Exclusive | Buck Showalter knows how far Don Mattingly is willing to go in World Series pursuit

Buck Showalter did just about everything in baseball.

One thing he never did was get to a World Series.

The same could have been said for his former minor league teammate, Don Mattingly — until now, as the Blue Jays open the World Series against the Dodgers on Friday in Toronto with Mattingly as the bench coach.

And Showalter — who played with Mattingly at Double-A Nashville in 1981 in the Yankees farm system and later was his coach and then manager in The Bronx from 1990 until Mattingly retired after the ’95 season — understands how important it is to him.