ORLANDO, Fla. – It was a side of Jeff Kent that no one had really seen Monday afternoon, struggling to speak, breaking down several times, and overcome with emotion at his Hall of Fame press conference.
He broke down at the mention of the San Francisco Giants’ greats inducted into the Hall of Fame before him. He choked up knowing this was the final step of his baseball career. He was emotional talking about former San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean taking the gamble and trading Matt Williams for him, and how former Giants manager Dusty Baker helped make him a Hall of Fame player.
Yet, the most poignant moment was when he was asked about his son, Kaeden, a minor leaguer in the New York Yankees organization, with his voice cracking several times while trying to speak.
“He always thought he could be better than me,’’ Kent said, “because he’d always say, “Dad, you’re not in the Hall of Fame.’ So, after I got the call, I hugged him and said, ‘Good luck.’’’
Kent’s press conference was attended by virtually the entire Giants’ front office, which will include three more Giants’ Hall of Famers in two years. Catcher Buster Posey, president of baseball operations, is a virtual lock to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer along with former Giants managers Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker.
Jeff Kent, an old school player heads to the Hall of Fame
Kent’s impact of his six years in the Giants organization will reverberate forever, not simply because he hit more homers and drove in more runs than any second baseman in the modern era, but also for the way he played the game of baseball.
“I texted him this morning,’’ Posey told USA TODAY Sports, “and told him, ‘You were one of my favorite guys to watch when I was growing up.’ And then to see how emotional it was, how much this meant to him, was really special. I think that’s the coolest part about our game is the impact we can have as players on fans and their families. So then when you get to honor somebody like this, and see just how important the game was to him for so long, it’s pretty fun to see.’’
Bochy, who won three World Series championships with Posey as his catcher, never managed Kent in San Francisco, but grew to admire him from across the field for simply the way he played the game.
“He was old school, real old school,’’ Bochy said. “You didn’t see any fraternization with other players. He just played the game hard. And he played the game right.
“What we saw today, with all of those emotions coming out, you never saw that on the field. All you saw was his fierce competitiveness. He always played the game hard. He looked for any way to beat you.’’
Hall of Fame shortstop Alan Trammell, who was on the contemporary era committee that voted Kent into the Hall of Fame, says Kent reminded him of former teammate Kirk Gibson. He could be surly. He could be crude. You may hate him as an opponent, but you loved him as a teammate.
And no matter how you felt about him, you respected him.
“I remember just watching him run on the field before games,’’ Trammell said. “Guys would run across the infield, and meet and talk to other players. Not Kent. He would always go further down away from everyone. You know why? He didn’t want to fraternize. He was like Gibson or Jack Morris. You don’t mess with those guys before games.
“I don’t know what it really means, but it’s just a different breed, and that was Jeff Kent. He was a hell of a player who deserved this. He just exemplified how you play the game.’’
Said Kent: “It was a cliché, but I didn’t want people to get in my house. I didn’t want people to get in my brain because I wanted to focus on the game. I think a lot of times throughout my career people thought I took the game too serious at times. I didn’t have too much fun on the field. …
“But I played the game with passion. I played with integrity. I loved every minute that I played the game.’’
Kent still regrets never having won a World Series championship, saying the ultimate joy would have been simply to sit on the floor in a dirty uniform, soaked with champagne, and experiencing the feeling of being on the greatest team of the year.
“That has to be the ultimate fun,’’ Kent said. “I never got to experience that, and I miss that. But along the way, did I have fun? Yeah, but I still feel a little incomplete.
“But today, there’s no more. That’s it.’’
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