Those of us who covered or just watched Don Mattingly when he played for the New York Yankees knew we were watching a multi-talented baseball player. He could hit, both for average and for power, and he was a fabulous first baseman.

We never knew, though, how multi-talented Mattingly apparently was. We will find out next month when the team Mattingly manages, the Los Angeles Dodgers, holds “a night of entertainment with Don Mattingly.”

That’s what the news release said. It just didn’t say what acts Mattingly would perform at his Jan. 24 charitable event – singing, dancing, tap dancing, yodeling, magic tricks, back flips? I guess you have to buy a ticket ($195) to find out.

No tickets are needed to know what tricks Mattingly’s bosses have executed on his behalf.

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Welcome to the N.H.L., a.k.a. the Neanderthal Hockey League. You may know its commissioner, Gary Bettman, by another name, too, Fred Flintstone. Or am I insulting good ole Fred?

Before proceeding any further, let me explain why I am demeaning a baseball Web site by writing about hockey. The other day I was asked to do an interview on a Toronto radio show. The host, Dave Naylor of ESPN Radio Toronto, wanted me to talk about Donald Fehr, the head of the hockey players union, whom I covered for years when he was first general counsel and then executive director of the baseball union.

I think I learned more on the show than I offered because I have not followed the hockey negotiations and found hard to believe what Bettman and the owners are saying and doing.

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A series of not-so-funny things happened to Alex Rodriguez on his way to becoming baseball’s all-time leader in runs batted in and home runs.

First, just as he was being recognized as the great clean hope to eclipse Barry Bonds, the all-time steroids cheat, as the all-time home king, he was unmasked in 2009 as a steroids cheat himself.

Only weeks later, in spring training, Rodriguez suffered a physical blow; he was diagnosed with a torn labrum in his right hip and required surgery that cost him the first 28 games of the season.

Not to be outdone or eclipsed, the third baseman’s left hip is his newest problem.

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