FanHouse VinScully

Jeff Kent, one of the best hitting second basemen in major league history, is set to announce his retirement from baseball Thursday after 17 years in the big leagues.

Kent was still productive last year, at seasonal age 40, but injured his knee and played only a small role in the Dodgers' final push toward the NL West title. Could he have been productive again this year? Sure, but given the way the market is treating players his age and with his skillset, Kent probably would have had to take a dramatic paycut to continue his career. It's hard to blame someone who's already set for life for deciding not to spend another year away from his family, especially at a discount rate.

And with that, the discussion about Kent's legacy -- to be more specific his Hall of Fame case -- can begin.

You shock the world once again by taking the advice of Joe and using it to conclude that, not only are you most happy playing baseball, but you're most happy playing baseball for the Dodgers' eternal enemy, the San Francisco Giants.

They're the only ones willing to take a chance on a guy who flaked out on an $85 million contract.

Barry Bonds is at your introductory news conference to give you the key to the city of San Francisco. Then you make waves by saying that, instead of hitting your home runs into McCovey Cove, you hope to hit your moonshots into the Atlantic Ocean. This causes many to question your sanity, and your lack of general geographical knowledge.

You're playing left field for the hated Giants in the Dodgers' home opener and you go insane, hitting a pair of bombs off of CC Sabathia. But as you're rounding the bases a second time, Dodger fans throw bottles at you, Giant fans throw bottles at Dodger fans, and a brawl breaks out in the stands, spilling onto the field.

Jeff Kent throws haymakers at opponents and teammates, and even Vin Scully is throwing down with Duane Kuiper. All the while, you stand and watch the whole sordid event with a single tear in your eye, knowing that you caused this carnage.

THE END.

(Not sure how you got here? Start Choose Your Own Adventure: Manny Being Choosey in Free Agency from the beginning.)

I don't know Jeff Kent personally, but I don't think I have to know him to know that he's not the friendliest person on the planet. Every time I read a story on Jeff Kent, it's usually about something he doesn't like. He didn't like Barry Bonds, so he got into a fight with him in the dugout. He doesn't like Vin Scully, and I'm pretty sure he didn't like losing his job to Blake DeWitt in the playoffs either.

But you know what Jeff Kent really isn't a big fan of? Gay marriage. Jeff is such an opponent of gay marriage, in fact, that he's even donated $15,000 to help get Prop 8 passed in California next week. Proposition 8 being a move to ban gay marriage in California.

Jeff Kent, who played second base for the Los Angeles Dodgers this season, has stepped into the emotional world of same-sex marriage, giving $15,000 to backers of the California proposition on Tuesday's ballot that would ban it.

In a disclosure filed with the California secretary of state, Kent listed his occupation as professional baseball player for the Dodgers and his address as Austin, Texas. He gave the $15,000 in a transaction dated Monday but which only now is public.

Now I'm not going to start a debate here as to whether this is right or wrong because gay marriage is one of those issues where you can't convince anyone to change their minds anyway. Besides, I'm not even sure I support marriage between a man and a woman. Still, I will say that I think it says a lot about Kent that this $15,000 donation is the only one Kent has made. Forget important things like health care or foreign policy, we got to keep those homos from getting married!

(Hat tip to SPORTSbyBROOKS)

There's this silly little feud going on in Dodger land right now that involves the issue of whether Manny Ramirez' bat in the lineup assists Jeff Kent's ability to hit.

Vin Scully, legendary Dodger announcer, untouchable figure of radio and television lore and 28 time winner of California Sportscaster of the Year, thinks that Kent's bat is heating up because Man-Ram is in the lineup to protect him.

Kent thinks -- according to what he told T.J. Simers recently -- that Scully "talks too much".

"You can't say that," I told Kent, and he said he had just spoken to 200 women (at a Dodgers function) "and I told them the same thing, and they laughed.

"We all love you, Vin," Kent added with a mischievous grin, "but you still talk too much."

Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Jeff Kent has never been known as the most congenial guy on the planet. If I were to describe Jeff's personality in one word, well, one word that I can use here, I'd take cantankerous. The dude just gets mad at everything. He's like the old man next door always yelling at you to get off his lawn or turn the damn music down.

