SF Giants’ Jeff Kent elected Baseball Hall of Fame, Barry Bonds left out

ORLANDO, Fla. — Jeff Kent and Barry Bonds formed one of the great one-two punches in Giants history during their six seasons as teammates in San Francisco. One of them is bound for Cooperstown; the other remains an outsider.

Kent, the all-time leader in home runs by a second baseman, earned a stunning election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday evening as part of the Contemporary Baseball Era Ballot. Bonds, the single-season and all-time home run king, not only once again fell well short of election, but is down to possibly his final chance at induction.

“I’m stuttering here because it has not sunk in,” Kent said in a video conference on Sunday evening. “I didn’t think about it much. During the 10 years of opportunity to get voted in, it’d come up every year and the moments seemed to pass by. Not utter disappointment, but just disappointment — frustration that I wasn’t better recognized. … The time had gone by that you leave it alone, and I left it alone.

“I love the game. Everything I gave to the game, I left there on the field. This moment, today … absolutely unprepared. Emotionally unstable. My thoughts are so far clouded. … They’re just jumbled so much.”

Kent, a Southern California native and former Cal star, will enter the National Baseball Hall of Fame on July 26 as the lone inductee from the Contemporary Era ballot after receiving 14 votes from the 16-person committee.

PHOTO BY MERI SIMON/SJMN 10/24/02 Jeff Kent is greeted by Barry Bonds after slamming a 2-run homer in the 6th inning. The homer made the score 8-4 to keep the Giants ahead of the Angels. Today was Game 5 of the World Series played at Pac Bell Park in San Francisco.

Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela were also on this year’s ballot along with Kent and Bonds. Delgado received nine votes while Mattingly and Murphy both got six. Bonds, Clemens, Sheffield and Valenzuela each received less than five votes.

The Hall of Fame added a rule in March that candidates who don’t receive at least five votes will not be eligible for their respective committee’s ballot during the next-three year cycle. If a candidate reappears on a ballot but again fails to receive at least five votes, that candidate will be ineligible to appear on future committee ballots.

For Bonds, Clemens, Sheffield and Valenzuela, this means they will not be on the contemporary era ballot in 2028, and will have to wait until at least ’31. If they again receive fewer than five votes, they will be dropped from any further consideration, shutting the door on their chances of gaining entry into the Hall of Fame.

During Sunday’s video conference, Kent was asked if he believes Bonds should be in the Hall of Fame. Kent acknowledging that he “knocked heads a little bit” with Bonds, alluding to their infamous dugout argument in 2002, but described Bonds as “one of the best players I ever saw play the game.”

As for whether Kent thinks Bonds should join him in Cooperstown?

“I’ve always avoided the specific answer you’re looking for because I don’t have one,” Kent said. “I’m not a voter, but I can say he was a teammate that helped me. I believe I helped him. I believe he was one of the best baseball players I ever saw. If you’re talking about moral code and all that, I’m not a voter. I’m trying to stay away from all that the best I can because I really don’t have an opinion. I’ve left it. It doesn’t matter to me anymore.

“I know he’s been argued among a lot of baseball elites if he ought to be in or not. Keep having that argument. You argue through it, and if he’s not, and if he is, he is. It’s not going to matter to me one way or the other.

The Giants acquired Kent from Cleveland in November 1996 in a trade that sent popular third baseman Matt Williams out. While fans at the time were largely unhappy with the deal, Kent morphed into one of the greatest power-hitting second basemen of all time.

Kent played six seasons with the Giants from 1997-2002 during his 17-year career in the majors. With San Francisco, Kent won the 2000 NL MVP, made three All-Star teams, captured three Silver Sluggers and helped the Giants reach the 2002 World Series. He credited Dusty Baker, a future Hall of Famer in his own right, for lighting a fire and helping him become a better all-around hitter.

Following that loss in the World Series to the Anaheim Angels, Kent signed with the Houston Astros, then spent the last four seasons of his career with the rival Los Angeles Dodgers before retiring in 2008.

Overall, Kent hit 377 home runs with a .290 batting average and .855 OPS, his 351 homers as a second baseman being the most in MLB history. His 1,518 RBIs are the third-most all-time among primary second basemen, and his résumé features four Silver Sluggers and five All-Star selections.

Kent spent 10 years on the writers’ ballot but never even received half of the vote in any year, peaking at 46.5 percent in 2013, his final year of eligibility.

“Over the last 20-plus years now, I’ve been out of the game,” Kent said as he fought back tears. “The game has gone away from me. I watch my boy (Kaeden) now, who’s playing for the Yankees. I watched him through college trying to help him along. But all of my game came rushing back in five minutes and it’s just overwhelming.”

KRT SPORTS STORY SLUGGED: SERIES KRT PHOTO BY KARL MONDON/CONTRA COSTA TIMES (October 24) SAN FRANCISCO, CA — The Giants’ Jeff Kent slides safely into home in the second inning of game 5 of the 2002 World Series on Thursday, October 24, 2002 at Pac Bell Park in San Francisco, California. (CC) NC KD BL 2002 (Horiz) (mvw). [Baseball, Pro, World Series]. ORG XMIT: KRTThe 16-person voting committee included Hall of Famers Juan Marichal, Fergie Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Tony Pérez, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell and Robin Yount. It also featured executives Mark Attanasio, Doug Melvin, Arte Moreno, Kim Ng, Tony Reagins and Terry Ryan, as well as historian Steve Hirdt and The Athletic reporters Tyler Kepner and Jayson Stark.

The voting results are not public, but it’s plausible that Marichal, one of the greatest pitchers in Giants franchise history, voiced his support for Bonds, as he did in 2013, telling the Associated Press: “I think that they have been unfair to guys who were never found guilty of anything.”

Bonds’s credentials as a player, of course, cannot be denied.

Bonds holds the single-season records for home runs (73), walks (232), intentional walks (120) and on-base percentage (.609), as well as the all-time records for homers (762), walks (2,558) and intentional walks (688). He owns features seven MVPs, the most all-time, as well as eight Gold Gloves, 12 Silver Sluggers and 14 All-Star selections.

Despite arguably being the greatest to ever play the game, Bonds has been kept out of Cooperstown due to his links to performance-enhancing drugs.

Bonds, who has denied knowingly using PEDs, failed to be elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, his final appearance on the ballot being in January 2022. In December of that same year, Bonds again missed out on Cooperstown in his first appearance on the contemporary era ballot.