Saturday has been a busy day for the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. Not only are they playing a doubleheader against the Arizona Diamondbacks, they honored legendary infielder Jeff Kent by retiring his number in between the two games.
Kent, 58, will become the 15th player to be honored in such a way by the Giants, even though his number 21 will be just the 13th number officially retired by the organization. Both Christy Mathewson and John McGraw played in an era before players wore numbers, as a result, they were honored but didn’t remove a number from circulation simply.
Hall of Fame Career
Kent spent 17 seasons in the Major Leagues, six of which were spent in San Francisco. During his time as a Giant, Kent earned a considerable amount of hardware, including the only MVP award of his career. He was named the National League’s Most Valuable Player following the 2000 season, when he had a career-high .334 batting average, 1.021 OPS, and 33 home runs.
During Kent’s time in the Bay Area, he also won three of his four career Silver Slugger awards and was an All-Star selection three times. As a Giant, Kent appeared in 900 games, hit 175 home runs, 689 RBIs, and finished with a .290 batting average.
Throughout his career, Kent also spent time with the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Mets, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros, and retired as a member of the Giants’ rival Los Angeles Dodgers. He currently holds the record for most homeruns by a second baseman in MLB history with 377 and has the third-most RBIs in his position with 1,518.
Joining an Exclusive Club
Kent joins quite an impressive list of players to have been honored by the Giants. Monte Irvin, Willie Mays, Will Clark, Barry Bonds, Willie McCovey, and Orlando Cepeda are just a few of the legends who have been honored in this fashion previously.
The ceremony started with words from legendary Giants broadcaster Jon Miller as he recalled some of his favorite memories of the Hall of Famer which included the first walk-off home run in the history of Oracle Park, which was then called Pacific Bell Park.
Giants legends such as Dusty Baker, Juan Marichal, Barry Bonds, Will Clark and the current Giants President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey, among others, joined Jeff Kent’s family on the field as part of the festivities.
Then, after a video package on the Jumbotron, Kent emerged from the dugout to AC/DC’s “Back in Black” to thunderous applause from the crowd. Immediately, Kent made his way to Bonds and embraced his former teammate, despite their tendency to clash at times during their playing days.
Following the conclusion of the ceremony, Kent threw out the ceremonial first pitch, which was caught by his father, Alan Kent and excited the field in a truck, being chased by Giants mascot Lou Seal.
As Dusty Baker noted, now Kent will forever live alongside players such as Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda and Gaylord Perry as members of Giants royalty and no other Giant will ever take the field with the number 21 on their back.
Giants Honor Jeff Kent With Number Retirement Ceremony