{"id":19353,"date":"2025-07-18T16:27:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T16:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/19353\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T16:27:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T16:27:13","slug":"from-americas-most-scenic-ballpark-to-the-majors-a-baseball-long-shot-admires-the-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/19353\/","title":{"rendered":"From \u2018America\u2019s Most Scenic Ballpark\u2019 to the majors, a baseball long shot admires the view"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN DIEGO \u2014 Otto Kemp stood about 350 feet from home plate, and he surveyed it all. There was Sergio Sanchez, the faithful groundskeeper who wanted a photo with the kid from tiny Point Loma Nazarene University when he returned as a big leaguer. In the distance, Kemp could see the buildings where he took business classes, which were supposed to shape his career in finance. He could see the trailer that doubles as the baseball coach\u2019s office, where Kemp received a phone call from the Philadelphia Phillies with a $25,000 offer.<\/p>\n

Then, he turned around. He peered through one of the two small sections of the outfield fence that are still chain-link at Carroll B. Land Stadium, which boasts on its scoreboard: \u201cAmerica\u2019s Most Scenic Ballpark.\u201d There is an unobstructed view of the Pacific Ocean below.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is it,\u201d Kemp said last week. \u201cThis is the spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed to the building at the bottom of the cliff where Lily, now his wife, lived. She wanted to surf; her parents insisted she have a higher education, so she came to Point Loma. Kemp had no scholarship offers, not even from a Division II school, so he walked on here in 2019. Both of them expected to leave after a year. There were fewer than 3,000 undergraduates at this Christian liberal-arts university; they met as freshmen. They started dating the next fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnywhere you go on this campus has a view of the ocean,\u201d Kemp said, \u201cwhich is just crazy to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sunsets,\u201d Lily said.<\/p>\n

They had everything. They wanted to stay, even if there were better opportunities elsewhere. This was it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s beautiful,\u201d Kemp said. \u201cIt really doesn\u2019t get old. Like, how could you ever get tired of this view?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Baseball sunset: A view of Carroll B. Land Stadium, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean. (Point Loma Nazarene University)<\/p>\n

Dozens of summer campers played catch on the grass. None of them recognized Kemp, who starred at Point Loma and went undrafted in 2022, only to make the majors this year. He preferred it. Lily remembered when Kemp told her he was a baseball player. She didn\u2019t think it would be a huge thing. \u201cThat\u2019s dope,\u201d she had said to him. Kemp had just undergone surgery to fix a blood clot in his shoulder.<\/p>\n

They had no idea what this paradise would do to them. They had no idea how, in less than three years, the view would be greater than any imagination. And, still, it doesn\u2019t compare.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Point Loma\u2019s breathtaking ballpark, Carroll B. Land Stadium, where Otto Kemp played for four years. (Point Loma Nazarene University)<\/p>\n

There have been 1,313 players who\u2019ve appeared in a Major League Baseball game this season, and Kemp is likely the only hitter to have done it as a former undrafted walk-on at a Division II school. The sport often celebrates the journey, and the Phillies have gravitated to Kemp\u2019s self-made story. He\u2019s been useful, playing in 27 major-league games. The odds were not in his favor. He kept making people notice him in pro ball; that was never a challenge in college, on the quaint Point Loma campus.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why he and his wife returned last week before a horde of Point Loma people flocked to Petco Park, seven miles away, to see Kemp play in a big-league game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis place is special,\u201d said Kemp, 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems fake,\u201d said Justin James, the Point Loma head coach. \u201cEveryone is too nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

James played at PLNU. He, like Kemp, met his wife there. He came back to coach. The Sea Lions have played in two DII World Series in the past four years. They were the national runner-up in 2022, Kemp\u2019s junior season, when he reached base in all 61 games. The trophy sits above James\u2019 computer in his office. A straw hat covers his printer.<\/p>\n

\u201cOtto changes this place,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cOtto changes this place,\u201d Point Loma head coach Justin James said of Kemp, who had a 1.125 OPS in college. (Matt Gelb \/ The Athletic).<\/p>\n

It all came rushing back as they wandered the campus. The two ACL surgeries on his left knee. The blood clot. A labrum injury in his throwing shoulder. The sprained ankle that allowed him to obtain a medical redshirt by one game. The time he played through a fractured hamate bone in his left hand and homered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember we did so much running on the field at sunrise,\u201d Kemp said. \u201cThere were some good mornings out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

