What’s Going On?

Today marked a really sobering day for the sport of baseball as baseball all-star Jeff Kent retires from the sport with the Dodgers and with him goes a truly awesome player. I will never forget all the great moments I’ve gotten to see as he played for the Giants. Today as I turned on the television, I watched a press conference that he was holding in Los Angeles and I asked myself if this was truly happening and the realization hit me that it actually was happening when i flipped the channel to see it on another sports network. I ended up watching the whole press conference and as I was watching I felt very emotional as I saw probably one of the best players leave the game. In all my experience of watching the sport of baseball I truly believe him to be one of the most genuine and real true players of the game. In my eyes, he is like fictional character (Billy Chapel) played by Kevin Costner in the movie For the Love of the Game (1999) because he loves the sport so much that he gives it his all.

As I watched the press conference, I started taking notes to try and remember this momentous occasion. As I was watching, the hesitation in Kent’s voice was one of great emotion. He spoke with lots of heart and passion for what he truly loved. Kent stated that he was not tired of the game itself, but that he was tired of living out of a suitcase, tired of traveling, and tired of baggage (whether it be bad or the good that comes out from it). He also stated numerous times that he had the utmost respect for the game; He even said that he wanted to lead this game right and with integrity. The motto that he picked up from his father who was a police officer was, “If you do a job, do it right.” Kent never cheated the game and always did what he thought was right.

Kent played for the Giants from 1997-2002, six seasons with the ball club. He hit 1518 Career RBIs, a slugging percentage of 0.500, and 377 career home runs. Out of the 377 homers, 351 of them were homers while playing second base. Kent has 74 more homers than Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg and now leads major league baseball with having the most home runs as a second baseman. Kent has played for many teams starting with the Blue Jays in 1992, the Mets from 1992-96, the Indians in 1996,  the Giants from 1997-2002, the Astros from 2003-04, and finishing off with the Dodgers from 2005-2008. In all of his 17 years of baseball he said that the greatest highlight of his career was to be playing for the Giants in the 2002 World Series despite losing in Game 7. All in all, Jeff Kent will always be a Giant to me and he will be among the greatest players that have ever played the game.