San Francisco Giants: Kent, Magowan Enter Bay Area HOF

By Laith Agha | May 17, 2016

Many think Jeff Kent should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. But for now, he's at least in the Bay Area's hall. Robert Hanashiro, USA Today /

Jeff Kent and Peter Magowan are now officially immortalized as Bay Area legends. The two, who played major roles with the San Francisco Giants in the past couple decades, were inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame on Monday.

Magowan was the franchise’s managing general partner from 1993 to 2008. While Magowan never brought a championship to San Francisco during his term as an owner, he did something perhaps even more important: he led the effort to keep the team in San Francisco. Magowan and his group of fellow investors bought the team in January 1993 from Bob Lurie, keeping it from being sold to an interested party intent on moving the Giants to St. Petersburg, Fla., where the Tampa Bay Rays now play.

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Shortly after Magowan’s group bought the Giants, they signed Barry Bonds. Less than three years later, Magowan announced plans for a new stadium. Pac Bell Park—now known as AT&T Park—opened in 2000.

Not that Magowan had anything to do with this, but the Giants also drafted Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner in the last couple years of his group’s ownership tenure.

Kent made his mark on Bay Area baseball twice: first while playing at UC Berkeley, then later after joining the Giants.

The Bay Area Hall of Fame is a nice affirmation of his career, but Kent deserves to be immortalized in a more prominent museum, in Cooperstown, NY. But baseball writers are struggling to recognize Kent belongs in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Since first appearing on the ballot in 2014, Kent has received no more than 16.6 percent of the vote, despite being one of the greatest hitting second basemen ever. He is the position’s all-time leader in home runs, while ranking third in RBI, OPS and total bases. He is 10^th in hits.

Kent was voted the National League MVP in 2000, over teammate Barry Bonds. He made five All-Star teams, won four Silver Slugger awards, and drove in 100 runs eight times—including in six consecutive seasons with the Giants.

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The knock on him has been that he wasn’t a great defender, though that is debatable. He was good enough to stay at second base until he retired at 40, and with his offensive production, that shouldn’t much matter.

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