[DrMitchJ]

Fun discussion guys.

I think Mazeroski was widely considered to be the greatest defensive 2nd baseman in the game (up until Alomar probably) so that has to account for something. He's kind of an Ozzie Smith type candidate, a tremendous defender who was light hitting and both had signature playoff moments.

Like Zep said a 7x all-star (10 if you count the years that they played two games) with 8 gold gloves is nothing to snub your nose at and 2,000 hits in an era where zero offense was expected out of the middle infielders is also pretty good.

The thing about Koufax is that he wasn't just great for that 7 year prime, he was doing things that had never been done by a pitcher in the history of baseball. In that time span he won 3 pitching triple crowns, 3 cy young awards, 1 MVP, set the all time record for K's in a season and the all time record for career no-hitters. If Don Mattingly (or any of the various short career players) had won 3 MVP's, 3 triple crowns, hit .400 in a season and set the all time record for hits in a season he would also be a shoe in for the hall of fame, which is roughly equivalent to what Koufax did.

Mattingly was an MVP, 6X all star, lifetime .307 BA, 1X batting champion (top 5 for 5 years), 9X Gold Glove and 3X Silver Slugger, lead the league 2X in hits, and tied the most consecutive HR record. His team was never in a WS, but that's more of a Team-thing, IMO.
He doesn't match up to Koufax numbers like you mentioned (Koufax was a beast, and what he did in a short career was unbelievable ... But it's still comparing apples to oranges), but he's far more Hall Worthy than Mazeroski. Mattingly and Boggs were the two best hitters in the AL in the mid-to-late 80's. Boggs continued his excellence and surpassed Mattingly, but Mattingly had 8 gold gloves to Boggs' 2 GGs (with the Yankees) Boggs 3K hits vs Mattingly's 2K.
Mattingly was great, Boggs was better ... Should Mattingly be in the Hall? I'm certainly biased ... Mattingly is one of my favorite players, but I still think he had a Hall Worthy career especially in light of Bill Mazeroski's and Lou Boudreux's enshrinement.
Okay, everyone can't be enshrined, but where to draw the line and who should get an automatic Hall Pass?
500+ HR? 3000 hits? .300 Lifetime BA? 300 wins? 3000 K's?