{"id":412508,"date":"2026-07-26T01:46:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T01:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/412508\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T01:46:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T01:46:38","slug":"jeff-kent-starting-to-feel-like-a-hall-of-famer-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/412508\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Kent starting to feel like a Hall of Famer this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A week before Jeff Kent<\/a> arrived in Cooperstown, N.Y., for his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he received a call with some advice from Johnny Bench. The former Big Red Machine star told Kent to act like he belonged among the rest of baseball\u2019s immortals.<\/p>\n

Kent appreciated the call, considering it \u201cpretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, it\u2019s not easy for even the greatest players in history to just walk into the Otesaga Resort for their first induction weekend and settle in with Sandy Koufax, Juan Marichal, George Brett, Pedro Mart\u00ednez and the other Hall of Famers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I walked into the hotel the first day, you\u2019re overwhelmed and you\u2019re skittish and you\u2019re hesitant and scared, maybe, to go talk to people or go up to people,\u201d said Kent, who was born in Bellflower and raised in Huntington Beach. \u201cBut I\u2019ve met Reggie Jackson. I saw him late at night the other night. He\u2019s been so cool to me for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Kent walked around Otesaga Resort, he could feel the warmth and welcome from the most exclusive fraternity in baseball. He got more than hugs from his new peers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout time?\u201d some told Kent, who was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame last December by the Hall\u2019s Era Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should have happened a long time ago,\u201d others told the 2000 National League MVP, who was made to wait until after his 10 years on the Baseball Writers\u2019 Assn. of America ballot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m seeing in their eyes that they\u2019re not saying it just to be nice to me because they want something from me or they\u2019re just trying to be nice because the cameras are on,\u201d said Kent, 58. \u201cIt was real. That\u2019s probably the first time I was able to relax.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kent will be inducted on Sunday afternoon along with his former Astros teammate Carlos Beltr\u00e1n and former Atlanta Braves great Andruw Jones at Clark Sports Center.<\/p>\n

Kent, a five-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger Award winner, was long considered the greatest slugging second baseman in baseball history. The 6-foot-1, 185-pounder finished his 17-year career with 377 home runs, which is the most by any player who primarily played second base in his career.<\/p>\n

He retired after the 2008 season. Kent debuted on the Baseball Writers\u2019 Assn. of America Hall of Fame ballot five years later, languishing there for 10 consecutive seasons without coming close to the 75% threshold necessary to be elected.<\/p>\n

But he cruised into the Hall of Fame last December as the only person elected on an Era Committee ballot that included all-time home run leader Barry Bonds and seven-time Cy Young Award-winner Roger Clemens.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll officially become a Hall of Famer Sunday, but on Friday night, he began to feel like one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw Pedro Mart\u00ednez last night, introduced him to my sons,\u201d Kent said. \u201cHe was happy, as he always is, other than when he had to pitch to me. I hated him every minute [as players]. But he was awesome, telling my kids, giving them some advice and giving little tidbits about how he used to pitch to me. \u2026 Kind of having conversations like I was on his same level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when you start to internally feel \u2026 that, yeah, I\u2019m OK. I think I can call myself a Hall of Famer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beltr\u00e1n, who played the second half of the 2004 season with Kent on the Astros, had a similar moment at the Otesaga Resort on Friday morning. Kent and his family arrived early Thursday morning. The lobby was empty later that morning.<\/p>\n

By Friday, however, the weight of the Hall of Fame hit Beltr\u00e1n in the best way possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the first people I saw was Reggie Jackson,\u201d Beltr\u00e1n said. \u201cThe second person I saw was Johnny Bench. I saw Jim Kaat and Robin Yount. I saw a lot of players who I didn\u2019t play with in the same era, but they came up to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn one way or another, they said, \u2018Carlos, I\u2019m happy that you are here. You deserve it.\u2019 I don\u2019t know, but in one way or another, it\u2019s a validation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beltr\u00e1n is the sixth Puerto Rico native elected into the Hall of Fame, helping his island tie Cuba as the Latin American countries with the most Hall of Famers. Jones, a five-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner, is making history as the first native of Cura\u00e7ao elected to the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, they\u2019ll finally get their Hall of Fame plaques and join the special fraternity that has already welcomed them warmly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COOPERSTOWN, N.Y.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A week before Jeff Kent arrived in Cooperstown, N.Y., for his induction into the National Baseball Hall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[122787,2135,165172,2847,165175,75702,79579,165174,31336,18027,11199,24771,139510,48,52,51,47,50,49,165173,278],"class_list":["post-412508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-assn","tag-baseball","tag-beltran","tag-fame","tag-fame-last-december","tag-famer","tag-famers","tag-five-time-all-star","tag-friday-morning","tag-good-way","tag-great-player","tag-hall","tag-jeff-kent","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-otesaga-resort","tag-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}