Kent reflects on journey to Cooperstown

Less than one day after joining the most exclusive team in the sport with news of his National Baseball Hall of Fame election, slugging second baseman Jeff Kent could barely contain his emotions.

“This is an overwhelming moment,” is how Kent began his press conference, held at the 2025 MLB Winter Meetings in Orlando, Fla., on Dec. 8, the day after his Hall of Fame election. “It has been a whirlwind. I’ll try not to get too deep, because tears will start coming out again. I cried when I retired, and now I have to re-cry again coming back.

“The game has always been a beautiful game. I played it with passion, I played it with integrity and loved every minute that I played the game.

“I’m grateful to the Hall of Fame for the consideration, grateful for the voters that considered and argued through and debated through my career and so grateful that I was recognized. I still can’t believe guys like Alan Trammell, who I had lunch with today, that I’m included in guys with that name, that somehow, some way, my name can be in the same line as those great players before me. This is just an unbelievable moment.”

Over the course of a 17-year career, Kent established himself as one of the most productive players at his position in the game’s history, with a dozen 20-plus homer seasons and eight seasons of 100-or-more runs driven in his career; a total of 377 home runs that is the most ever by a second baseman; and 1,518 RBI, the most of any second baseman whose career began in the Live Ball Era.

His six seasons in San Francisco included an MVP effort in 2000 in which he batted .334 with 33 homers, 125 runs batted in, and a 1.021 OPS, and an outstanding 2002 season that helped drive the Giants to the National League pennant.

Kent, 57, earned five All-Star selections and four Silver Slugger Awards across a career that also impacted the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Mets, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Among the artifacts Kent has donated to the Hall of Fame over the years include a bat and cap used on Oct. 2, 2004 when he hit his 288th home run as a second baseman, surpassing Ryne Sandberg as the all-time home run leader at that position; a bat used on Sept. 18, 2006, to hit his 345th career home run; and the bat used in the 2009 Hall of Fame Classic game in Cooperstown when he won the pregame hitting contest.

Kent was asked for a scouting report on his son, Kaeden Kent, a 22-year-old minor league infielder with the New York Yankees selected in the third round of the 2025 amateur draft out of Texas A&M University.

“He can’t be as good as me,” Kent joked before getting emotional later in the answer. “We fight like that all the time. He’s always ripping on me… He always thought he could be better than me, because he always said, ‘Dad, you’re not a Hall of Famer.’ So, after your call, I hugged him and said, ‘Good luck.’

“He’s a lot like his mother (Dana) sitting right here, too. So there’s some good in him, not just all the bad.”

The election of Kent – the first electee to the Hall of Fame Class of 2026 – brings the total to 352 members of the Cooperstown shrine. The Contemporary Baseball Era consisted of candidates whose most significant career impact was realized from 1980 through the present.

A Giant honor.@JuanMarichal27 is the first Hall of Famer to welcome Jeff Kent into the fraternity! pic.twitter.com/8cJUTMGbWY

— National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum ⚾ (@baseballhall) December 8, 2025

One reporter asked Kent his thoughts on joining five other Hall of Famers – Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Gaylord Perry and Juan Marichal – who have played either all or the majority of their career in San Francisco after the Giants moved West after the 1957 season.

“There’s no way you can see …” Kent responded before trailing off when his emotions got to him. “You see, I’m a science and mechanical guy, I’m not an emotional guy, but I guess I am. There’s no way in the world that you can write my name down and pin it next to those types of names. That doesn’t calculate with me, and I’m a guy that wants to calculate things…I know the things that I did over my career mattered. That’s why I cried at my retirement, because I love the game so much, and I’m grateful for people that recognized it, argued it, thought that I was good enough to be pinned with those guys...I guess a lot of gratitude. So, I don’t know if that answers your question, but you got some tears out of me. Good job.”

Kent was among the eight former players that comprised the Contemporary Baseball Era ballot that was voted upon at the Baseball Winter Meetings in Orlando, Fla., on Dec. 7. The 16-member Contemporary Baseball Era Committee elected Kent, who was named on 14 of 16 ballots, as the only candidate to reach the 75-percent threshold necessary for election.

Kent will be joined in the Hall of Fame Class of 2026 by any electees who emerge from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voting, which will be announced on Jan. 20 live from Cooperstown. The 2026 Induction Weekend is scheduled for July 24-27, with the Induction Ceremony on July 26.

Known for his intense playing personality, Kent did address whether he could have fun in the game.

“I think a lot of times throughout my career, people thought I took the game too serious at times … and there are a lot of things that I had done because I didn’t want people, and it was a cliché, but I didn’t want people to get into my house,” Kent said. “I didn’t want people to get in my brain because I wanted to focus on the game. I took the game too serious. I didn’t have too much fun on the field, but I did.

“I’m not a half-full guy. I’m a half empty guy. I’m always looking for the problems. I always wanted to fix the problems. ‘Can’t get a hit today. Why did you not get a hit?’ ‘You got three hits. Well, you should be happy. You got three out of four hits. I wasn’t happy. Why did I not get that fourth hit?’ If I made an error, why did I make that error? ‘Oh, well, it didn’t cost a run. I still made an error. Why did I make that error?’”

Early in the press conference, Kent was presented with the uniform of his new team, which included a dark blue cap sporting the Hall of Fame logo as well as a white jersey with “Hall of Fame” emblazoned across the front in red script.

“And now he joins the Baseball Hall of Fame team and our Class of 2026. Congratulations, Jeff Kent,” Hall of Fame President Josh Rawitch said after reciting a list of his diamond accomplishments.

Bill Francis is the senior research and writing specialist at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum