Who's your favorite athlete ever?

You can only choose one!

Sports chat shows are filled with debates — endless debates — about who the best ever is.

Is it LeBron or MJ? (It’s MJ.)

Is it Mahomes or Brady (It’s Brady — for now.)

Is it Babe Ruth or Willie Mays? (I am a Ruth guy.)

Is it Caitlin Clark or Cheryl Miller? (Miller, every time.)

And those are worthy conversations! (Although they get a little tedious day after day!)

But, I actually think they are less revealing — and interesting — than a different question: Who’s your favorite athlete ever?

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Favorite is, of course, different, than best.

“Best” is largely a quantitative measure. How many Super Bowls did they win? How many homeruns did they hit? How many points did they score?

“Favorite” is a more emotional — and therefore subjective — thing. Because it’s not just about the stats an athlete wracked up. It’s about what the athlete meant to you. In truth, your favorite athlete says more about you, usually, than it does about them.

Which brings me to my favorite athlete ever: Former New York Yankees 1st baseman (and captain) Don Mattingly.

Let me set the scene for you: I am 48 years old. Which means that I was a teenager in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I grew up in rural Connecticut. My town was roughly split between Yankees fan and Red Sox fans. My dad was a Yankee fan. So I was a Yankee fan.

Back in those days, there was no “YES” Network. I watched the games on WPIX. It was channel 11 on my TV. Bill White did the play-by-play and the Scooter — Phil Rizzuto — was on color commentary. They rocked. Here’s 9 minutes of them tap-dancing in a rain delay in the mid ‘80s:

The Yankees of the mid to late 1980s were not particularly good. Here’s a look at their win-loss record during the height of my fandom, per Baseball Reference:

They made zero playoff appearances during that span. One of their pitchers — Andy Hawkins — threw a no-hitter and LOST.

It was, in short, a forgettable era of the Yankee dynasty.

But, there was — for me — one bright, shining star: The “Hit Man,” Don Mattingly.

He wasn’t the most highly-touted star of that era. He was a 19th round draft pick by the Yankees out of high school in Evansville, Indiana. He was 6 feet tall and 175 pounds. Nothing special on paper. He came up to the big leagues, briefly, in 1982 but didn’t play a full season until the following year.

And he was immediately outstanding. For a six-year stint in the mid to late 1980s, Mattingly was among the best players in baseball. Here are his stats for that period:

From 1984 to 1989, he made six all-star teams. He led the league in hits twice. He led the league in doubles three times. He won four Gold Gloves for his slick fielding at 1st. He was voted American League MVP in 1985 — at the age of 24! (Mattingly is not, much to my chagrin, in the Baseball Hall of Fame.)

It wasn’t the stats, though, that really drew me to Mattingly. It was his batting stance. And his swing. He was a lefty. He crouched down slightly. He laid the bat on his shoulder as the pitcher wound up. And then he uncorked one of the sweetest swings I have ever seen.

It was just so elegant. So, well, cool. I was (and am) right handed. But I spent hours with a wiffle ball bat hitting lefty so that I could copy Donnie Baseball’s swing. And I got pretty good at it! (I was a much better wiffle ball player than an actual baseball player.)

The height of my Mattingly fandom came in the summer of 1987. In a 10-day period, Mattingly homered in 8 consecutive games — tying a record then held by Dale Long of the Pittsburgh Pirates. (Ken Griffey Jr. would also tie the record in 1993.)

It was absolutely incredible to watch. I remember it like it was yesterday — even though it was 37(!) years ago.

That’s what a favorite player does. He or she pins you to a moment in time — ties your life to his life in some invisible but important way. And just the mention of that athlete takes you back to a different time and place. It’s truly magical.

So, who is your Don Mattingly? Who’s your favorite athlete ever? And why?