Jeff Kent didn’t make the Hall of Fame through the better-known Baseball Writers’ Association of America vote, but he is still headed to Cooperstown thanks to Sunday’s Contemporary Baseball Era ballot.
Kent was one of eight former players on this year’s Contemporary Baseball Era ballot, which the National Baseball Hall of Fame explained was for players whose primary contributors came after 1980.
He was joined by Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela.
Matt Snyder of CBS Sports reported on the process and noted players had to receive at least 12 of the 16 votes from a 16-person panel to be inducted into the Hall of Fame this way.
Kent did, enshrining his name in baseball history.
Others fell short, including Bonds and Clemens. Given their career accomplishments, it isn’t a leap to blame the pair’s connections to performance-enhancing drugs while guessing why they are not Hall of Famers.
As Snyder explained, the BBWAA vote generates far more headlines, but players can also reach the Hall of Fame through the Era Committee. The Era Committee used to be known as the Veteran’s Committee, and the Contemporary Era vote is on a three-year cycle.
That means the next Contemporary Era player ballot will take place for the 2029 Hall of Fame class, which is all the more notable given the new rule change.
“This time around there’s a new rule: any player who does not get at least five votes will not be eligible to be on the ballot next time around (it’s a three-year cycle, so the next Contemporary Era player ballot will be for the 2029 Hall of Fame class),” Snyder wrote. “Moving forward, any candidate who appears on the Era Committee ballot twice and fails to reach five votes either time, that person will not be eligible for future consideration for the Hall of Fame.”
Kent doesn’t have to worry about that, as he will forever be known as a Hall of Famer.
He played for the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Mets, Cleveland, San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers during a career that lasted from 1992 through 2008.
During those 17 years, he built a resume that included the 2000 National League MVP, four Silver Sluggers and five All-Star selections.
He finished with a .290/.356/.500 slash line to go with 377 home runs and 1,518 RBI in his career.