Jeff Kent Becomes First Ex-Cal Player to Be Voted Into Baseball Hall of Fame

A Cal alumnus has finally made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Jeff Kent, who played at Cal from 1987 to 1989 and starred for the San Francisco Giants, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday. He becomes the first player who played baseball at Cal to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Kent, 57, holds the Major League record for home runs by a second baseman, and he was named on 14 of 16 ballots of the contemporary baseball era committee. That’s two more votes than he needed to be inducted into the Hall. Kent was the only player elected by the contemporary baseball era committee from this year’s candidates, as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemons were denied entrance into the Hall of Fame.

Kent will join players elected by the upcoming Baseball Writer Association of America ballot for the class of 2026.

Kent was a three-year starter at shortstop for Cal from 1987 to 1989. He was named to the All-Pac-10 second team in 1988, a year in which the Golden Bears advanced to the College World Series. He set a Cal single-season record for doubles in a in 1987 with 35, although that record has since been surpassed.

Cal finished with a 36-25 record in Kent’s freshman season of 1987, and the Bears went 35-24 in his final season as a junior in 1989. In 1988, Cal went 40-25 and reached the College World Series after winning the regional in Austin, Texas. Cal lost its first two games in the College World Series and was eliminated.,

Kent suffered a broken wrist in the middle of his junior season. That caused him to miss the rest of that 1989 season, and hurt his draft status heading into the 1989 major-league draft. He was taken in the 20th round, by the Toronto Blue Jays, in the 1989 draft, the 521st player taken that year.

Kent blossomed into a star as a second baseman in the majors. He was a five-time All-Star, and he was voted National League MVP with the Giants in 2000 when he batted .334 with 33 home runs and 125 RBIs while teaming with Bonds to help the Giants win the National League pennant.

In his interview Sunday night (available by clicking here), Kent said it was his time with the Giants that made him the player he was.

“The turning point in my career was with Dusty Baker,” he said, referring to the Giants manager who often showed up at Cal baseball games in recent years to watch his son, Darren, play second base for the Golden Bears.

Kent said he enjoyed his time in the Bay Area. “And I went to college up at Berkeley too,” he said.

He played 19 major-league seasons and finished with 377 home runs, the most ever by a second baseman.

While Kent was voted in, several other big names did not get the necessary votes. Besides Bonds and Clemens, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Fernando Valenzuela and Gary Sheffield were on the ballot.

Kent has helped Cal since his retirement from baseball. In 2011, when Cal announced that the baseball program would be eliminated, Kent donated $100,000 as part of $9 million in donations that saved the baseball program.

In 2014, Kent donated $531,000 to initiate the Jeff Kent Women Driven Scholarship Endowment. The purpose was to provide a scholarship to a non-recruited athlete with at least a 2.8 grade-point average who participated in soccer, softball, tennis, track or cross country.

Click here for Kent’s emotional reaction to be voted into the Hall of Fame:

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