Jeff Kent Calls MLB Hall of Fame Voting an 'Embarrassment'

2000 National League MVP and five-time All-Star second baseman Jeff Kent was not admitted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Tuesday, falling off the writer’s ballot in his final year of candidacy. Kent can still receive entry to baseball’s most exclusive club via one of the veterans committees.

Kent received just 181 votes, receiving a vote on 46.5% of the ballots. A player must receive 75% of the vote from the BBWAA in order to receive induction into the Hall of Fame. Kent was nearly 30 percentage points short.

In order for a player to stay on the ballot from one year to the next, he needs to receive a minimum of 5% of the vote. A player has ten years of eligibility to be voted in by the BBWAA. After failing to receive 75% of the vote after ten years on the ballot, that player falls off the ballot, which is what happened to Kent.

Kent has not been happy with the voters during his time on the ballot. After he failed to receive entry, he sent a text to the San Francisco Chronicle, calling the Hall of Fame voting a ‘head-scratching embarrassment.’

“The voting over the years has been too much of a head-scratching embarrassment,” Kent said in a text to the San Francisco Chronicle. “Baseball is losing a couple generations of great players that were the best in their era because a couple non-voting stat folks keep comparing those players to players already voted in from generations past and are influencing the votes. It’s unfair to the best players in their own era and those already voted in, in my opinion.”

Jeff Kent Calls MLB Hall of Fame Voting an ‘Embarrassment’

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