This story was excerpted from Bryan Hoch¡¯s Yankees Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Growing up about 10 miles outside Pittsburgh,?Sean Casey?dreamed of becoming a left-handed-hitting Major League first baseman. He also dreamed of doing that in Yankee pinstripes.

¡°You know what¡¯s funny?¡± he asked in his gravelly, always enthusiastic voice. ¡°I had a poster of?Don Mattingly?up on my wall at home until like 10 years ago. It was a Sports Illustrated poster of him coming out of the box. I just loved the man.

¡°It was the time I just started collecting baseball cards in the ¡¯80s -- I think Mattingly¡¯s ¡¯84 Donruss was a big deal. I just loved the left-handed-hitting first baseman.¡±

Casey not only became a left-handed-hitting first baseman in the big leagues, but he thrived in the role -- particularly at the plate. From 1997-2008, he hit .302/.367/.447 and spent most of his career with the Reds (1998-2005).

While he never got to don a Yankees uniform as a player, Casey is in one now as the club¡¯s new hitting coach. With New York¡¯s lineup struggling without its injured anchor,?Aaron Judge, the hope is Casey¡¯s infectious energy will find its way into Yankee bats like the way electricity seemed to emanate from Mattingly¡¯s lumber in the mid-1980s.

Upon learning that he¡¯d be a Yankee, Casey did something symbolic that he¡¯d never done before to show his appreciation for ¡°Donnie Baseball.¡±

He grew a mustache.

¡°I never had a mustache in my life -- always a goatee,¡± Casey said. ¡°Then one day, I was gonna shave the goatee, and I thought, ¡®You know what? I¡¯ve always wanted to be like Don Mattingly, might as well keep the ¡¯stache.¡¯¡±

The Mattingly mustache was a signature look, an unmistakable marker of the era if you were a baseball fan in the 1980s, when he was among the game¡¯s elite hitters and on a Hall of Fame track before back injuries derailed him.

So, what does the ¡°Hit Man¡± think of Casey¡¯s tribute?

¡°Looking good,¡± Mattingly said. ¡°A tint of gray in there. Mine is Santa Claus white at this point.¡±

¡°Santa Claus white¡± is definitely not the color the Yankees want to see Casey¡¯s mustache become while he tries to right what has gone wrong with New York¡¯s lineup.

But Casey is confident the names on that lineup card each day are too good to continue in the current doldrums.

¡°At the end of the day, they have a lot of great players here,¡± Casey said. ¡°I come with my pedigree or my resume, and I¡¯m really excited to be here and connect with these guys.

¡°But there¡¯s too much talent here not to get going.¡±

MLB.com¡¯s Manny Randhawa contributed to this newsletter item.