SAN DIEGO — When Otto Kemp hit his first major league home run two weeks ago in Atlanta, his college coach, Justin James, was watching the Phillies game from his living room.
Before Kemp had even finished rounding the bases, James’ phone buzzed with a text. It was from a history professor at Point Loma Nazarene University, the Division II school where Kemp spent four years before signing as an undrafted free agent with the Phillies.
“Otto just hit his first home run,” the text read.
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PLNU, a Christian liberal arts college in San Diego, has an undergraduate enrollment of just over 3,000. It’s the type of place where everyone knows everyone. And as Kemp has been carving out a utility role for himself on the Phillies, his alma mater is watching, and celebrating, every step.
“We just have a lot of pride in our school,” James said. “So when someone does something exceptional like this, I feel it’s maybe a deeper celebration and pride. Everyone has been asking how Otto is doing every single day when I’m on campus.”
Some PLNU professors stream Phillies games during their classes or in their offices, watching every one of Kemp’s at-bats. His first homer came after a two-hour, 19-minute rain delay that night against the Braves, and even that didn’t stop the PLNU community from tuning in.
With the Phillies in town to face the Padres this weekend, it will be a bit easier to keep up with how Kemp’s doing since he’ll be playing 10 miles away from campus. He spent Thursday’s off day visiting the school with his wife, Lily, who he met there. Kemp estimated that he has about 200 people coming to watch him at Petco Park during the three-game series, between people from the university and his childhood.
“I grew up two hours north of San Diego,” Kemp said. “I’ll get a lot of people that are taking the train down for the week or for a day, and they’ll come down and stop by. So kind of a whole lot of everything.”
James and his family will be there to see all three games. They were there in person for Kemp’s major league debut in Pittsburgh, and took the train to Philadelphia to catch his home debut after that. But this weekend will be extra special to see Kemp playing in San Diego again — this time, rather than a Division II ballpark, it’ll be in a major league one.
‘A special player’
Kemp only had two offers coming out of high school after a torn ligament in his knee cost him his senior season. PLNU and Concordia University in Irvine, both Division II programs, were the only schools willing to take a chance on him.
“As long as he was staying healthy, he was pretty easy to identify as a guy who was going to be special down the road,” James said.
Just like he has with the Phillies, Kemp played any position he was needed. He had hopes for Division I, but life had other plans. A blood clot shortened his first year at PLNU to just 13 games. His sophomore year, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, ending his season after 15 games and impacting the following one, too.
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Kemp finally played a full season in 2022. He reached base in all 61 games, and hit five leadoff homers. And backed by their best player, the Sea Lions rolled all the way to the Division II College World Series. But right before they left, while taking extra swings, Kemp broke a hamate bone in his left hand. He was devastated.
He played anyway.
Kemp was barely able to close his glove, but made a leaping grab at third in the playoffs to rob a base hit. He went 4-for-4 in the national championship game, and even bashed a homer.
“He played the whole entire World Series, every single inning, every single at-bat, at third base,” Justin said. “We lost in the national championship game, and he was still playing defense at a high level and all that. With a broken hand.”
Full circle
The PLNU community has rallied around Kemp, as the third Sea Lion to make it to the majors and first position player. He hasn’t forgotten where he came from, either.
Kemp has remained very close with James and keeps up with the program. He even plans to train in San Diego in the offseason, and hopes he can be an ambassador for his school.
“I try and stay pretty involved with everything,” he said. “I appreciate what he’s done for me and how he has taught me to play the game. So I hope that it’s more of I keep teaching the same thing he taught me.”
Giving back has always been part of Kemp’s mindset. When he was in college, he organized a fund to purchase a customized glove for a groundskeeper at PLNU’s baseball diamond. The groundskeeper would shag balls for the team on his lunch breaks, and Kemp wanted them to show their appreciation.
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“It was never for him. He was always doing it for other people,” James said. “And I think that’s also why he’s gotten where he’s at.”
In spring training this year, and even when he was in triple A, Kemp didn’t want to look too far forward. But after he got called up in Pittsburgh a month ago to fill in for an injured Bryce Harper, he looked at the schedule and allowed himself to dream of what it would be like to play in Petco Park.
“Once it happened, it was like, ‘All right, well, we’ll see if we make it to that point,’” Kemp said. “Not knowing what every week, or really, every day is going to look like. But the closer we got, it was starting to become more of a reality.”
And now the moment has arrived for Kemp, unheralded out of high school and undrafted out of college, on the biggest baseball stage in San Diego.
“That full-circle moment of all that hard work and time he put in when no one was watching at Point Loma is now coming to fruition,” James said. “And now everyone can kind of see the fruits of that, on a major league baseball field, in the school’s home city.”