Jeff Kent, who spent the six peak years of his career with the Giants, was just elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Contemporary Eras Committee, whatever that is. In the end, it doesn't matter what it is, he's in the Hall of Fame! Kent was one of 7 candidates up for consideration and received 14 of 16 votes. He was the only one of the 7 who got the required number of votes. The other players considered were Carlos Delgado, Dale Murphy, Don Mattingly, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemons, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela. Bonds and Clemons would obviously both been in a long time ago were it not for the PED issue. The others seem worthy to but I have long believed Jeff Kent had a HOF worthy career so am very happy to see him finally get in.
Kent came to the Giants in a trade engineered by Brian Sabean when he became the Giants GM for Matt Williams with the Giants also getting Julian Tavarez and Jose Vizcaino. The trade was heavily criticized by the Giants fanbase prompting Sabean to feel the need to defend himself with the infamous "I am not an idiot!" statement. Little did the fanbase know that over the next 6 seasons, Kent would hit 175 home runs, put up 30.9 fWAR and win a NL MVP Award. Kent eventually left under a bit of a cloud of his own making when he claimed a broken hand was from an accident suffered while washing his truck. The Giants reportedly found out he actually injured it while popping wheelies on his motorcycle an activity expressly prohibited in his contract. Kent did not win over any of these disappointed fans when he signed with the Dodgers two years later and infamously proclaimed he always dreamed of playing for the Dodgers.
Despite all that he did spend the peak years of his career with the Giants and it was a helluva peak. I would think he should proudly go into the Hall of Fame as a Giant and I would hope he will get his number retired along with other Hall of Famers who spent most of their careers and/or their peak seasons with the Giants.
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