10-year-old fan lives out late grandfather's dream of meeting Clayton Kershaw
After Tuesday's All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium, a young fan from Colorado got a chance to fulfill one of his grandfather's bucket-list items, and he actually pulled it off.
"It was a moment I will never forget, and he was very nice," 10-year-old Blake Grice said of meeting Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw.
Kershaw had just finished pitching in his ninth All-Star Game, but the first one he'd ever started. In his post-outing press conference, the brave 10-year-old raised his hand.
"I said, 'Hey, Mr. Kershaw.' He didn't hear me," Blake told CBSLA.
Blake lost his grandfather, Graham, seven years ago to brain cancer, something he'd previously defeated four times, over a 30 year battle with the disease. A Redondo Beach resident, Graham was a huge Dodgers fan and said one of the things on his bucket list was to meet the great Clayton Kershaw.
"I was really thinking about how I was just about to accomplish something that we've been looking to do for years," Blake explained.
Instead of asking Kershaw a question, Blake decided to tell him the Dodgers pitcher about his grandfather.
"A little while ago, some years ago, he died of brain cancer," Blake said during the press conference.
Overcome by the moment, Blake got choked up and Kershaw, a father of four himself, comforted him immediately.
"Oh my gosh. Oh, come here, dude, great to meet you, great to meet you. Thank you for telling me. That took a lot of courage," Kershaw said to Blake.
Remembering the moment, Blake told CBSLA that Kershaw made him feel good.
"Him just coming up to me, giving me a hug, talking to me about it, it just really comforted me and it made me feel really good," the 10-year-old said.
Asked what his grandfather would say if he were able to see the clip of Blake talking to Kershaw, the young man took a moment to think about it.
"Oh, that's a hard one. Happy, would probably be very proud. I know he is right now, up there," Blake said.
After a brief moment with Kershaw, the pitcher said, "How did you get in here, kid?"
That would be Blake's father, Barrie, who reached out to Major League Baseball for All-Star Game media credentials for his son, since Blake reviews baseball cards on his YouTube channel.
Blake's father, a grieving son himself, could not have been prouder of his own son.
"That moment was clearly meant to happen," Barrie told CBSLA. "Blake's magnetic. He's got positivity beyond measure."
The other Dodger-related bucket list items on Blake's grandfather's list included eating a ton of Dodger Dogs and maybe, one day, getting to meet legendary broadcaster Vin Scully.
"I'm going to tell you a little something. We are very close to that, very close. We know one of his friends now, pretty close to that bucket list being checked off," the 10-year-old said.
Even though Blake already has a YouTube channel and is obviously very personable, he said he wants to be a commercial airline pilot, join the U.S. Airforce, become a Navy SEAL and one day become the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
