Jordan ShustermanSenior writerWed, April 29, 2026 at 4:05 AM UTC·9 min readCLEVELAND — 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. Barney — at this point an assistant coach with the Beavers, with his playing days behind him — wanted Drew to meet someone, a freshman infielder from Sydney named Travis Bazzana.
“Darwin goes, ‘Drew, you're gonna wanna get to know Travis,’” Todd recalled. “‘Because Travis is going to play in the big leagues for a very long time.’”
On Tuesday, the Boedigheimers were at Progressive Field as part of a large contingent of family and friends who traveled from near and far to be in attendance for Bazzana’s major-league debut with the Cleveland Guardians. The 23-year-old batted seventh and started at second base against the Tampa Bay Rays, marking the first chapter in a journey that Barney foresaw before Bazzana had played his first collegiate game.
During his three years in Corvallis, Bazzana blossomed into one of the best players in college baseball, rewriting the school record books along the way. His stock soared among scouting circles, as it had for many Oregon State stars before him en route to selection in the MLB draft, including new Guardians teammate Steven Kwan. After a monster junior year in 2024, Bazzana was selected No. 1 overall by Cleveland, adding to Oregon State’s illustrious reputation as a pipeline to the pros. But even more importantly — and more personally — it marked a massive development for baseball Down Under, as Bazzana had single-handedly redefined what was considered possible for young ballplayers in Australia.
"I had thought about it and dreamt about it as long as I can remember — like 5, 6 years old,” Bazzana said pregame of his big-league dreams while growing up in Hornsby, a northern Sydney suburb. He played many sports growing up, including the more popular bat-and-ball game of cricket, but baseball always had his heart.
“I remember in the computer room when I was maybe 6 to 8 [years old], like having a tab of mlb.com and just watching the daily highlights,” he recalled. “It was just something I had always thought about.”
As he entered his teen years, Bazzana was undersized relative to his peers, instilling some doubt that he could keep up with his competition. But it didn’t take long for his special talent to catch up and for his burgeoning work ethic to put him on an unprecedented path to the majors.
"Once I kind of grew and started really getting into some quality training routines and striving for more and understanding goal-setting,” he said. “… I'd say about 15 was when I was like, ‘I can go and do what I want and what I set my mind to.’ And I was pretty confident in that.”
At that point, Bazzana’s name began to circulate in Australian baseball circles. He made his professional debut in the Australian Baseball League as a 16-year-old on Dec. 13, 2018, serving as a late-game defensive replacement for the Sydney Blue Sox. That next year, he headed stateside with NxtGenBaseball, an organization started by former major-league reliever Ryan Rowland-Smith to help Australian ballplayers get more exposure from scouts and college coaches in the U.S. Bazzana’s performance at these showcases helped put him on Oregon State’s radar, setting the stage for what turned out to be a record-breaking career in Corvallis.
That’s also when Bazzana met another Australian baseball luminary, former closer Grant Balfour, who appeared in 534 career games across a dozen major-league seasons.
“He was the kind of kid, you could see the talent,” Balfour said. “I remember the year when Ryan brought them — he was one of the younger ones in the group — but you could see, wow, this kid’s got something. His mentality, his work ethic. … You put those things together, and the talent that he is …
“He's very confident in his abilities, and he works hard for that, and I love that. The drive and passion that he has, he could do anything. The sky's the limit for him — he doesn't put a ceiling on himself.”
In addition to the crowd of family members who made the trek across the globe to be at the ballpark on Tuesday, Balfour was another native Australian who made sure to be at Bazzana’s debut. His trip was a bit more convenient from his home in Florida.
“When I knew he was coming, I jumped on a flight at 5 a.m.,” Balfour said during batting practice. “I'm excited to see a bunch of Aussies up in the suite.”
That bunch of Aussies included Bazzana’s parents, Jenny and Gary, Travis’ older brothers, Hayden and Mitchell, and several aunts and uncles. Gary and Todd Boedigheimer became close friends during Travis’ time at Oregon State, with the Boedigheimers hosting the Bazzanas at their home in Scottsdale on several occasions during the Beavers’ annual trip to begin their college season in nearby Surprise.