The former Giants second baseman and 2000 National League MVP was elected to the Cooperstown shrine Sunday night, a fascinating development considering he was on a stacked ballot with seven other elite players including one of his old teammates, Barry Bonds.
When Kent and Bonds first became a formidable 1-2 punch in the Giants’ lineup, few could have predicted Kent entering the Hall of Fame before Bonds. Yet, on July 26, it’ll be Kent who’s inducted after he received 14 of 16 votes in Sunday night’s Contemporary Baseball Era Committee election.
In an interview shortly after the announcement, Kent was in tears, so overwhelmed by emotion that he had trouble completing sentences and answering questions. Several times, he wiped away tears, including when he explained getting the call from the Hall and immediately hugging his wife, Dana.
“In this moment,” he said, “today, over the last few days … absolutely unprepared, emotionally unstable, thoughts are so far … clouded and … geez I don’t even know what the right word is, they’re just jumbled so much.”
At that point, the 57-year-old Kent paused to collect his thoughts. He’ll have plenty of time to step back and embrace and appreciate his journey and the road ahead to Cooperstown. The induction is July 26, and he implied he wants to be represented on his plaque as a Giant.
“I’m stuttering here because it has not sunk in. It has not,” Kent said.
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Kent is the all-time homers leader (377) among players whose primary position was second base, and he did his best work in San Francisco, averaging 29 homers and 115 RBIs while hitting .297 over six seasons. He joined the Giants in 1997, arriving from Cleveland in Brian Sabean’s then-maligned Matt Williams trade, which turned out splendidly.
In 2000, the Giants’ first season at their China Basin ballpark, Kent edged Bonds for the MVP award after hitting .334 with 33 homers and 125 RBIs – a 7.2 WAR season. Bonds responded by winning the next four MVP awards, from 2001 to 2004.
In a classy move, Bonds congratulated Kent on Instagram on Sunday night, saying “We spent six seasons together with the Giants and shared many successes as teammates, including an unforgettable World Series run.”
Meantime, Bonds continues to be locked out of the Hall after receiving fewer than five votes Sunday. That seven of the voters are Hall of Famers speaks volumes about how the Hall feels about Bonds and his connection with performance-enhancing drugs.
Thanks to a new rule implemented by the Hall this year, stipulating that any candidate receiving fewer than five votes would be excluded from the next Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot in 2028, Bonds won’t get his next opportunity until 2031. He’ll be 67.
If Bonds is shunned again in 2031, based on that same new rule, which includes two-strikes-and-you’re-out language, the Hall would ban him from future elections.
Kent was asked about Bonds getting denied again and whether he believes his old teammate should be elected at some point.
“I’ve always avoided the specific answer you’re looking for,” Kent said, “because I don’t have one, I don’t. I’m not a voter, but I can say that he was a teammate that helped me. I believe I helped him. I believe he was one of the best baseball players I ever saw.
“If you’re talking about moral code and all that, I’m not a voter, and I’m trying to stay away from all of that the best I can because I really don’t have an opinion. I’ve left it. It doesn’t matter to me anymore. I know he’s been argued amongst a lot of baseball elites about if he ought to be in or not. Keep having that argument. You argue through it, and if he’s not, he’s not. And if he is, he is. It’s not going to matter to me one way or the other.”
Bonds was one of four men on the ballot receiving fewer than five votes. The others were Roger Clemens, Gary Sheffield, and Fernando Valenzuela, who’ll also be ineligible in 2028. Carlos Delgado received nine votes, and Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy each received six.
Candidates needed at least 12 votes to be elected. It was Kent’s first appearance on the era committee ballot after missing out all 10 years on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot – the largest share of the vote he received was 46.5%. Bonds topped out at 66%.
“It would come up every year, and the moments seemed to pass by,” Kent said. “Not utter disappointment, but just disappointment. Frustration, a little bit that I wasn’t better recognized. Not necessarily that I was voted in, but a lot of people had said, ‘Hey, you’re a Hall Famer, blah, blah, blah,’ and OK, you blow them off. But the time had gone by, you just leave it alone, and I left it alone.”
Bonds and Kent were one of the most productive tandems in franchise history, though there was friction between the teammates, one time even a fight in the Giants’ dugout in San Diego that was captured on video. In retrospect, their fierce competitiveness and drive, not to mention their distaste for one another, probably drove each to greater heights.
Asked who he’d like to thank the most beyond family, Kent quickly said Dusty Baker, his manager throughout his time with the Giants who helped him become a better hitter and encouraged him to hit to all fields.
“I don’t think there was a fire under my belly – or, sorry, under my ass – that was lit hotter than what he did,” Kent said.
While Bonds’ Cooperstown road has been detoured because of his part in the BALCO scandal, Kent was one of the first players to push for a league-wide testing policy and repeatedly challenged MLB and the players’ union to crack down on PED users.
One knock on Kent was his defense, but he was a steady fielder with a strong arm who hung in tough on double plays.
“The rap for me probably started out in the wrong direction in New York (with the Mets), so I think there was this perception when I came to the West Coast that I wasn’t a good middle infielder,” Kent said. “That was so false. …I could tell you this. It truly mattered to me more about playing defense than offense. I worked hard at it. I think I made a lot of good plays. I think I saved runs. It didn’t bother me so much when I struck out three times, but when I made one error, boy, it bothered the heck out of me.”