Travis Bazzana, surrounded by family, friends and mentors, begins his MLB journey with Guardians debut

CLEVELAND — Todd and Tara Boedigheimer are Oregon State alumni and longtime supporters of the highly successful Beavers baseball program. The Boedigheimers’ bond with their alma mater was strengthened tenfold in 2011, when their 3-year-old son, Drew, needed an emergency heart transplant. After Drew’s procedure at Chicago Children’s Memorial Hospital — the Boedigheimers live in Arizona but needed to travel to find the necessary care for their son — the staff wanted to do something special for a family who had been through so much.

“He makes it through a couple rough weeks, and when he was finally on the other side of everything, they said they’d really like to do something cool for him,” Tara recalled. “‘Is there anybody special he follows on the Cubs or the White Sox? ’ I was like, ‘Actually, there is.

’” That special somebody was Cubs rookie infielder Darwin Barney, who had starred for the Beavers during their run to back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007, the first two titles in program history. When Barney learned of Drew’s story, he made a point to connect with the family, building the foundation of a friendship that would change the Boedigheimers’ life forever. “Darwin came to the hospital to see him, and then we became tight with Darwin,” Tara said.

“He was sort of our entrance to [then Oregon State head coach] Pat Casey, the inner-workings of Oregon State. Before, we were just fans. ” A decade later, in the fall of 2021, the Boedigheimers were in Corvallis on their annual visit to check out the Beavers baseball team during fall practices, having grown close with the program’s leadership and players in the years since their initial encounter with Barney.