Yankees legend Don Mattingly abruptly leaves Blue Jays after brutal ending

After Game 1 of the World Series, in which the Toronto Blue Jays thumped the Los Angeles Dodgers and taunted Shohei Ohtani, it felt like New York Yankees icon Don Mattingly had as good a chance as ever to earn the ring that had eluded him across the course of his entire career. When the series flipped back to Toronto with the Jays needing just as single win to clinch, victory felt tantalizingly close. With the baseball in Jeff Hoffman's hands and a one-run lead in the ninth inning of Game 7, Mattingly probably couldn't help but be haunted by his wandering mind, wondering if he, personally, could curse the outcome with a joyous vision.

And then, in a flash, it was flipped. Several more flashes later — a toe tap, a crash in the outfield, the long limbs of Yoshinobu Yamamoto — and the game was in a different column. Mattingly, no longer the Jays' hitting coach but now manning the bench, was undoubtedly heartbroken, but handled it stoically. That's how he's come to do business over the years, after all. No pinstriped championship. No Hall of Fame. Indelible greatness, but unrewarded.

It seems, though, that the disappointment in Toronto may have left a stench he can't escape. Mattingly announced on Thursday that he'd be stepping away with his role, but couldn't quit professional baseball.

He's open to new opportunities — a chance, perhaps, the Yankees should provide in some capacity, after so many years of shooing their legends away.

Yankees legend Don Mattingly will leave the Blue Jays after a devastating World Series

Mattingly will still have a chance to right the universe's many wrongs. He'd love to get back in the game (somewhere else, where the wounds aren't quite so fresh). He has a shot at the Hall in Cooperstown again this winter, and it seems like the momentum is building there.

But it's hard to shrug and get over Game 7 of the World Series, with a lead in the ninth. That's the ultimate in baseball torture, and it happened to a Yankees icon who didn't deserve it. Hopefully, his next landing spot is either outside the AL East or inside the Yankees' family.