There’s no off-season for Kent calling it as he sees it

I’VE BEEN trying to reach him for weeks, so when I call one of Jeff Kent’s motorcycle stores in Texas on Tuesday and the lady asks who is calling, I tell her, “Jamie McCourt.”

What did you expect me to say? Matt Kemp?

“I don’t have to talk to you because you no longer have a radio show,” Kent says by way of greeting, and Happy New Year, Mr. Holly Jolly.

“I’m excited about coming back,” he says, thrilled the Dodgers have Joe Torre as manager, still in no mood to play baby-sitter to the team’s younger players, but almost ecstatic now that baseball has the Mitchell Report.

You want political correctness, call someone else.

“I’d like to see every player take a blood test and have the samples frozen,” Kent says, then waiting for the day when there’s a foolproof HGH test to identify the cheaters.

“Not everyone in the game is using HGH, but I would bet it still is being abused,” he says. “Why not have blood tests? If ultimately you want a clean game, then it needs to happen.

“They ought to be testing for drugs in the playoffs too. They never do that.”

If the Dodgers ever make the playoffs, I don’t think there’s any question -- blood tests should be taken.

“I hope people don’t think these are the only players doing steroids in the game,” Kent says. “These players were only the ones Mitchell had good evidence against.

“The Mitchell Report is probably just 1% of those who have cheated in the game. It gives a very small sampling of what was going on.

“Now we’re hearing about some guys who cheat and the phony excuses like I got hurt, so I just used HGH one time. Whether they are telling the truth or not, people are finally having to answer to some things.”

Kent’s name is in the Mitchell Report, and he’s just fine with that, Sen. George Mitchell crediting Kent with telling reporters in September, “Major League Baseball is trying to investigate the past so they can fix the future.”

Kent’s former Houston teammate, Roger Clemens, is also named in the report, and Clemens is certainly not fine with that.

“Roger has got himself in a corner,” Kent says. “And let me tell you, my boys are watching. We’re down here in Texas and he’s on the news every night, and they wanted to see the ’60 Minutes’ interview. My honest answer to them, ‘I don’t know.’

“The other day I took one of my boys to Target and he had a gift card to buy a video game. He said, ‘Dad, I could just rip this package open and put it in my pocket and nobody would ever know.’

“I told him, ‘It’s your choice, and go ahead and cheat Target if you want, but if you cheat there might come a time when you’re caught and thrown in jail or led off in handcuffs. Those are the consequences.”

Kent is still in a pretty good mood, and I know this because he hasn’t hung up, so it isn’t the time to bring up Barry Bonds.

THE LAST anyone heard of Kent before Tuesday was down the September stretch, veterans reportedly squabbling with young players, the Dodgers disappearing behind Arizona, Colorado and San Diego.

In many places Kent was portrayed as the lone-graying wolf striking out at the kids, when in fact other veterans such as Derek Lowe, Luis Gonzalez and Nomar Garciaparra felt just as strongly.

“You need to grab it when you’ve got that chance to make the playoffs,” Kent says. “All the veterans backed me up on that, but for some reason it was like I ended up the spokesman.”

Kent, a five-time All-Star and a former league MVP who has hit more home runs than any second baseman in the game, might be voted into the Hall of Fame six years from now if he retires at season’s end. But he has yet to win a World Series, his only reason for returning, he says, which makes you wonder why he’s playing for the Dodgers.

For the record, no, he did not laugh, but when does he? My point exactly.

He’s probably the smartest athlete out there, insightful, businesslike, professional and totally dedicated to giving the fans everything they would want when buying a ticket. Mention any of his four kids, ages 4 to 11, and he’s mush.

But he’s also a tireless, old-school grump at a time when a smooth sound bite or a slap on the back wins the day.

“It’s different now,” he says. “I learned from veterans when I played. But last year I might offer a one-line comment at the batting cage about hitting the curveball, and I’d get scoffed at, and a ‘What the hell do you know?’ in return.”

Might I suggest a sit-down with the younger players, maybe everybody holding hands, and what a picture that would be.

“Are you kidding me?” he says. “I don’t get paid to take rookies out to dinner. I’m not a baby-sitter. I don’t coach.

“I’m here to give the fan who is paying $50 a ticket a Dodgers win. Do you think those people who were paying $50 a ticket the last two weeks of the season came to watch us lose? I have no problem with our young players; I have a problem with losing.”

He says the Dodgers’ kids are loaded with talent and he has no problem with any of them -- even after I tick off each of their names. He’s not one to fib, unless it’s about washing a truck.

“But as good as these kids are,” he says, “there needs to be something extra to go with that. There needs to be some accountability.

“I think Joe Torre and his coaches, Don Mattingly and Larry Bowa, bring that. There wasn’t enough of that last year.”

The conclusion is obvious, but Kent immediately disputes it. “I know some people are going to say that’s a knock on Grady [Little], but I liked Grady. Torre just brings something different, something better served for a young team.”

And so, in a few weeks, Mr. Holly Jolly will join the Dodgers caravan, happy to schmooze with fans and see both young and old teammates, or as happy as a grump can ever be.

“I don’t want to leave the game a grumpy old man,” he says, “but if we don’t win, I’m going to be grumpy.”

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.