Beltrán, Jones and Kent reflect on their Hall of Fame moment

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- Carlos Beltrán, Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent share a handful of former uniforms, a host of All-Star and Gold Glove Award accolades -- and now a spot as one of 354 teammates of baseball’s most exclusive fraternity.

“When I was a rookie, you stayed away from guys like [Dave] Winfield and Eddie [Murray], because you don’t want to touch ’em,” Kent told MLB Network’s Jon Morosi on Monday morning. “Now, at [the Hall of Fame Members] dinner, I just go in and give them a bear hug and say, ‘I’m in the club now, brother!’”

During Monday’s taping of "The Road to Cooperstown Live" -- the Hall of Fame’s official podcast -- the Hall’s class of 2026 took to Doubleday Field in front of a live audience to chat with Morosi about their careers and induction weekend experiences.

“I had my mom and dad being able to stand next to me,” Kent said of his plaque installation early Monday morning. “You just take a couple seconds of that evolution, of your journey of being on the wall. … Never believing you’d get hung on the wall with a plaque that’ll stay forever, so to have that moment with your family was awesome.

“I don’t know how to explain it still. It’s still something that I’m [going to] have to go and try to process.”

Beltrán reflected on a journey that stretched thousands of miles before reaching his crowning weekend in Cooperstown.

“Growing up in Puerto Rico, I came to Cooperstown maybe three times before [getting] inducted,” Beltrán said. “Just going all over those rooms, all over those halls and sensing the history of the game and all the players that have played this game, and the fact that now we’re going to have our own plaque on those walls is an incredible feeling.”

Beltrán’s fans traveled a similar distance to watch his arrival among baseball’s immortals. The center fielder was backed by cheers -- and one dutifully decorated banner -- on Monday from the Puerto Rican fans who ventured to Cooperstown for his induction.

And for fans of Jones, the weekend rings similarly reverent: Jones represents the Dutch Caribbean as the first player from Curaçao to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Revisiting career highlights, the group turned to the pennant races of 2004. With Beltrán and Kent starring for the Astros in that year’s National League Championship Series, the series now boasts six Hall of Famers.

Kent, Houston’s second baseman who notched his fourth of five All-Star selections in 2004, described Beltrán as a game-changer in the club’s playoff run.

“He just came in with this presence of command, playing center field, swinging the bat, running the bases,” Kent said of Beltrán, who was traded to the Astros during the 2004 season. “I mentioned in my speech that he was the most complete player I saw in my generation.”

The 2004 season would mark Beltrán’s first playoff appearance in a 20-year career that included seven postseason berths. Fellow center fielder Jones would be introduced to October baseball in 1996 at the age of 19, appearing in his first World Series with the Atlanta Braves.

Belting two homers in Game 1 of that Series, Jones became the fourth player in MLB history to hit two home runs in his first World Series game.

A 1996 Jones was self-described as “young, dumb, excited” and “grateful to be there.”

“[Braves manager] Bobby [Cox] knew what he wanted …” Jones told Morosi. “He wanted to have a right-handed batter in the lineup and he took a chance on me, and I went out there and took advantage.

“I talk with a lot of the Minor League guys. The main thing that I tell them all the time: Take advantage of the one opportunity that they’re going to give you, because you never know if you’re [going to] get it.”

Inspiring the next generation of players is a shared passion among the Hall’s newest trio. Beltrán, Jones and Kent each reflected on their efforts to promote the future of baseball and youth sports.

For Jones, giving back to the game has allowed him to enrich the vibrant baseball culture of his home country.

“The sport in Curaçao [has] always been baseball. … So as baseball players, always give back to the island, just to give the kids something to look forward to.

“Every year, I try to get four kids to come to the states, graduate, get an education. … That’s what I focus on, and I’m just so proud that all those guys follow a little bit of my steps.”

Beltrán discussed his similar commitment to education, which he has channeled into his Carlos Beltrán Baseball Academy in Puerto Rico.

“We built a high school 15 years ago, [and] we have graduated more than 800 kids. … I was motivated to build this high school to motivate them into education and [understanding that] you use baseball as a platform to educate yourself.”

Kent and his wife Dana have also leveraged the sport to educate future generations, establishing the Women Driven Scholarship Endowment at UC Berkeley, where Kent played baseball as a walk-on. The “RBI king” -- he drove in 1,518 career runs to lead all players who appeared in at least 75 percent of their games at second base -- founded the scholarship in 1998, which matched corporate funds with a per-RBI donation from Kent himself.

“That’ll live forever, like that plaque on the wall,” Kent said.

Abbey Dempsey is the 2026 communications intern in the Hall of Fame’s Frank and Peggy Steele Internship Program for Leadership Development.