Preston Mattingly was a first round pick of the LA Dodgers in 2006, but his baseball career never looked anything like his dad’s.
He never made it out of A ball.
So the 26 year old Mattingly is starting over, having committed to play college basketball for Pat Knight at Lamar in the Southland Conference.
The 6-foot-3 Mattingly averaged 21 points as a senior in HS at Evansville Central (IN), and says that he was a better hooper than he was a baseball player.
“Basketball came naturally for me,” Mattingly told the LA Times. “Baseball, it took me a while to learn how to do stuff. Being an Indiana kid, you grow up, all you do is play basketball.”
So how did he manage to latch on with Lamar? From the Times:Mattingly returned to his native Indiana a few months ago and started working out with Brent Chitty, his former coach at Evansville Central High. Chitty called another of his former players, Pat Knight, and told him he had a player for him.
Mattingly visited Lamar and was offered a scholarship.You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.