SCOTTSDALE, Arizona – Jeff Kent doesn’t usually take calls from unknown numbers. On this occasion, he did something different.
Sometime after being elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Kent found himself on his phone when he received a call from an unknown number. Kent hadn’t spoken to a caller in a while, so he decided to pick up the phone just for fun.
“Hello?” Jeff asked.
“Jeff,” answered the voice. “Jeff, this is Johnny Bench.”
Suffice it to say, Kent didn’t expect the voice of one of baseball’s greatest players to be on the other line.
“I fell off my chair,” Kent recalled before the Giants’ 4-2 win over the Chicago Cubs on Sunday at Scottsdale Stadium. “You’ve got to be kidding me. … Johnny Bench is calling and giving me advice about the Hall of Fame and congratulating me.”
Kent’s call with Bench was one of the sweetest moments he’s had since being elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on the Contemporary Era Ballot. With a jam-packed summer ahead, more opportunities like these await.
“Baseball came flooding back to me, and I left most of the game because I was done with it,” said Kent. “I had other things to do. I have a family and grandchildren and businesses to run. So I left the game. So all this came back in such a big flood.”
On July 26, Kent will be officially inducted along with Carlos Beltran and Andrew Jones, who were nominated by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Unsurprisingly, Kent’s plaque will go in as a Giant. Kent has begun to prepare his speech, admitting that it is in the news right now and wants to include his anecdotes.
A month later, Kent will make a rare visit to Oracle Park, where the Giants will retire his number 21 on August 29. Kent will become the 14th person in franchise history to have his jersey number retired, joining Christy Mathewson (no number), John McGraw (no number), Bill Terry (3), Mel1 Ott (4), Clark Ott (4), Clark (4) (22), Willie Mays (24), Barry Bonds (25), Juan Marichal (27), Orlando Cepeda (30), Gaylord Perry (36) and Willie McCovey (44).
The Giants retired a player’s number when he was voted into the Hall of Fame, the only exceptions being Bonds in 2018 and Clark in ’22. Buster Posey at No. 28 could also join that list if he is voted in by the writers this coming December.
“And now the number – it’s hard for me to give you a description that describes it. It’s not cool. It’s not clean. It’s not big. It’s not surreal. There’s no word yet that I’ve been able to find,” Kent said. “And you’re talking about my speech – I’m still looking for what that real meaning is. I don’t have it. I think it makes sense. I’m still looking for that, because I’m depressed. I’m frustrated, and I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. It brings me to tears. It’s been emotional. It’s been good.”
Currently, Kent is in Scottsdale for a few days as a guest lecturer. He hasn’t really gotten his hands dirty yet, joking that he’s “a clean toy that comes out standing. He enjoys talking to new players about the mechanics but admits that he “doesn’t want to make too much of an impact because I’m not going to be here and track for the next few days.”
Reflecting on his career, Kent said he played the game with less arrogance, less arrogance and less hatred. Kent, the 2000 NL MVP and five-time All-Star, said he hates losing, hates failure, hates hitting. Nearly two decades removed from his last game, Kent admits he has “no more hate” for where he is in his life.
“You’re trying to hold on to something, and I think that’s where the emotions come in,” Kent said. “Because what is it? … Arrogance? Arrogance can be associated with hate. It’s not arrogance. It’s not a cock. I’m not a cock anymore. I’m an adult. So how do you put all that together? I don’t know.”
As for the hate, Kent joked that he doesn’t like new manager Tony Vitello because Tennessee won the 2024 College World Series by beating Texas A&M, where his son, Kaeden, played as an infielder. Kent recalled trying to get Kaeden to play for Vitello through the transfer portal, but Kaeden stayed at Texas A&M and was drafted by the New York Yankees in the third round of the 2025 MLB draft.
In Kent, Vitello has a fan.
“Tony is kind of rebuilding that program in Tennessee to be something that they’re proud of,” Kent said. “Tennessee was like death in the dumps. Then they found Tony and he rebuilt them. I was impressed by what he did. I watched his passion on the field and the way he supported his players.”
