EastSPN's Tim Kurkjian believes that Don Mattingly is ready for his close-up as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Once again, EastSPN thinks that what a West Coast team needs is the expertise of someone who played, coached or managed in America's Bedbug Capital, New York City, or in the city that delusionally believes it's The Hub (of WHAT, exactly?), Boston.

So exactly what qualifications does "Donnie Baseball" bring to the depressingly lousy Dodgers? He has ZERO managerial experience. Mattingly played for the Yankees in virtually all of the recent years when they stunk the most. And, let's face it, if merely sitting next to Joe Torre for years qualifies someone to be a manager, Joe's wife Ali must be Miller Huggins.

Finally, if Mattingly is so wonderful, why did the Yankees walk right past him (and his colleague Larry Bowa) and hire Joe Girardi?

Many great athletes worked hard as players but stunk as managers or coaches. Babe Ruth and Wayne Gretzky come to mind. So does Magic Johnson. And where has Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ever coached? He worked hard too.

Perhaps EastSPN should stick to what it does best: telling the rest of America that all we care about is the Yankees playing the Red Sox because “it’s the greatest rivalry in all of sports.” Oh yeah, and firing people like Jon Miller and Joe Morgan.