"Don Mattingly was 100% ballplayer, 0% b.s." - Bill James

THE NUMBERS
1785 G, 2153 H, 222 HR, 1099 RBI, .307 AVG

To be a Hall of Famer, a player pretty much has to do two things: play at a high level, and play at that level for an extended period of time.  Players can get in by meeting just one of the two criteria, but they better have been absolutely spectacular in meeting it.  Mattingly falls into the former category; he was an elite player, but for only a short period of time, which makes his case complicated.

Mattingly took the baseball world by storm in 1984 when he took over the starting first baseman role for the Yankees.  As a 23 year old, he flashed a fantastic glove for a youngster, and displayed a batting eye well beyond his years.  He ended the season at the AL batting champion, finishing with a .343 batting average, 23 home runs, and just 33 strikeouts, a trait which would become a standard for Mattingly.  1985 proved to be yet another step forward for him, when he finished the season with 35 home runs and a ridiculous 145 RBI's, en route to winning the AL MVP.  To be fair, he probably wasn't even the best player on his team (that'd be Rickey Henderson), but it's his award nonetheless.

After two more top-notch seasons, he was looking like a first ballot Hall of Famer.  Over his first four years, the line was spectacular: 119 HR, 481 RBI, .337 AVG.  The average held up over 1988-89 (.311/.303), but his power numbers took a bit of a dip, as he hit just 41 home runs over those two years.  That should have been a sign that his best years were behind him. 

Apparently, 1988 and 1989 were when his back injuries started to mount, though Mattingly soldiered through them, but in 1990 they became too much for him to hide any longer.  He missed 60 games and had a miserable season, and from there he only had one or two seasons that could even be considered above average.

So given all of the above, does that merit induction into the Hall of Fame?  You could make a case for him, but it'd be an extremely flimsy one.  His career is shorter than every Hall of Fame first baseman except for Bill Terry (who hit .341 for his career) and Hank Greenberg (who lost most of five seasons to World War II).  His 2153 hits would top only Greenberg, Harmon Killebrew (who topped 500 home runs), and Johnny Mize, who was far more productive in less at-bats than Mattingly.  His .307 average is merely middle of the pack, and 222 home runs is not impressive at all for a first baseman.  Striking out just 444 times is very impressive, but getting only 588 career walks practically negates that (this was the dirty little secret of Mattingly's career; he rarely struck out, but he also didn't take many walks, so his OBP was never as good as you would have expected it to be).

Even more problematic for Mattingly is one of his underrated contemporaries, Will Clark.  While Mattingly garnered a great deal of attention in New York City, Clark was equally as skilled - if not better - while toiling away the first half of his career in the hitter's deathtrap known as Candlestick Park.  Like Mattingly, he lost a good amount of time to injuries, but unlike The Don was able to recover and stay productive for several years afterwards.  And, overall, he was just better.

Mattingly had four great seasons, a couple pretty good ones, and several mediocre ones.  Had he turned a couple of those mediocre ones into great seasons (not necessarily extending his career to hang on), the case is probably easier to make...but he didn't.  Maybe if he hadn't broken down so early in his career, this isn't a discussion...but he did.  If you put Mattingly in, then you almost certainly have to put Clark in, you almost have to put Fred McGriff in (who is a whole different matter), you have to take a long look at Keith Hernandez (whose glove alone puts him in the discussion), and you probably have to give Mickey Vernon credit for the years he lost to the war and re-examine his career.

Sorry Don.  No go.

MLB hall of fame, don mattingly