ST. LOUIS — The drive from Nashville to St. Louis is one Tony Kemp knows well.
Head west on Interstate 24 out of Tennessee’s capital and take that through Kentucky, then north on Interstate 57 and finally, as you pass through Mount Vernon, Illinois, catch Interstate 64 west for the final hour. There’s something special about seeing the Gateway Arch frame the St. Louis skyline, at the end of the five-hour drive, there on the banks the mighty and muddy Mississippi River.
When he was a kid, Kemp’s family made the drive often. Young Tony was a Cardinals fan, an aspiring baseball player who saw himself in undersized infielders Fernando Vina and David Eckstein, and recognized greatness in players like Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds.
Kemp, now 31 and in his eighth big-league season, made that same drive again a couple weeks ago, over on 24, up on 57, over on 64. This time, he was rejoining his big-league club, the Oakland A’s, after the birth of his second child and a short stay on the paternity list. This drive, same as the old drive in many ways — orange traffic cones throughout the Illinois stretch — was unique, though, considering the circumstances.
“It gives me chills talking about this, because we used to make this trip up once or twice a summer just driving up,” Kemp said on Monday. “I used to come to the games and watch guys and watch the Cardinals play the Brewers, watch division games.”
This season has been a challenge for the A’s, a young club trying to block out the distractions regarding the future of the team. Are they moving to Las Vegas? Staying in Oakland? While the team’s owner — and the MLB powers-that-be endorsing a move — play politics with politicians in both Nevada and California, the players have to play.
A's trying to fight through struggle
At times, it’s been a struggle. It’s often been a struggle. The owner, John Fisher, basically stripped the roster of high-priced talent and the A’s have the worst record in the bigs, at 38-93. They are the first team officially eliminated from the playoffs. There is young talent on the roster, no doubt, but it can be challenging to consistently beat major-league teams with a combination of youth and inexperience.
That’s why players like Kemp — and Aledmys Diaz, another veteran infielder — are so important in the A’s clubhouse. Losing games can be disheartening, especially for young players. I asked Kemp about motivation for a team in Oakland’s situation. That’s when he talked about the drive from Nashville to St. Louis, and what it means to him — Young Tony and 31-year-old Tony.
“You still are a big league player and you still are playing the game that you love and you still are in the 1% of the world. You can't lose that perspective,” he said. “You can't look at the smaller picture and say, ‘Oh, we're not going to playoffs. What's it matter?’ Well, it matters in the fact that you never know when a little kid is gonna watch you play for the first time. You never know when someone's gonna watch you for the last time. You just don't know who's in the stands watching you. That’s why you go out there and you give him 110% always and you leave nothing on the field. Because you also never know the last time that you're gonna suit up in a big-league uniform or step foot on the big-league baseball field.”
He paused.
“Making that drive up just rejuvenated me,” he said that first day back. “I feel like no matter what happens in these next six weeks, I'm going to be able to play really well just because I feel like I have a better perspective on what I'm doing and how blessed I am just to be able to play six-plus years in the big leagues.”
After a rough start at the plate — including a 2-for-46 dry spell — Kemp hit .286 with a .362 on-base percentage, nine stolen bases and 23 runs scored in his final 42 games before going on paternity leave, mostly batting leadoff while playing second base and left field. In his first 10 games after his return, he's batting .348 with a .483 on-base percentage.
“To get him back, you can hear him right now in the background, the energy he’s bringing, it’s been a joy the last two years, being able to manage him,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said in St. Louis, as Kemp was yelling and firing up his teammates in the hallway leading from the clubhouse to the dugout. “He’s got a lot of leadership and a lot of experience and he can help a lot of these young guys on this roster.”
Kemp 'does things the right way'
Kemp started his career with the Astros, as a fifth-round pick out of Vanderbilt in 2013. He reached the big leagues in 2016, was traded to the Cubs in 2019 and then to the A’s in 2020. Along the way, he learned lessons that he’s now trying to pass along in the Oakland clubhouse. With Houston, he listened to guys like Jose Altuve, George Springer, Josh Reddick, Michael Brantley and Carlos Correa.
“He’s been around a long time for a reason. He does things the right way, always has a chip on his shoulder and always leads by example,” A’s rookie second baseman Zack Gelof said. “Especially this spring, when I felt like I was close to the big leagues, I was really trying to look at the older guys and see how they go about their business, and he’s been a good role model for me to look at.”
To help Gelof in the days and weeks after his MLB debut in mid-July, Kemp employed a tip he learned from Jason Heyward during their time together with the Cubs. Gelof, the A’s second-round pick in 2021, has taken the bigs by storm, with 10 homers, eight stolen bases and a 157 OPS+ in his first 38 games in the majors.
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“He's a big kid, and I feel like he's already kind of shown what he can do at this level,” Kemp said. “The biggest thing I just told him is, ‘Hey, write down whatever you're doing right now, so you can refer back to it.’ Because you're not always going to have a 1.000-plus OPS. Or you might, but there are times where you're gonna scuffle and say ‘Man, what was I doing when I was hitting all those homers?’ Then you can look back at your notes and know, ‘I was thinking this, this and this,’ and you can kind of revisit it.”
Advice, suggestions, an ear, whatever the young A’s need, Kemp’s there to help.
“I vividly remember my experiences of being a young player amongst some older guys when I came up, and it is a little intimidating at times,” Kotsay said. “But Tony’s got a way about him, an easiness about him, how he goes about communicating with these guys.”