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Dodgers’ Matt Kemp ‘in awe’ at All-Star Game

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How did Matt Kemp find out he would be batting third for the National League All-Stars?

‘Somebody tweeted me about it,’ Kemp said.

It’s a new world for Kemp, and not just with regard to technology. In the year after he drove the Dodgers’ coaches batty with erratic play that overshadowed his prodigious talents, Kemp just might be the best player in the league.

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NL All-Star Manager Bruce Bochy put Kemp in the No. 3 spot, generally reserved for the most dynamic player in the lineup. The likes of Prince Fielder, Matt Holliday, Troy Tulowitzki and Lance Berkman will bat behind Kemp.

‘Unfortunately I see too much of him, being in our division,’ said Bochy, the Giants’ manager. ‘He’s a guy with speed, power, a guy that can beat you with a base hit or a long ball. He’s what you call a complete player -- tremendous defender, but more so in the 3-hole, he can do so many things for you.

‘He’s so dangerous. The pitchers don’t want to walk him and yet they don’t want this guy to beat them with the long ball.’

Kemp was a bit, well, starry-eyed about it.

‘This is all happening so fast,’ Kemp said. ‘I’m really excited. It didn’t hit me until this morning, when I was having breakfast with all the guys.

‘I’m just in awe right now.’

On Sunday, Kemp said, his father sent along a picture of ‘the first baseball field I played at,’ the Little League diamond in Midwest City, Okla.

‘It just hit me,’ Kemp said. ‘It reflected where I was and how far I’ve come.’

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