Don Mattingly hoping 19th chance is finally his Baseball Hall of Fame breakthrough

Here is where we retell a story that has been told and retold and retold without an ending that most Yankees fans find suitable.Don Mattingly has been on a Hall of Fame ballot 18 times and has been rejected 18 times.Will it be lucky No.

19, symbolic of a Yankees 19th-round pick?The baseball world will find out Sunday, when Mattingly will be one of eight candidates whom the 16-member Contemporary Baseball Era Committee, which meets at the Winter Meetings in Orlando, will consider for induction.“Donnie Baseball” needs 12 votes — which would be four more than he received three years ago — to achieve baseball immortality.The seven other players on the ballot are Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela.

Voters, who include Hall of Famers, MLB executives and veteran media members/historians, can select up to three players.The last time this group convened, Fred McGriff received 16 votes to gain enshrinement, while Mattingly finished second with eight.Murphy, a contemporary who has been linked with Mattingly, earned six votes.

In a significant rule change this year, candidates who receive fewer than five votes will not be eligible in the next cycle.Any candidate who doesn’t receive at least five votes twice would be off the ballot permanently.If he finds those four extra votes to crack 75 percent, Mattingly’s journey to Cooperstown would span a quarter of a century, a would-be Class of 2026 member who first appeared on a ballot in 2001.In his first try, the Yankees icon received 28.2 percent of the vote, which became his zenith in 15 years on the general ballot.

Subsequent attempts through the Eras Committee, which meets every three years, have ended similarly.“I hope I get in,” Mattingly said recently on “The Show with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman” podcast.“Obviously everyone would like to be recognized for that.”Mattingly’s numbers remain the same, but maybe his post-career y...