Booooooooo!

I was at two of the Giants-Dodgers games last week. Every single time Jeff Kent came to the plate, he was booed roundly, on the scale of the boos that Barry got in Philadelphia.

I don’t get it.

Jeff Kent is quite a package: Cal grad, redneck, biker, blunt, power hitter. He played for the Giants for six years, six incredibly fine and consistent years. His final game in a Giants uniform was game 7 of the 2002 World Series, a season in which he hit .313 and a career high 37 home runs.

He left as a free agent at the age of 35, signing what was sure to be his last big contract when the Giants didn’t want to pay him. Houston offered him $17.5 million over two years. How could he say no?

Kent was acquired in the Matt Williams deal before the 1997 season, a deal that is considered Brian Sabean’s best deal. His Giants statistics during his six seasons were:

.297 Batting Average
175 Home Runs (29/year)
247 Doubles (41/year)
689 RBI’s (115/year, with the lowest being 101)
570 Runs (95/year)

He even had 57 stolen bases (9.5/year), which made him the top fantasy second baseman throughout that period. He won the 2000 MVP over Bonds, and made 3 all-star teams. The Giants made the playoffs 3 of those years, and were competitive and close in the other 3. He was a fine player.

Hey, he’s still pretty good. He drilled two homers over Barry’s head in left when he was in town last week.

He has a shot at the Hall of Fame. His career numbers through the end of 2005:

.289 lifetime batting average
331 Home Runs (82nd)
474 Doubles (62nd)
1312 RBI’s (83rd)
847 Extra Base Hits (63rd)

He only has 2070 hits, which will hurt him. But he did this at 2nd base, an injury prone position. These numbers are very high for second basemen. Joe Morgan, in on the first ballot, had the following numbers:

.271 lifetime batting average
268 Home Runs
449 Doubles (76th)
1133 RBI’s
813 Extra Base Hits (80th)
2517 Hits

Of course, Joe won back-to-back MVP’s, is 11th on the career steals list, was a much better fielder than Kent, made 10 all-star teams, and has two or three rings. But Kent isn’t done quite yet, and his numbers are already ahead of Morgan’s in the power categories. Personally, I say no to Kent, barely, and yes to Roberto Alomar, the other great 2nd baseman of this era, but I wouldn’t argue about Kent’s induction. He can rake.

So why the hell do they boo?

I’d say they’re booing because he’s on the Dodgers now, and Giants fans hate ex-Giants who become Dodgers. They booed Brett Butler, and Butler was popular while with the Giants. But they booed Kent in his two Houston years too, so it’s not the Dodger thing.

The booing is a sign of the provincial fans in the Bay Area. Jeff Kent chose to leave here. He rejected San Francisco. You don’t want us? Then screw you.

Of course, he made a hell of a lot more money going to Houston than the Giants were offering. Would he have stayed if the Giants were competitive? Well, they weren’t, but it’s not clear. You know he hated the special treatment Barry got, and maybe you remember the fight (grabbing, not punching) he got into with Barry in the dugout one night. On the other hand, he was the first guy there to greet and congratulate Barry the night Barry broke McGwire's record with homer #71.

In game 4 of the 1975 NBA finals, Mike Riordan sucker punched Rick Barry in the first quarter of the game with the Bullets up by about 15. He was trying to get Barry to retaliate and get thrown out of the game. Barry didn’t retaliate, but Al Attles did. Big mistake, and Riordan got away lucky. Al Attles has three special attributes: (1) he has the deepest bass voice in sports history, (2) he and Wilt scored 117 points one night in Hershey, PA, and (3) he was, pound for pound, the toughest, scariest fighter who ever played in the NBA (according to Bill Bradley, he was legendary). They just barely kept Attles from ripping Riordan’s head off, and he was sent to the locker room, where he watched the Warriors win the championship on the locker room TV.

Mike Riordan played a few more years. He was a solid, self-made player who had a nice career. But from that time on, whenever he played in Oakland, every single time he got the ball, fans would boo him. For years. Every single time. Believe me, it got tiresome. But Bay Area fans have a long memory. I think Latrelle got that treatment too, but by that time I had stopped going to Warriors games, so I’m not 100% sure.

Jeff Kent was a player. For a while, he hit behind Barry, and he drove in a hell of a lot of runs. Then for a while he hit in front of Barry, and he drove in a hell of a lot of runs. He has a career that is going to get Hall of Fame consideration, and the guts of that career were here in San Francisco. He even went to college here, and has been active raising money for womens’ sports there for many years.

And he got us to the World Series.

I wouldn’t have Kent over to my house for dinner, but I appreciate what a special player he was while he was here. I always berate the fans around me for booing. It’s stupid. It makes me embarrassed to be a Giants fan.

You know, Will Clark left the Giants of his own accord. And now he’s in the front office of the enemy, the Dbacks. But people still love him, and he got to throw out the first pitch on Opening Day a few years ago. In fact, Joe Montana left too, and Rick Barry. But we love these guys.

I don’t think Jeff Kent will ever get a chance to throw out the first pitch, or get a statue. But he’s a big part of the fabric of this franchise during the last decade, and he should be remembered for that.

So why do they boo? My theory: just to be an asshole.