Jeff Kent is heading to Cooperstown after a shock choice through the Up to date Period committee poll revealed Sunday.
Kent, 57, performed six seasons with the Giants throughout his 17-year profession, successful the Nationwide League Most Useful Participant award in 2000, making three All-Star groups in San Francisco and serving to the Giants attain the 2002 World Sequence.
Kent, a Southern California native and former Cal star, will enter the Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame on July 26 because the lone inductee from the Up to date Period poll. His Longtime Giants teammate Barry Bonds was additionally on the poll, however did not obtain the required 75% of votes to realize induction.
“Jeff’s relentless competitiveness, powerful bat, and unforgettable moments in a Giants uniform left an indelible mark on our franchise and the game itself,” Giants CEO Larry Baer mentioned in a launch. “We celebrate this long-deserved honor and are grateful that his legacy will now stand forever in Cooperstown.”
Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela have been additionally on this yr’s poll together with Kent and Bonds.
Murphy a two-time Nationwide League MVP with the Atlanta Braves, and former Yankees star Mattingly have been thought of the more than likely candidates to realize the 12 votes required from the 16-person panel to be be inducted. Fourteen of the 16 committee members voted in favor of Kent.
Delgado acquired 9 votes, Mattingly and Murphy each received six. Bonds, Clemens, Sheffield and Valenzuela every acquired lower than 5 votes.
With fewer than 5 votes, Bonds and Clemens is not going to be eligible for consideration once more till 2031. At that time, they are going to be dropped from any additional consideration in the event that they fail to get fewer than 5 votes.
Kent, who retired after the 2008 season with the Dodgers, holds the main league file for many dwelling runs hit as a second baseman (351) and 4 instances received the Silver Slugger award as the highest hitter within the Nationwide League at that place. He had 171 dwelling runs over his six years with the Giants, and his 1,518 RBIs are the third-most all-time amongst main second basemen.
He spent 10 years on the writers’ poll however peaked at 46.5% of the vote, so his induction through the Up to date Period committee represents a serious shift.
The Giants acquired Kent from Cleveland in November 1996, 5 seasons into his profession, in a commerce that despatched standard third baseman Matt Williams out. Whereas followers on the time have been largely sad with the deal, Kent turned one of many biggest power-hitting second basemen of all time.
He was a profession .290 hitter, together with .297 for the Giants. Alongside Bonds, Kent was a part of a formidable Giants lineup that helped San Francisco attain the World Sequence, the place it fell in seven video games to the Anaheim Angels.
Kent’s relationship with Bonds was not at all times clean. The 2 had a dugout argument throughout that 2002 season that blew up right into a media firestorm. Kent left the Giants in free company that winter, signing with the Houston Astros. He performed the final 4 years of his profession with the rival Dodgers earlier than retiring in 2008.
The 16-person voting committee included Corridor of Famers Juan Marichal, Fergie Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Tony Pérez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell and Robin Yount. It additionally featured executives Mark Attanasio, Doug Melvin, Arte Moreno, Kim Ng, Tony Reagins and Terry Ryan, in addition to historian Steve Hirdt and The Athletic reporters Tyler Kepner and Jayson Stark.
The voting outcomes should not public, nevertheless it’s believable that Marichal, one of many biggest pitchers in Giants franchise historical past, voiced his assist for Bonds, as he did in 2013, telling the Related Press: “I think that they have been unfair to guys who were never found guilty of anything.”
Bonds holds the single-season information for dwelling runs (73), walks (232), intentional walks (120) and on-base share (.609), in addition to the all-time information for homers (762), walks (2,558) and intentional walks (688). His résumé options seven MVPs, probably the most all-time, in addition to eight Gold Gloves, 12 Silver Sluggers and 14 All-Star alternatives.
Regardless of his credentials, Bonds has been stored out of Cooperstown resulting from his hyperlinks to performance-enhancing medicine.
Bonds, who has denied knowingly utilizing PEDs, did not be elected by the Baseball Writers’ Affiliation of America, his ultimate look on the poll being in January 2022. Many writers invoked the Corridor of Fame’s “Character Clause,” which states gamers “shall be chosen on the basis of playing ability, sportsmanship, character, their contribution to the teams on which they played and to baseball in general.”
