Jeff Kent ‘emotional’ ahead of going into Hall of Fame as Giant

It will have been almost two decades since Jeff Kent last donned a big-league uniform when he takes the stage next weekend in Cooperstown. He’s already getting emotional.

“I had accepted that it just wasn’t going to happen,” Kent said Friday morning on a conference call with reporters ahead of his induction to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Jeff Kent will have a Giants cap on his Hall of Fame plaque at Cooperstown. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Now, as he puts the finishing touches on the speech he’ll deliver to a crowd of 10,000-plus, with 60 some of the game’s greatest living legends seated behind him, it’s really happening.

“It’s a bigger emotional deal than I ever thought it was going to be,” the typically surly second baseman acknowledged. “I still tear up talking about it.”

Kent, who retired in 2008, was passed over by the Baseball Writers Association of America all 10 times he appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot, never receiving more than 46.5% of the vote. His candidacy was given new life by the Contemporary Era committee, a 16-member panel that deemed his career worthy of being honored alongside Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones.

On July 26, the trio will become baseball’s newest Hall of Famers. 

Kent, who slugged 175 of his 377 career home runs — the most by a second baseman — in six memorable seasons in San Francisco, will go in wearing a Giants cap on his plaque.

Later this summer, he will have his No. 21 retired by the Giants in a ceremony at Oracle Park.

Despite his place as one of the top slugging second basemen of his era, Kent had come to terms that he would never see any of this kind of recognition. But in the 30-minute call with reporters, he had to pause multiple times as his eyes welled up with tears.

“I’m trying to figure out why,” Kent said of his suddenly vulnerable emotional state. “Is it because of the game? Is it because I finally got in? Is it because I wasn’t there and now I’m in — that emotional roller coaster? Why? Why are my emotions so attached to this?”

One possible reason: family.

Baseball, Kent said, was always something he kept separate from the rest of his life. His interests outside the game were diverse enough that he will surely be the only member of the Hall to have appeared on “Survivor” (Season 25, 10th place).

Kent will be joined by Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones as 2026 Hall of Fame inductees on July 26. John Greim/Shutterstock

These days, Kent said, “I’m a boring guy. I chase grandkids and chase cows and ride motorcycles.”

He now resides in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Dana, with whom he raised three kids. One of them, Kaeden, followed in his father’s footsteps and is a minor leaguer in the Yankees’ system.

But for the most part, “my personal life rarely intertwines with baseball,” Kent said. “Extended family, my friends, church friends — they know I’m a baseball player. They watch me on TV, maybe go to a game or two. But none of them have been intimately involved.”

Next weekend, though, everyone — even Kaeden, who’s in the middle of his season — will be in attendance. Kent’s son is rehabbing from a finger injury, so he won’t have to miss any games.

“This is going to be the first baseball function that I believe I’ve had my entire family together,” Kent said. “This is the biggest baseball function, so everybody’s coming to that. I’ll probably shed a tear or two for that.”

Most of the work left to do on Kent’s speech is editing it down to 10 minutes or so. He didn’t divulge too much of its contents — you’ll have to tune in July 26 (10:30 a.m. Pacific, MLB Network) — but what was left on the cutting room floor stirred up his most emotions during the call.

There were two items Kent wore almost every day of his 17 years in the big leagues that won’t be represented in Cooperstown: a mustache on his upper lip and a gold chain around his neck.

“Golly,” Kent said, choking up. “My mustache was a reminder if you will of – of …” 

He had to pause again to regain his composure. This was just a videoconference; imagine the emotions that will flow on stage in baseball’s most hallowed grounds.

“S–t, this is gonna be hard,” Kent said, taking a moment to gather his thoughts.

The mustache, he explained, was a tribute to his dad, a former police officer. The modest piece of jewelry, “a dinky gold necklace,” was a gift from his mom before he turned pro.

“Now they wear 15 necklaces and mustaches like it’s nothing,” Kent said, wiping back tears. “In my era, if you wore a mustache you were an idiot or they called you a porn star. I got ripped on that all the time. …

“I [was] the only guy in the shower with a mustache and a necklace on, and people are looking at me like I was weird. Those two things were not baseball related but just reminders of where I came from.”