The Dale

My name is Blake Dale Lepire and I am a North County, San Diego bred kid who comes home everyday with a Dad on the couch watching the MLB network. That is where my biography begins, with a Dad whose obsession of the game is incomparable to the next and who has done a great job of showing me the way, rather than pushing me down the way. My Dad, so he says, was a very successful high school and collegiate player. His playing ability gave him opportunities that he otherwise wouldn’t have had.  He always says that college would not have been an option for him if baseball hadn’t paid for it. That made me realize that this game is the reason my Dad received his education and met my Mom; which is in result, why I have a great life. Baseball is the reason I walk this earth and have the ability to grace you with my thoughts, which are of course about baseball.

Growing up my Dad enjoyed teaching me everything he knew. Subsequently, I would take these lessons to my Little League practices where I would annoy my coaches with corrections like, “No the third basemen should not be the cut home on a throw from the center fielder,” or “I didn’t go for a triple because I didn’t want to make the first out a third,” or my personal favorite, “can I just call my own pitches.” It was safe to say I was advanced for a twelve year old and I took pride in the fact that I knew more than my friends. As I have advanced through baseball, so have the learning curves of my peers, yet I’ve kept my arrogant pride in my knowledge of the game. Thanks to the great coaches and experiences throughout my career I’ve been able to grow as a baseball intellect; however, I have accepted that I will never be done learning.

I have chosen to dedicate my life to baseball because I am thankful for the lessons and opportunities it has presented me. There will come a day where my body will have to walk away from the game, but I am convinced that intellectually will never retire.

-Blake Dale Lepire