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Summarized by Kent Larsen
LDS Player Makes Baseball's All-Star Teams
(All-Star starters finalized, Giants' Kent will represent NL at second base)
CBS Sportsline (AP) 4Jul00 S2
NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- The voting is complete and San Francisco Giants
second baseman and LDS Church member Jeff Kent has passed Houston's
Craig Biggio and the New York Mets' Edgardo Alfonzo to win the
starting spot on the National League's team in baseball's All-Star
Game. Kent's performance so far this year, including his
league-leading 80 RBIs, influenced fans to vote for him, moving him
up from third place in the final week of the poll.
Kent said he was extremely pleased with the results, "It's probably a
more special honor to be elected by the fans who you are
entertaining," Kent said. "That's why you play the game in a sense,
outside of trying to win a championship, to entertain the fans." His
manager, Dusty Baker of the Giants, says Kent deserves the honor, "I
was pleasantly surprised. This is a prime example of a person getting
what he deserves. He worked for it and earned it. Nobody gave him
anything."
Since coming to the Giants from the New York Mets and Cleveland
Indians in 1997, Kent's performance has improved remarkably, and so
far 2000 has been phenomenal. Not only does Kent hold the national
league's current RBI title, but he is also hitting .354, with 23 home
runs in the first 80 games of the season.
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