Earl Weaver never did this. Joe Torre never did this. John McGraw never did this. Whitey Herzog never did this.You can run through the records of every manager in the Hall of Fame. Not one of them has done what Don Mattingly has done over the last three weeks.Until Phillies president of baseball ops Dave Dombrowski buzzed his phone in the last week of April, Mattingly thought he’d never manage another game. Three weeks later, the interim manager of the Phillies looks like a manager who might never lose another series.What he has done since taking over the once-wallowing Phillies is no longer merely stunning, team-changing and season-saving. It’s officially historic.His team’s 4-1 loss to the Reds on Tuesday night was Mattingly’s 21st game as the manager of the Phillies. Let’s review how that’s gone:This is his seventh series as the manager. His team has lost none of them. Despite their loss Tuesday, the Phillies are still 6-0 in Mattingly’s first six series on the job. They could clinch this seventh series by winning Wednesday afternoon. If they do, that would make Mattingly the first manager in baseball history to win his first seven series after taking over a team in midseason. You read that right. According to Sportradar, no one has ever done that.The Phillies are 16-5 since Mattingly took over for Rob Thomson. Is that good? Feel free to vote yes on that. According to Sportradar, it’s tied for the second-best start, among managers who took over in midseason, by any manager in the modern era (1901-present). And Mattingly’s 16-4 start over his first 20 games made him the first National League manager to take a job in midseason and win 16 of his first 20 since 1880, when Mike Dorgan took over Sadie Houck’s 1880 Providence Grays in July and also started 16-4.“I know it’s a long season and you’re not going to win every game. But there’s no reason you can’t (expect to win) that day — and it’s just one at a time that way,” Don Mattingly said. (Paul Rutherford / Getty Images)The Phillies were a disastrous 9-19 when Mattingly was hired on April 28. They’d lost six consecutive series. As we mentioned, they haven’t lost one since. And that stunning boomerang act puts them — and Mattingly — in even more historic territory.Only one other team since 1900 — Dave Parker’s 1975 Pirates — has turned around and won seven series in a row immediately after losing their previous six in a row. Mattingly’s 2026 Phillies can still join them if they win this series against the Reds on Wednesday.But those ’75 Pirates didn’t change managers. So Mattingly’s Phillies team has already carved out its own place in history among teams that did that in the middle of a season that seemed to be spinning out of control.So how do we explain this?Well, for one thing, baseball is as strange and mysterious as ever. For another, there was too much talent on this roster to explain the 9-19 mark in the first place. The men now playing for Mattingly had done nothing but win their way into October every season under Thomson. So much of this is strange and mysterious for them, too.“Rob was more than capable of managing us and doing a great job of it,” Trea Turner said Tuesday. “He proved it his whole time here. So it wasn’t necessarily him. I think Don’s very similar in the sense that he’s pretty even-keeled. Obviously, he’s got great experience, having played the game a long time. He’s seen a lot.”But there is also a low-ego, big-presence quality to Mattingly that resonates with the players around him. One thing he has done relentlessly is remind his players — and everyone else — that this is a team, with great starting pitching and so many good players, that it should expect to win every day.“I think we should expect to win,” Mattingly said before Tuesday’s game. “I know it’s a long season and you’re not going to win every game. But there’s no reason you can’t (expect to win) that day — and it’s just one at a time that way. To me, I’ve always expected to win, even when I’ve had teams that I probably shouldn’t have expected to win.”So there he was last Friday night in Pittsburgh, stalking to the mound to take the ball from Aaron Nola after the Phillies had fallen behind 6-1 in the fourth inning. With his infielders gathered around him, Mattingly calmly said: “We’re going to come back”“And I believed him,” Bryce Harper would say later, after the Phillies had done exactly that, climbing out of that ditch to win 11-9.For the last three weeks, they’ve done nothing but believe — and win. So now here is the company Mattingly finds himself hanging out with in the history books:WON FIRST SEVEN SERIES AFTER TAKING OVER IN MIDSEASON — If the Phillies take this series on Wednesday, it will only be Mattingly in that club. Think of that this way: More than 800 men have managed in the major leagues. But none of them have done this. Amazing.WON FIRST SIX SERIES AFTER TAKING OVER IN MIDSEASON — Just one other manager in history has done what Mattingly has with the Phillies. That was interim managerial legend Joe Morgan, who also won his first six series after taking over Wade Boggs’ 1988 Red Sox.Beyond Mattingly and Morgan, only two other managers in the last 100 years have won their first five series after taking over in midseason. Their names will sound familiar in Philadelphia:Rob Thomson — also won his first five after taking the helm of the 2022 Phillies.Jim Fregosi — took over Ozzie Guillen’s 1986 White Sox and won his first five in a row.STARTED 16-4 IN HIS FIRST 20 GAMES — In the annals of great 20-game starts to a managerial tenure, nobody can touch Morgan’s ’88 Red Sox. They ripped off 12 wins in a row and went 19-1 after axing John McNamara and handing the job to Morgan, their longtime Triple A manager. But Mattingly is next on that “First 20 Games” list in the modern era. And to find the last managers before this to start out 16-4 after a midseason change, you’d have to travel back in time nearly a century and a half.Dorgan went 16-4 for those 1880 Grays. But the last to do it in any league was Fred Dunlap, who took over Buttercup Dickerson’s 1884 St. Louis Maroons, of the old Union League. He also won 16 of his first 20.WHAT ABOUT 21 GAMES AND BEYOND — Sportradar also looked into the best 21-game and 22-game starts by managers who took over in midseason. Here is where Mattingly stands on those leaderboards.* Best Records in First 21 Games After a Midseason Manager Change TEAM MGR RECORD1988 Red Sox Joe Morgan 19-21880 Grays Mike Dorgan17-42026 Phillies Don Mattingly16-5 2009 Rockies Jim Tracy 16-5 1932 Cubs Charlie Grimm 16-5 1912 NapsJoe Birmingham 16-5 Best Records in First 22 Games After a Midseason Manager ChangeTEAM MGR RECORD 1988 Red Sox Joe Morgan19-31880 GraysMike Dorgan 18-42026 Phillies Don Mattingly ?-?2009 Rockies Jim Tracy 17-51932 Cubs Charlie Grimm 17-51912 Naps Joe Birmingham 17-5So what does this mean?We’ll get back to you on that one. Is Mattingly headed for his second Manager of the Year award? Are the Phillies headed back to October?For what it’s worth, those Jim Tracy and Charlie Grimm teams wound up in the World Series. That Joe Morgan team climbed back from fourth place to win the AL East. But in this sport, past performance is no guarantee of future success. So making history is a beautiful thing. But explaining how you make it is never as easy as it looks.“I don’t know,” Turner said. “It’s hard to pinpoint. Because we were doing everything bad, and now we’re doing a lot of things well.”