Mattingly interviews for Yankees manager

Evansville native Don Mattingly interviewed for the vacant New York Yankees managerial position in Tampa, Florida, while the Otters introduced their new manager back in Evansville. Rick Peltier covers these stories and more. Watch his sportscast from Tuesday night, October 23rd. The Mattingly phone interview is a FOX 7 Sports Exclusive. Summary of Stories (Don Mattingly Interviews): Evansville native Don Mattingly batted third for the Yankees during his 14-year big league playing career. But, "Donnie Baseball" was up second on Tuesday, as in the second candidate to interview for New Yorks managerial opening. Mattingly flew to Tampa, Florida early Tuesday morning. He first met with the Yankees operations staff headed by General Manager Brian Cashman. Then came the big meeting with owner George Steinbrenner, his sons, Hall and Hank, and other executives. Hank Steinbrenner hinted on Monday that theres a slight favorite for the job, which is believed to be Mattingly Don spent last seasons as the Yankees bench coach. Hes been rumored to be the front-runner to succeed Joe Torre for the past few seasons. In a FOX 7 exclusive, Mattingly shared his thoughts on the situation Tuesday afternoon, via telephone. Yankees broadcaster and former Marlins manager Joe Girardi was the first to interview for the position on Monday. New York first base coach Tony Pena will face the Yankee hierarchy on Wednesday. The Yankees could name their new manager this Friday, during the off-day between World Series games two and three. ----- (Otters hire new manager - Jason Verdugo) The Evansville Otters won the Frontier League Championship two years ago and then lost a franchise-worst 62 games last season. That prompted ownership to make a managerial change. Jeff Pohl was out after just one year. He was replaced on Tuesday by one of his former teammates in the San Francisco Giants organization. Otters owner Bill Bussing introduced Jason Verdugo as Evansvilles new manager on Tuesday afternoon at Bosse Field. The 32-year-old Verdugo will be a very busy man. In addition to his new duties with the Otters, hell also stay on as the head baseball coach at Division-III Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Verdugo has held that post since before the 2002 season. Bussing was originally concerned about Verdugos juggling act, but quickly came to terms with it due to Verdugos impressive resume and desire to win. Verdugos main job is to restore order to the proud Otters franchise. He says hes more than willing to accept that challenge, especially since hes had only three losing seasons in his baseball career. Verdugo has also been the pitching coach of the Saint Paul Saints of the American Association for the past three seasons. He played baseball and football at Arizona State University before graduating in 1997.