Former San Francisco Giants second baseman Jeff Kent became emotional in his expression of gratitude during his Hall of Fame election speech.
Following his election to the baseball Hall of Fame by the era committee on Sunday, former San Francisco Giants second basemen Jeff Kent could not contain his emotions.
Kent, a former MVP and five-time All-star who holds the record for home runs by a second baseman, spoke about his love for the game and what it means to receive the honor during the Winter Meetings in Orlando.
“The game has always been a beautiful game,” he said. “I played it with passion. I played it with integrity. and loved every minute that I played the game. 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. That was the hardest moment to get through, which is, I really think that this is more valuable to me.”
“Now to have this panel be consistent of former players, that I necessarily didn't play against, but watched me. It doesn't overshadow, I think, the original ballot I was on for 10 years. But personally, those are the people that I played for. The legacy that guys like Alan Trammell left, Ryne Sandberg, who's not here... That you try to carry on the tradition or be better than them because they set the standard, which was pretty high.”
Kent became choked up when mentioning Sandberg, who passed away in July after a battle with metastatic prostate cancer. He was 65 years old.
“Ryne Sandberg was probably the guy because he was a second baseman that I wanted to be better than. You know, you play for those guys. You don't want to disappoint those guys. You want to carry on this game that's given back so much to me.”
“So, to have those people ultimately vote for me and acknowledge the things that I did was the worst part about the last 24 hours. See, I'm a mechanical guy. is science to mechanical and science. See, I can't control my emotions, so I'm not an emotional guy, but I guess I am.”
Sandberg was also a former MVP, a 10-time All-Star and a nine-time Gold Glove winner among other accolades. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005.
“There's no way in the world that you can write my name down and pin it next to those types of names,” Kent added. “It doesn't calculate with me. And I'm a guy that wants to calculate things. And still to this day, it's been 24 hours now. There's no way. I know the things that I did over my career mattered. And I'm grateful for people that recognized it, argued it, thought that I was good enough to be pinned with those guys.”