By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame more than 17 years after his final game, Jeff Kent couldn’t control his emotions.
“Absolutely unprepared. Emotionally unstable,” he said after Sunday’s vote announcement. “Thoughts are so far clouded.”
Kent received 14 of 16 votes from the contemporary era committee, two more than the 12 ballots needed for the 75% minimum. Steroids-tainted stars Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were among seven players who fell short once again.
Kent will be inducted in Cooperstown, New York, on July 26 along with anyone chosen by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, whose balloting will be announced on Jan. 20.
“I hugged my wife after the the phone call had come in,” Kent said, his voice cracking, “and I told her that a lot of the game had come rushing back to me at that moment. Similar to my retirement speech, my farewell speech that I did in LA, it reminds me of the ‘no crying in baseball.’ Well, I was bawling when I left the game because all that emotion just overcomes you.”
A five-time All-Star second baseman, Kent hit .290 with 377 homers 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 a player at that position. Kent’s most productive seasons were with the Giants, joined in the lineup by the record-setting Bonds.
“I think I’ve turned the double play better than anybody in the game during my era,” 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 can’t appear on the ballot again until 2031.
Bonds and Clemens also fell short in 2022 in their 10th and final appearances on the BBWAA ballot. Bonds denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs and Clemens maintains he never used PEDs.
“Barry was a good teammate of mine. He was a guy that I motivated and pushed,” Kent said. “We knocked heads a little bit. He was a guy that motivated me at times, in frustration and love, at times both. … 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 don’t, 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 he got hurt while washing his truck the previous day but Giants general manager Brian Sabean said three weeks later “there’s mounting evidence from all sorts of eyewitnesses that says he fell off a motorcycle popping wheelies.”
Kent scuffled with Bonds in the dugout that 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 10 times on the ballot in 2023.
“The moments seemed to pass by in not utter disappointment but just disappointment, frustration a little bit that I wasn’t better recognized,” Kent said.
Kent was drafted by Toronto and four months after his debut was traded to the Mets for David Cone, who helped the Blue Jays win the World Series.
“The rap for me probably started out in the wrong direction in New York,” Kent said. “There was this perception when I left New York and came to the West Coast that ‘he wasn’t a good middle infielder,’ and that was so false.”
The Hall in 2022 restructured its veterans committees for the third time in 12 years, setting up panels to consider the contemporary era from 1980 on, as well as the classic era. The contemporary baseball era holds separate ballots for players and another for managers, executives and umpires.
Each committee meets every three years. Contemporary managers, executives and umpires will be considered 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 received fewer than five votes are not eligible for that committee’s ballot during the next three-year cycle. A candidate who is dropped, later reappears on a ballot and again receives fewer than five votes would be barred from future ballot appearances.
The December 2027 vote is the first chance for Pete Rose 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 prohibits anyone on the permanent ineligible list from appearing on a ballot.
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