The Hall of Pretty Good

Yesterday Jeff Kent announced his retirement. And it seems that nowadays, anytime anyone retires or nears retirement, everyone wants to ask, Is this guy Hall of Fame worthy? And so it goes with, the now ex Dodger second baseman, Kent. ESPN's Peter Gammons, whom I have the utmost respect for, thinks that Kent is a first ballot Hall of Famer. That's his opinion and I respect it. If you asked me, "Is Jeff Kent a Hall of Famer?" I would say, "HELL NO!"

The argument for Kent is strictly numerical: 377 homeruns, 2461 hits, 1518 RBI, and a .290 career average. Not bad numbers. The people who argue Kent is a Hall of Famer will say that if you compare his offensive numbers to other second basemen, you can't keep him out. Look at recent Hall of Fame inductee Ryne Sandberg, the Cubs' second baseman: 282 homeruns, 2386 hits, 1061 RBI, and a .285 average. Kent's numbers are clearly better. But, to me Sandberg is a Hall of Fame player (inducted in 2005) and Kent isn't. So what's the difference?

First, I would argue that Kent's numbers are skewed. Everyone put up great numbers in the Steroid Era. Would Kent have these kind of numbers if he played in the seventies or eighties? It's purely a hypothetical question, we'll never know. But if everyone had great numbers in the Steroid Era, Hall of Famers would need spectacular numbers.

Secondly, Kent wasn't a great defensive player. Hell, he wasn't really that good--zero Gold Gloves. Sandberg: 9 time Gold Glove winner. Second base, shortstop, catcher, and centerfield are the key defensive positions. At these four positions defense trumps offense. So if you're not a great defensive player, and you're a second baseman, you're not a great second baseman.

Finally, Kent has the reputation of being one of the biggest a-holes in baseball (how would you like to have been in the Giants clubhouse when Kent and Barry Bonds both played in San Francisco?--yikes). Now I'm not saying you have to be Mother Teresa, (see Ty Cobb). But there aren't going to be a lot of fans, players, writers who will miss Jeff Kent. Sandberg was a team leader, a fan favorite, and after his retirement the Chicago Cubs retired his number 23.

Recently, everyone has an argument for everyone to be in the Hall of Fame. This past election process, which saw Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice elected, also saw Bert Blyleven miss the 75% of votes needed for induction (he received 62.7 %). And some people are up in arms that he didn't make it (including Bert himself). Honestly, Bert Blyleven? He was a decent pitcher. But Hall of Fame?

If the Hall of Fame continues to induct mediocre, slightly above average players, they might as well re-name it the Hall of Pretty Good. That's what Kent was, a pretty good player. And there's nothing wrong with that. But the Hall needs to realize that it's okay to be picky--stop putting players in just to get players in. Look at some of the names that got votes this year: Harold Baines got 32 votes, Matt Williams got 7 votes, Jay Bell got 2 votes. Who the hell is Jay Bell? It's almost as if they are afraid of having a year where no player is inducted. This is a plea to the Baseball Writers of America association, if any of you are reading this (HA!), please, please, save the Hall of Fame, and elect only the elite players, the great ones, the legends.

P.S. I looked up Jay Bell: shortstop who played 18 years with 5 different teams. An interesting note, Bell averaged 13 homeruns per year in his first 9 full seasons. Then, in 1999, Bell hit a whopping 38 home runs! That's quite a jump, very odd, strange really. How in the world could a major league baseball player, in 1999, have such an increase, a surge, in power numbers? It's almost like he got really strong suddenly. Wonder how that happened.