Baseball Development with Dace Kime

In this episode of the podcast/newsletter, we sat down with Dace Kime to discuss his journey through baseball and his thoughts on talent development today. We have known Dace for several years and were eager to speak with someone who has performed at such a high level. Our hope with these discussions is to take a peak into how such talent develops and perhaps give parents and athletes something they can take away and apply in their own lives. We are very grateful that Dace took the time to sit down and chat with us.

It seems that Dace always had a knack for baseball growing up. He states he is the product of two athletic parents and his dad was a good baseball player. He shares that he had two older brothers as well who were athletic and that most likely served him well in his own development. Sports were really just a thing that he did primarily as a social activity early on. His friends were playing, so he decided to join. We asked if he has made to practice a lot as a kid, and he stated that he did practice a good deal early on, but he was never forced to. He did it because he enjoyed it. He can recall at the age of 9-10 he would be in his backyard very regularly throwing balls for hours into a device that would return the balls. This is a theme we have picked up in our reading of sport development. The hours of practice are rarely forced, but something they pursue due to their own fascination with it.

Dace states that he was a three sport athlete through childhood and half of high school. He played football, basketball, and baseball until his junior year of high school. This again echoes a theme we have stated again and again. It seems for the most part, the best athletes do not specialize early. Rather they develop a multitude of movements and athletic skills to draw upon as they continue growing. By the time Dace reached 7th-8th grade, it was becoming clear that baseball was what he excelled at most. It was around this time he started to take note that he seemed to be better than most.

As Dace entered high school, baseball went well for him. He was a varsity starter as a freshman in a very good baseball program. He also was told by a family member that worked at the University of Cincinnati that they would offer him a scholarship, except for the fact that they knew Dace was too good for their program. We laughed that those are probably good signs that you are good at baseball. Also, after his sophomore year he was asked to play for a travel baseball team that was put together by scouts for the St. Louis Cardinals. With this exposure he began receiving even more scholarship offers, and by January of his junior year he committed to Louisville.

We discussed baseball college scholarships and Dace shared that teams get a little over 11 scholarships for baseball per year. This is why nobody in baseball gets a full ride college scholarship. He states that if you get a scholarship that covers 75%, this is about as high as you can expect. He was fortunate enough to also have good grades in high school, so he was able to cover his other 25% with academic scholarships.

Prior to arriving at Louisville, he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was an interesting story that is perhaps not too uncommon in the pros. They had agreed on contract terms and Dace was all set to go with the scout saying they would get the contract over to him for final signing. He was instructed not to play summer ball, so Dace returned home to wait for his contract. Waiting for a day turned into a week, then a month, then more. He finally called the scout he was working with and explained that since has hadn’t seen a contract yet he was going to go to Louisville. Their response was “OK”. Even high level players aren’t immune from the crazy business of sports.

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Stay tuned for part 2 with Dace next week!

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