dodgers had picked the 18-year-old, 6-3, 200-pound, power-hitting shortstop 31st overall in the 2006 Major League draft.

Mattingly had a hunch it was coming. It was impossible to miss. He knew the inner workings of baseball intimately. His dad is Don Mattingly.

The scouts had been at games his junior and senior seasons, 28 of the 30 teams had shown up to check out this baseball phenom with the name Mattingly. The Yankees had flown him out on one of George Steinbrenner's private jets to work out.

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When the Dodgers came to Indiana to watch him play, they brought their national-level scouts. Mattingly went up to bat in the first inning and hit a home run off of a light pole by the left field fence. He stole bases. He snagged defensive stats left and right.

"It was just like something a superhero would do," said Jason Engelbrecht, Mattingly's baseball coach at Evansville Central at the time. "I turned to someone in the dugout and said, 'He just made a fortune today.'"

As the season played on, calls poured in from major league front office executives. What's your price? Is college on your radar? Are you ready to go pro?

Mattingly was ready. He'd been ready from the time he was a young boy watching his dad put on a Yankees uniform, watching his dad give his heart to the game.

But first Mattingly had his own game to play for Evansville Central. "I was pretty quiet," Mattingly, now 34, said of that bus ride where he transformed from high school star to big league player. "I was focused on the game."

That game would play out, Mattingly's senior season would end and he would be thrust into a world where, even if your dad is Don Mattingly, it's not always an easy world to conquer.

Don Mattingly spent 14 years, his entire MLB career, playing for the New York Yankees as a first baseman. He was nicknamed "The Hit Man", "Don Battingly" and "Donnie Baseball" because he had a swing, a fluid, crushing stroke that some say hasn't been matched.

Mattingly would fight to get to where his dad had been, playing six seasons in the minors. But he never made it to the major leagues. Mattingly saw the ceiling closing in.

"After I got bounced around in the minor leagues, never really performing well enough to make it in the majors," Mattingly said, "I thought it best to go back to college to get a degree."

And he had another idea. Baseball hadn't been his first sport love. That had been basketball.

Mattingly spent a summer training, working on the court day after day and, older than any college basketball player, he went after a seemingly far-fetched dream.

He made the unlikely move from professional baseball to Division I college hoops.

'Doesn't want anything given to him'

Mattingly was a young boy when his dad retired from playing for the Yankees. The family moved back to Indiana, to Evansville, where his dad had played at Reitz Memorial High.

Growing up, Mattingly loved anything with a ball. He was drawn to the competition, he said. He played football, basketball and baseball. But basketball was his favorite.

"Just the pace in which the game moves," he said. "In basketball, you felt you can take over a game by yourself."

Brent Chitty, who was Mattingly's high school basketball coach, first met him when he was a sixth grade player. He watched him quickly rise through the ranks, becoming a star for Evansville Central basketball. But he was a star on the football team, too.

Mattingly had the sports world at his feet, said Chitty. He could have played Division 1 in baseball, basketball or football.

"Growing up in Evansville and his dad being 'Donnie baseball,' he handled it so well," said Chitty. "It's tough, but he's tough, every good definition of tough a man can be."

With Mattingly as his star player and leading scorer, always guarding the other team's best player, Evansville Central had great success, winning seasons, winning sectionals.

Mattingly averaged 20.9 points per game as a senior and was recruited by Pat Knight, who had played for Chitty, and was an assistant at Texas Tech under his father Bob Knight.

When his baseball career ended and Mattingly was ready to come back to the courts, he didn't expect any favors.

"Preston is that guy that he doesn't want anything ever given to him," Chitty said. "And he's going to be the first one to work and the last one to leave. All the while, he is so humble."

Mattingly called Chitty and asked if he could train with him for the summer. He lived with Chitty, his wife Kristen and the family.

It was a summer of intense basketball workouts, conditioning and swimming. Basketball shape is different than baseball shape and Mattingly wanted to earn whatever spot he might find on a team.

By that time in 2013, Pat Knight had become the head coach at Lamar. When he heard Mattingly was ready to play college basketball, he didn't hesitate.

No matter that Mattingly was closer to 30 years old than 20, Knight brought Mattingly to Beaumont Texas to play on his team.

'It made sense. I didn't even flinch at it'

Mattingly's move to college basketball didn't surprise Engelbrecht a bit as he watched his former player from afar. He knew his talent on the court. He knew the struggles he was having on the field.

"As we were watching from a distance his baseball unfold, I can't imagine the burden he carried," said Engelbrecht, now the athletic director at Princeton High. "Everywhere Preston went, those comparisons were going to happen."

Things didn't turn out the way Mattingly had hoped in baseball.

"Maybe he'd reached his ceiling," said Engelbrecht. "And his dream from the beginning was to play Division 1 basketball. It made sense. I didn't even flinch at it."

At Lamar, Mattingly was a leader, though his play on the court was modest, at best.

In his first season as a freshman at the age of 26, Mattingly played in 19 games, starting the final three of the season. He averaged 2.3 points and 1.7 rebounds per game, dished out five assists, recorded three steals and blocked a shot.

He ended his career at Lamar at the age of 28, playing 30 games his final season and averaging 6.2 points. He was a team captain.

Tic Price came in as head coach at Lamar for Mattingly's second season. He often told reporters that Mattingly brought a "wisdom" to the college game, that he was a great mentor to his younger teammates.

Mattingly had a way of showing humility while giving advice. And that is exactly what he has done the past five years -- back in the major leagues again.

'Carved his own path in the game'

Mattingly was named the Philadelphia Phillies' director of player development in September, after spending the past five seasons with the San Diego Padres. He was the Padres' manager of scouting for three years before becoming coordinator of major league advance scouting and game planning.

“Preston has a tremendous background for this position,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said in a statement announcing Mattingly's hire. “He has the ability to combine and use the necessary analytical skills blended with his baseball knowledge and he possesses leadership capabilities that are apparent very quickly."

Mattingly oversees a farm team of 180 players, guiding them with financial decisions, college decisions, looking at life beyond sports.

He said his goal in his new position is simple: "You want to build an organization that allows your players to thrive."

Chitty said the new job is a perfect fit for Mattingly. "What can get lost in all this is that Preston is in it, No. 1, he's in it to win and for the people around him to win," said Chitty, now basketball coach at Columbus East. "He wants that farm system, he wants to help them with their dreams."

And, he added, he would bet anyone a steak dinner that Mattingly is the first one at the training center each morning and the last one to leave.

Don Mattingly agreed that his son has an unmatched work ethic. "I know how hard he has worked to get to this point," Don Mattingly, Miami Marlins manager, told the Evansville Courier & Press in a text message when his son was hired by the Phillies.

“I’m proud of how Preston has carved his own path in the game."

Mattingly did carve his own path, an unlikely path, a determined path -- from high school MLB draft to a 28-year-old DI basketball player then back to where it all began.

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Preston Mattingly's unlikely journey: MLB, college basketball, to MLB