A voice called out.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcuse me, Mr. Kemp,\u201d a student said. \u201cI\u2019m a huge fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kemp dapped him. His name was Noah, a junior at Point Loma.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was born in Philadelphia,\u201d he said. \u201cI saw you from the caf. I was like, \u2018I think that\u2019s him.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNice to meet you,\u201d Kemp said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re killing it this year, man,\u201d Noah said.<\/p>\n

He asked for a selfie. Noah said he\u2019d go to all three Phillies-Padres games. He apologized for bothering them. They shook hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re getting all the fan stuff, aren\u2019t you?\u201d said another man, who had watched from afar.<\/p>\n

Kemp laughed. \u201cI don\u2019t know if you know who I am,\u201d the man said. Kerry Fulcher, the university\u2019s president, introduced himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got a lot of people excited here,\u201d Fulcher said. \u201cIt\u2019s fun. I mean, I check my app every day. \u2018How\u2019d Otto do? How\u2019d Otto do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

They bonded over their shared Point Loma connections. Kemp\u2019s cousin works at the school. There was a professor in the psychology department whom Lily liked. Was he still there? \u201cI\u2019m going to go backpacking with him in two weeks,\u201d Fulcher said. They laughed about how Kemp put Point Loma on the map in the social-media age.<\/p>\n

Fulcher wished the Kemps well. He turned toward a building\u2019s entrance, then stopped. One of his assistants would be upset if the school\u2019s president didn\u2019t pose for a photo with Point Loma\u2019s big leaguer.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations,\u201d Fulcher said. \u201cIt\u2019s just been fun to live vicariously through you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kemp has played first base, third base and left field over 27 games with the Phillies. (Hunter Martin \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Lily quit her job right around the time she married Kemp last November. They had done long-distance for two and a half years. \u201cWhich was a grind,\u201d Kemp said. Lily was an event coordinator for a cancer research facility in California. But she felt a pull; Kemp had a decent idea that he\u2019d be at Triple A. One step from the dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved what I did,\u201d Lily said. \u201cBut there was always that little thing inside me that knew that if this played out, I would have to quit. Because there was just no way I wasn\u2019t going to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

So she drove Beau, their 75-pound golden retriever, to Florida for spring training. She followed her husband to International League road trips in April and May. On Sundays, everyone has to check out of the hotel, so Lily found the closest park and took Beau. She played the Triple-A radio broadcast from her phone \u2014 be it Rochester or Syracuse \u2014 and she dreamed too.<\/p>\n

She followed Kemp to Pittsburgh when the Phillies promoted him in June. Beau came too. They never talked about the majors at Point Loma. It was too far-fetched. Sometimes, Kemp said things about pro ball. He thought he\u2019d be drafted. Point Loma had pitchers drafted in 1980 and 2004; both made the majors. It wasn\u2019t impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had so many setbacks, but I never remember him being sad,\u201d James said. \u201cI never had to pick him up or do any of that. Once he was hurt, he was like, \u2018What can I do to help?\u2019 And now seeing him play, after doing all that stuff, I think it means even more. You know what I mean? It\u2019s someone who truly deserves it. Pretty rad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had so many setbacks, but I never remember him being sad,\u201d Point Loma coach Justin James said of Kemp, right. (Point Loma Nazarene University)<\/p>\n

James supplies all of his players with a small black journal every season. They have to write in it weekly. \u201cWhatever is tugging on their heart,\u201d James said. They gathered as a team for mental meetings on Saturday mornings. Usually, they did it at Chick-fil-A.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s going to realize this until years down the road,\u201d James said. \u201cLike, \u2018Whoa, this was so sick.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

They all stepped outside James\u2019 trailer office. It was in the mid-70s. The dirt parking lot a few hundred feet below the stadium was filling up. \u201cThe surf,\u201d James said, \u201cis killer today.\u201d For a few hours, Kemp wasn\u2019t a big leaguer. He was back at the spot with the woman who was willing to dream with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool to see how, like, what we both came here for and how it ended and where we\u2019re at,\u201d Kemp said. \u201cI keep saying it\u2019s a full-circle moment because it really is. Just to see how everything has shaped up, it\u2019s very telling of this place. There\u2019s a lot of history here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crazy,\u201d Lily said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of dates around this campus,\u201d Kemp said. \u201cWhich, like, it\u2019s just stupid. The views here.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was almost like they were seeing it all for the first time.<\/p>\n

(Top photo of Otto and Lily Kemp at Carroll B. Land Stadium: Matt Gelb \/ The Athletic)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO \u2014 Otto Kemp stood about 350 feet from home plate, and he surveyed it all. There…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,480,99],"class_list":["post-19353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}