“Kaline was not a superstar by today’s standards ...”
First, I’m not even sure what that means. His career should be evaluated by the standards that prevailed at that time. In any case, he was an 18x all-star, had +3,000 hits, and 399 HRs. Those are (or should be) HOF numbers in any era.
Indeed.
Numbers like those were more than enough to qualify in my book. And unlike so many others in the HOF he was actually a good and decent person. The fact he turned down a raise in salary in 1970 because he felt he didn’t perform well enough that year is something I don’t see anyone else doing. He took the raise a season later though.