Jeff Kent talks ‘Survivor: Philippines’ and the Hall of Fame

Outwit! Outplay! Outlast! Outré!

HitFix: I was gonna say. This year is Barry Bonds and it’s also Clemens and Biggio and there are a bunch of big guys.

Jeff Kent: You’re right. There are. And everybody’s talking about the Steroid Era, too. Are these guys gonna be able to grab some votes? So I’m curious to know as well, how the media portrays the guys who were potential users. I care about the history of the game and the media will have a vote in how the history is perceived if they vote towards players who are known users in the game. I’m curious to see how that’s going to go.

HitFix: What is your own personal preference or inclination or even guess on that? What would you expect a response to be?

Jeff Kent: Well, I think there have already been subtle examples of how they’re going to vote with McGwire. It’s there. It’s a topic of conversation. One of these days they’ll get beyond. But you’re disrespecting the game when you cheat the game. I don’t care if the drugs were illegal or legal. If it’s OK in baseball to do it, then it’s OK. But it wasn’t OK in baseball, even though we didn’t have a drug policy. It wasn’t OK. It enhances your play in the game and if there’s a perception out there that’s OK, then it’s just going to open up a can of worms. You could be debating this forever and there are players out there who cheated who will never get caught and who have never been discussed. So who’s who and who did what? I don’t know. But the players who knowingly were users of drugs who enhanced their game, I think it eventually is a struggle for those people who have a vote to say whether it’s OK or not.