{"id":874190,"date":"2026-08-30T19:38:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T19:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/874190\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T19:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T19:38:24","slug":"jeff-kent-urges-barry-bonds-to-keep-the-faith-about-getting-into-hall-of-fame-during-giants-jersey-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/874190\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Kent urges Barry Bonds to keep the faith about getting into Hall of Fame during Giants jersey retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The San Francisco Giants<\/a> retired the No. 21 jersey of Jeff Kent on Saturday afternoon at Oracle Park. While the focus was on the recently inducted Hall of Famer during the on-field ceremony, one moment, and specifically one statement, involving his former teammate Barry Bonds, admittedly stuck out.<\/p>\n

Bonds and Kent did plenty of winning during their playing days in San Francisco together, but the duo is best known for getting into a scuffle with one another<\/a> in the dugout during a road game in San Diego in 2002. Bonds famously shoved Kent in the neck area before the two were separated by teammates.<\/p>\n

The two embraced one another again during the jersey retirement on Saturday and playfully reenacted the moment.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff <\/p>\n

Jeff Kent interacts with Barry Bonds prior to game two of a doubleheader the game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on Saturday, August 29, 2026 in San Francisco, California.\u00a0 (Bryan Kennedy\/MLB Photos via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

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While addressing the fans, Kent made another ode to the dugout scuffle while also getting honest about his relationship with Bonds.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve said it many times,” Kent said ahead of the Giants’ 7-2 win over the Diamondbacks<\/a>. “He and I have never gone out to dinner, but I\u2019ll go to war with that guy any day of the week. If Bonds and I weren\u2019t fighting in the dugout, we wouldn\u2019t have what we\u2019ve got, I guarantee you.”<\/p>\n

\"Jeff <\/p>\n

A detail shot of Jeff Kent’s plaque celebrating his hall of fame nomination prior to game two of a doubleheader the game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on Saturday, August 29, 2026 in San Francisco, California. (Bryan Kennedy\/MLB Photos via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Looking back on the intense moment he shared in the dugout with Bonds<\/a> wasn’t the only way Kent tipped his cap toward the Home Run King. He also took a moment to send Bonds a message.<\/p>\n

“Barry, keep with it, brother, you got a shot, man,” Kent said, referring to the Baseball Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m happy for Barry. I\u2019m grateful that I got to play with a phenomenal player, and he knows, too,” Kent told reporters<\/a> after the ceremony. “He\u2019s got some baggage, and he\u2019ll deal with it. He doesn\u2019t need me to deal with it for him. He can do it himself.”<\/p>\n

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\"Former <\/p>\n

Former San Francisco Giants player Barry Bonds watches batting practice before the game at Oracle Park on September 9, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Suzanna Mitchell\/San Francisco Giants\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Bonds is the all-time home run leader in MLB history with 762, was a 14-time All-Star, and won National League MVP seven times in his career, but has not been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, with voters rejecting his bid due to his well-documented association with performance-enhancing drugs.<\/p>\n

“I don’t have to worry about those things no more in my life,” Bonds said in 2024<\/a> while being inducted into the Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame. “[I want to] hang around my grandchildren and my children. Those hopes [of making the Hall of Fame], I don’t have them anymore.”<\/p>\n

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Bonds, like Kent, had his No. 25 retired by the Giants in 2018.<\/p>\n

Mark Harris is a writer for OutKick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco Giants retired the No. 21 jersey of Jeff Kent on Saturday afternoon at Oracle Park.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,300794,5157,85],"class_list":["post-874190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-outkick-sports","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}