ORLANDO, Fla. – Jeff Kent was elected into the baseball Hall of Fame more than 17 years after his last game and couldn’t control his emotions.
“Absolutely unprepared. Emotionally unstable,” he said after announcing the vote on Sunday. “The thoughts are clouded so far.”
Kent received 14 of the committee’s 16 votes for the contemporary era, two more than the 12 votes needed for the 75% minimum. Steroid-infected stars Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were among the seven players who fell short again.
Kent will be inducted on July 26 in Cooperstown, New York, along with anyone chosen by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, whose vote will be announced on January 20.
“I hugged my wife after the call came in,” Kent said, her voice cracking, “and I told her that a lot of the game had come to me at that moment. Like my farewell speech, my farewell speech that I gave in LA, it reminds me of the ‘don’t cry in baseball.’ Well, I cried when I left the game because all those emotions just overpower you.
A five-time All-Star second baseman, Kent hit .290 with 377 home runs and 1,518 RBIs over 17 seasons with Toronto (1992), the New York Mets (1992-96), Cleveland (1996), San Francisco (1997-2002), Houston (2003-04) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (2005-08).
His 351 home runs as a second baseman are the most by any player at that position. Kent’s most productive seasons were with the Giants, joined in the lineup by the record-breaking Bonds.
“I think I converted the doubles better than anyone in the game in my time,” Kent said.
Carlos Delgado received nine votes, followed by Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy with six each. Bonds, Clemens, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela each received fewer than five votes and cannot appear on the ballot again until 2031.
Bonds and Clemens also fell short in their 10th and final appearance on the BBWAA ballot in 2022. Bonds denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs and Clemens claims he never used PEDs.
“Barry was a good teammate of mine. He was a guy who I motivated and pushed,” Kent said. “We kind of clashed. He was a man who motivated me sometimes, out of frustration and love, sometimes both. … When you talk about moral codes and all that, I’m not a voter and I try to stay away from that as best I can, because I don’t have that, I really don’t have an opinion.”
Kent’s relationship with the Giants became strained when he broke a bone in his left wrist during spring training in 2002. Kent told team athletic trainer Stan Conte that he was injured the previous day while washing his truck, but Giants general manager Brian Sabean said three weeks later, “There’s mounting evidence from all kinds of eyewitnesses that says he fell off a motorcycle doing popping wheelies.”
Kent wrestled Bonds in the dugout on June 25 during a game in San Diego.
Kent received 15.2% in his first BBWAA appearance in 2014 and a high of 46.5% in the last of his ten times on the ballot in 2023.
“The moments seemed to pass in not total disappointment, but just disappointment, a little bit of frustration at not being better recognized,” Kent said.
Kent was drafted by Toronto and four months after his debut, he was traded to the Mets for David Cone, who helped the Blue Jays win the World Series.
“Rap probably started in the wrong direction for me in New York,” Kent said. “When I left New York and came to the West Coast, there was a perception that ‘he wasn’t a good midfielder,’ and that was so false.”
The Hall restructured its veterans committees in 2022 for the third time in twelve years, creating panels that would reflect on both the contemporary era and the classical era beginning in 1980. Today’s era of baseball has separate ballots for players and another for managers, executives and umpires.
Each committee meets every three years. Contemporary managers, executives and referees will be eligible in December 2026, classic-era candidates in December 2027, and contemporary-era players again in December 2028.
Under a change announced by the Hall last March, candidates who receive fewer than five votes will not be eligible to appear on that committee’s ballot during the next three-year cycle. A candidate who is dropped, later reappears on a ballot paper and again receives fewer than five votes, will be excluded from future voting rounds.
The December 2027 ballot is Pete Rose’s first chance to appear on a Hall ballot after baseball commissioner Rob Manfred decided in May that Rose’s permanent suspension ended with his death in September 2024. The Hall is banning anyone on the permanent ineligible list from appearing on a ballot.
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