From ‘America's Most Scenic Ballpark' to the majors, a baseball long shot admires the view

New York Times

18-07-2025

SAN DIEGO — 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's office, where Kemp received a phone call from the Philadelphia Phillies with a $25,000 offer.
Advertisement
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: 'America's Most Scenic Ballpark.' There is an unobstructed view of the Pacific Ocean below.
'This is it,' Kemp said last week. 'This is the spot.'
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.
'Anywhere you go on this campus has a view of the ocean,' Kemp said, 'which is just crazy to me.'
'The sunsets,' Lily said.
They had everything. They wanted to stay, even if there were better opportunities elsewhere. This was it.
'It's beautiful,' Kemp said. 'It really doesn't get old. Like, how could you ever get tired of this view?'
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't think it would be a huge thing. 'That's dope,' she had said to him. Kemp had just undergone surgery to fix a blood clot in his shoulder.
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't compare.
There have been 1,313 players who've 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's self-made story. He's 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.
Advertisement
It's 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.
'This place is special,' said Kemp, 25.
'It seems fake,' said Justin James, the Point Loma head coach. 'Everyone is too nice.'
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's junior season, when he reached base in all 61 games. The trophy sits above James' computer in his office. A straw hat covers his printer.
'Otto changes this place,' James said.
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.
'I remember we did so much running on the field at sunrise,' Kemp said. 'There were some good mornings out there.'
A voice called out.
'Excuse me, Mr. Kemp,' a student said. 'I'm a huge fan.'
Kemp dapped him. His name was Noah, a junior at Point Loma.
'I was born in Philadelphia,' he said. 'I saw you from the caf. I was like, 'I think that's him.''
'Nice to meet you,' Kemp said.
'You're killing it this year, man,' Noah said.
He asked for a selfie. Noah said he'd go to all three Phillies-Padres games. He apologized for bothering them. They shook hands.
'You're getting all the fan stuff, aren't you?' said another man, who had watched from afar.
Kemp laughed. 'I don't know if you know who I am,' the man said. Kerry Fulcher, the university's president, introduced himself.
'You got a lot of people excited here,' Fulcher said. 'It's fun. I mean, I check my app every day. 'How'd Otto do? How'd Otto do?''
Advertisement
They bonded over their shared Point Loma connections. Kemp's cousin works at the school. There was a professor in the psychology department whom Lily liked. Was he still there? 'I'm going to go backpacking with him in two weeks,' Fulcher said. They laughed about how Kemp put Point Loma on the map in the social-media age.
Fulcher wished the Kemps well. He turned toward a building's entrance, then stopped. One of his assistants would be upset if the school's president didn't pose for a photo with Point Loma's big leaguer.
'Congratulations,' Fulcher said. 'It's just been fun to live vicariously through you.'
Lily quit her job right around the time she married Kemp last November. They had done long-distance for two and a half years. 'Which was a grind,' 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'd be at Triple A. One step from the dream.
'I loved what I did,' Lily said. 'But 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't going to go.'
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 — be it Rochester or Syracuse — and she dreamed too.
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'd be drafted. Point Loma had pitchers drafted in 1980 and 2004; both made the majors. It wasn't impossible.
Advertisement
'He had so many setbacks, but I never remember him being sad,' James said. 'I never had to pick him up or do any of that. Once he was hurt, he was like, 'What can I do to help?' And now seeing him play, after doing all that stuff, I think it means even more. You know what I mean? It's someone who truly deserves it. Pretty rad.'
James supplies all of his players with a small black journal every season. They have to write in it weekly. 'Whatever is tugging on their heart,' James said. They gathered as a team for mental meetings on Saturday mornings. Usually, they did it at Chick-fil-A.
'I don't think he's going to realize this until years down the road,' James said. 'Like, 'Whoa, this was so sick.''
They all stepped outside James' trailer office. It was in the mid-70s. The dirt parking lot a few hundred feet below the stadium was filling up. 'The surf,' James said, 'is killer today.' For a few hours, Kemp wasn't a big leaguer. He was back at the spot with the woman who was willing to dream with him.
'It's cool to see how, like, what we both came here for and how it ended and where we're at,' Kemp said. 'I keep saying it's a full-circle moment because it really is. Just to see how everything has shaped up, it's very telling of this place. There's a lot of history here.'
'It's crazy,' Lily said.
'We had a lot of dates around this campus,' Kemp said. 'Which, like, it's just stupid. The views here.'
It was almost like they were seeing it all for the first time.
(Top photo of Otto and Lily Kemp at Carroll B. Land Stadium: Matt Gelb / The Athletic)