Kemp Humbled by Being Named Athletics' Roberto Clemente Award nominee

Oakland Athletics second baseman Tony Kemp said he was "pretty much speechless" as being name the A's nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, one of MLB's most prestigious awards.

Tony Kemp has had a busy 2020, what with helping to raise funds of groups dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to the creation of his +1 Effect, creating conversations about the struggle for social justice.

On Tuesday he was named the Oakland A’s nominee for the 2020 Roberto Clemente Award, which goes to a Major League Players who is seen as best representing the game through character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions on the field and in the community.

Kemp is seldom lost for words, but being recognized as a Clemente nominee caught him off guard.

“I’m pretty much speechless, honestly,” Kemp said in a video conference call Tuesday morning. “I don’t even know what to say. I’m truly humbled and truly blessed just to be able to say my name and his name in the same sentence.”

Last year when he was playing with the Cubs, Kemp and teammates Javy Baez and Jason Heyward made a stop at the Clemente museum in Pittsburgh, spending about three hours learning about his life, his causes, and his death in a 1972 airplane crash while on a humanitarian mission to bring food and relief supplies to Nicaragua following a major earthquake there.

MLB players from Puerto Rico, including the A’s Vimael Machin, will be wearing Clemente’s 21 on Wednesday, the sport’s Roberto Clemente Day.

The winner of the Clemente Award, one of the sport’s most prestigious honors, is partially determined by voting of fans at mlb.com/clemente21. The fans get one vote to go with a blue-ribbon grouping that includes commissioner Rob Manfred, Clemente’s children and representatives from MLB-affiliated television networks.

Much of Kemp’s time during the almost four months the sport was shut down this summer was devoted to a new project, the +1 Effect, which he started to begin conversations about social justice and systematic racism that exploded into the American consciousness after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Kemp says his talks with people around the country have continued even as the season has progressed.

“It’s actually thriving,” Kemp said of the program. “This is a campaign that I didn’t want to just be a hotspot topic. I wanted it to continue one months and years down the road. So, I’ve been trying to have a fine balance between it.

“I’ve been trying to answer people when I get off the field or if it’s 11 (p.m.) or midnight. I try to at least do one a day. I’ve been really trying to be diligent about it. You know, people still do have questions and people are still trying to educate and learn. So, I am just trying to help as much as I can, but once I get on the field, it’s all baseball.”

There’s been less baseball for Kemp since the A’s trade deadline pickup of left-handed hitting second baseman Tommy La Stella. It took four games after the A’s resumed play last weekend for Kemp, who was the A’s regular second baseman against right-handed pitching in the first half of the season, to get a start. He had a double to drive in Oakland’s first run and also walked Monday night.

“BoMel (manager Bob Melvin) and I had a good conversation about what my role is going to be with this team,” Kemp said, acknowledging that he’ll play less second base but more outfield down the stretch. “You always have to think about the team. I’ve been on World Series teams, and I know that it just doesn’t take starters. You know your name is going to be called on at a time where the game is going to be tight, and you can’t be lackadaisical in that situation. You always have to be on top of your game.

“I know it takes a village to go to the playoffs and get to the World Series. That’s the goal that’s going on right now. We have a great team here and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now.”

Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3

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