At a jersey retirement ceremony for Jeff Kent at Oracle Park, the former San Francisco Giants second baseman publicly encouraged ex-teammate Barry Bonds to keep hoping for eventual induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The moment carried extra resonance because Kent and Bonds are famous not just for their playing partnership but for a notorious 2002 dugout altercation, which the pair playfully re-enacted during Saturday's ceremony, underlining how their once-fraught relationship has since become a point of mutual respect.

Kent, recently inducted into the Hall of Fame himself, told fans that the pair's history of conflict actually strengthened their bond, before directly addressing Bonds with the message: "Keep with it, brother, you got a shot, man." Bonds, MLB's all-time home run leader with 762, a 14-time All-Star and seven-time NL MVP, has repeatedly missed out on Hall of Fame induction because of his association with performance-enhancing drugs, and said in 2024 that he no longer holds out hope of making it in. Bonds had his own No. 25 jersey retired by the Giants in 2018, two years before Kent's No. 21 was honoured in the same ballpark.