In an article in the Austin American-Statesman, Kevin Robbins did a post-retirement piece on newly-retired Jeff Kent.
Within the piece, it's mentioned that Kent owns a golf course and 12 residential lots. 377 home runs or not, I'm pretty sure I don't want Jeff Kent as my landlord. Of course, he'd always be willing to drop by and wash your truck. (Yeah, I said it. But I actually loved Jeff Kent in an Astros uniform. I could handle Biggio moving positions for Kent. Chris Burke? Not so much.)
This is my favorite:
Kent spent his first Saturday of retirement with children, who range in age from 12 to 5. They migrated from two baseball tryouts to a pair of soccer matches and a basketball game. Sunday morning, the family piled into the 45-foot coach Kent bought in Arizona and drove to Houston for a supercross motorcycle event at Reliant Stadium, returning that night with the kids asleep in the back.
"I guess that's the normal person's life," he said.
Now I'm not retired. Nor will I be for about 40 years, but I doubt this is the normal person's retired life.
So why would he leave Houston? Surprisingly, he left to give second base back to Biggio, who was struggling in center field...
"He'd earned the right to be an Astro," Kent said of Biggio. "I hadn't. I just knew it was time to move on."
What will you remember Kent for? The 377 home runs? The helmet flip after the walk-off home run off Isringhausen in '04? Shovel-whacking Barry Bonds?
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