Jeff's fought with teammates, most memorably Barry Bonds, and has a general disdain of all things media. One member of the media that's generally been considered untouchable though is Dodgers play-by-play man and living legend Vin Scully.

Well, like a lot of people following the Dodgers, Scully has said during Dodgers games that Kent hitting third in front of the newly acquired Manny Ramirez has really helped Jeff out. Well, after Jeff talked to the T.J. Simers about what Vin and others have been saying, Scully was no longer untouchable.

"Vin Scully talks too much," Kent said.

Now that's funny, the guy who normally doesn't say much, this time saying way too much.

And welcome to the least juicy chunk of celebrity meets sports news you will hear all year long. The Dodgers, as in the entire Los Angeles history of the team, is having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame dedicated to them.

The Hollywood Historic Trust and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce this Friday, June 20 at 11 am in celebration of the organization's 50th anniversary in Los Angeles. An Award of Excellence star and commemorative plaque will be presented to the Dodgers in recognition of their significant contributions to the community of Los Angeles and world culture and entertainment. The Dodgers will be the first sports franchise ever to receive such an honor.

There will be all sorts of crazy celebs there, including Frank McCourt, Joe Torre, Russell Martin, Charley Steiner, Eric Karros, and, well, Vin Scully actually is a celeb in my book. Although from what I understand, he already has a star on the WoF with his own name on it.

The press release makes some good points though -- the Dodgers, like most Los Angeles teams, have been celebrity infused since the beginning. Additionally, they have five World Series titles and made huge civil rights strides by bringing Jackie Robinson into baseball. No word on whether Andruw Jones was invited or not.

Where does Kirk Gibson's homer in the 1988 World Series rank? Top 10 baseball moments of all time? Top five? #1? Wherever you personally rank it: the drama is hard to deny. The greatest closer in the game -- Dennis Eckersley -- going toe-to-toe with a guy that could barely walk, but yet was the catalyst for the Dodgers' offense that season. Pinch hit, bottom of the ninth, 3-2 count. It really doesn't get any more dramatic than that.

So I welcome you to relive that moment -- with the tremendous Vin Scully on the call -- all with baseball cards. Up next? Recreating that infamous homer off Jose Canseco's dome. What say you, YouTube auteur?

Jon Weisman from Dodger Thoughts explains the situation:

It happened after umpire Ed Montague ordered Bowa to get back inside the coach's box. Bowa took exception, and Montague ejected him quickly. It then fell upon Joe Torre to restrain Bowa, and quite honestly, Torre was barely strong enough for the task. Trying to get at Montague, Bowa pushed Torre into Montague - though no serious damage was done.

"That vein in Bowa's neck could have held a screen up in the Coliseum," Vin Scully pricelessly commented. "Easy, Larry - you get into a thing like that, you wind up getting suspended."

Such vim! Such vigor! And we're only two games into the season! Of course, Bowa is somewhat notorious for his dustups with umpires (and baseball's establishment in general), but the weird thing is that this was completely avoidable. Umpires have been instructed to enforce the rule that coaches stay in the box this year, and Montague even went out of the way to warn Bowa a few times before giving him the hook.

I just noticed Will's post at Deadspin today pointing out that today is the ten year anniversary of Harry Caray's death, and it got me thinking about one of the saddest developments in sports these days, the disappearance of the old time baseball announcer. With TV the way it is, there's no room for characters like Jack Buck or Caray these days, and we're left with polished, homogeneous announcers like their sons, who work for either the teams themselves or a network and just don't elicit the same emotional reaction that a someone like Caray or Bob Prince or Ernie Harwell can. We've still got Vin Scully and Bob Uecker, but they won't be around forever, either.

Anyways, in memory of Caray today, I've got one of my favorite YouTube videos posted above of Harry leading Wrigley Field in a "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." If you're looking for more, Home Run Derby's got a great post up about a random phone call to Caray. If there's one thing we can all learn from these recent steroid developments, it's that baseball takes itself way too seriously and could use some more characters like Caray.