Recently, one of our interns had the opportunity to sit down with Blaine Boyer, E3 Ranch Foundation’s Mission Advancement and Stewardship Managing Director, to hear his story — how a career in professional baseball led him to one of the most important fights of his life.
From the Mound to the Mission
Blaine Boyer spent years as a professional baseball player, a career that took him across the country, kept his family on the road, and demanded everything he had. But somewhere along the way, another calling began to take shape. Today, Blaine is a key figure at E3 Ranch Foundation, and the transition from the baseball diamond to nonprofit work is one he wouldn’t trade for anything.
Toward the end of his playing career, Blaine was straddling two worlds, still committed to baseball while growing deeper into the work of E3RF. The travel was relentless, not just for him but for his family, who he kept close throughout. When he finally closed the chapter on baseball for good, something settled. “It finally gave us an opportunity to at least know that we’re going back home.”
The Inspiration Behind the Work
For Blaine, the motivation to fight human trafficking isn’t complicated. It’s heartbreaking. “The biggest inspiration is the heartbreak of the problem,” he says, “and it constantly continues to be the inspiration.” It’s a weight he carries with purpose, rooted in a faith that reframes even the darkest realities.
At one point, Blaine found himself asking God a question that many people working in this space eventually ask: “God, why would you allow this?” The answer he received stopped him in his tracks: “Yes, I’ve allowed it, but I’ve also allowed you to be a part in fighting it.” That exchange has become something of a north star for him, a reminder that even in the face of something as devastating as trafficking, there is a role to play and a reason to show up.
A Different Kind of Teammate
Baseball gave Blaine more than a career. It gave him people skills, work ethic, and a deep understanding of what it means to operate as part of a team, all things that translate directly to the work he does now at E3RF. The conversations in baseball, he notes, tend to be characteristically black and white. You learn quickly how to read people, build relationships, and get things done.
His role at the foundation, as he describes it, is being a “conduit of clarity,” keeping people focused and moving in the same direction. And his philosophy on leadership is simple: “They don’t all have to be going in the exact same direction, but they have to be going towards the same goal.” It’s the same mentality that wins championships, and it’s the same one that drives a mission forward.
What Baseball Could Never Teach Him
There are things you can only learn by stepping away from the thing that defined you. For Blaine, one of the most important lessons has been learning to let go of premeditated expectations, what he calls a “massive deceiver.” The success of the foundation, in his view, can’t be credited to strategy or hustle alone. It belongs to the Lord. And that perspective has given him a steadiness that no batting average ever could.
Leaving baseball wasn’t a loss. It was a release. Blaine is candid about the realities of professional sports: the bags carried for you, the food delivered, the hotels waiting, and equally candid about the fact that none of it was ever really who he was. “Baseball was not my identity,” he says plainly. And when you know that, moving on isn’t hard. It’s just the next right thing.
The people around him made it easier. Adam LaRoche, a longtime friend and fellow baseball lifer, walked a similar road, someone who could hold both the love of the game and the horror of trafficking in the same hands and choose to act. Brent Toney has been a steady source of wisdom and leadership, someone Blaine trusts deeply. “Brent has a really good understanding of what leadership actually looks like,” he says, and coming from Blaine, that means something.
Stay on Mission
If Blaine has one piece of advice for athletes considering a career change, or really for anyone trying to figure out what comes next, it’s this: “Always stay on mission.”
He’s skeptical of the American Dream as it’s typically sold. Chasing a dollar, chasing recognition, chasing your own glory, none of it satisfies and none of it lasts. “If you find yourself doing something because you’re ultimately just chasing the dollar, I think you are going to be so disappointed.” The better pursuit, he argues, is something worth chasing, something that pulls you out of yourself and into something bigger. “Go chase something and make sure that you’re on mission. Just make sure it’s not the dollar, and it’s not your own glory.”
At E3 Ranch Foundation, that’s the standard we hold ourselves to every day. The work of fighting sex trafficking, honoring combat veterans, and responding to global crises isn’t glamorous, but it’s the mission. Blaine would be the first to tell you this isn’t about glory, and it’s not about the dollar. It’s about showing up for something that matters. If you’re looking for a mission worth chasing, this is ours — and we’d love for it to be yours too.
Every gift makes it possible to keep showing up for the people who need it most.
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