MARK Teixeira made it clear this week how much of a Don Mattingly fan he was growing up, with everything from having a Mattingly poster in his bedroom to wearing a Yankees cap to Camden Yards when the Yankees would come to play the Orioles.
Turns out, Mattingly is just as much a fan of Teixeira’s and is thrilled he helped shape the way the slugger plays the game.
“Teixeira’s a great player, there’s no question about that and I appreciate the way he plays and I think the Yankee fans are going to enjoy him,” Donnie Baseball said. “I had lunch with him a few years back, so I knew he was a fan. He seemed like a really good kid.”
Told that a Mattingly poster remains on the wall of Teixeira’s old bedroom at his parent’s home, Mattingly laughed and said, “Oh, geez.”
It is the way that Teixeira plays the game, with respect, the same way the Yankees captain played it, that impresses Mattingly most.
“That’s a great feeling to realize you had impact on somebody by really just being myself, more than anything. That’s the best part because I never really tried to be a role model or anything like,” said Mattingly, who once again will be Joe Torre’s hitting coach with the Dodgers in 2009. “I really tried to be myself and play the game the way I learned to play it and love playing it and when that rubs off, it’s kind of a nice thing to see.”
Mattingly said he can see some of his style in the switch-hitting Teixeira.
“His swing is a little different than mine in that he is more of an upper-cutter, more of a power swing than I had him,” the former MVP said. “But when you look at guys and you hope that you shaped the way they play and I see some of that when I look at him.”
Mattingly said Teixeira is just what the Yankees need at the plate and at first base, and he should know one first baseman to the other.
“I think he’ll fit in great, he’s the kind of guy that plays every day. He’s kind of what you look for, a switch-hitter, and you got a defender over there at first, and from their end, they’ve kind of missed that for a while, since Tino (Martinez),” the nine-time Gold Glove winner said.
That’s no slam on Jason Giambi, just the reality of the situation.
“Jason wasn’t a good defender when he came over, so they knew it when they got him, but it’s great to have a defender who’s also got that offensive punch,” Mattingly said. “When you spend the money on pitching like the Yankees have, you better have somebody who can defend too.”
As for the fact that the young Teixeira would wear a Yankee cap when he would come to watch Mattingly play at Camden Yards, Mattingly laughed and said, “That shows he’s a little crazy too, that’s always good for New York.”
kevin.kernan@nypost.com