When Sydney’s Travis Bazzana made his debut in Major League Baseball on 28 April, it was the culmination of a journey that began when he was a toddler.
“From the time he could stand, Travis was always wanting to throw or hit balls with any type of bat or racket available,” says Travis’s mother, Jenny. “Any visitors to the house, including his grandparents, were immediately invited to play or compete with him.”
Travis transformed his eagerness into a passionate discipline that enabled him to become the first Australian top selection in MLB’s amateur draft and the Cleveland Guardians’ All-Star second baseman.
That discipline also defines his personality.
“He’s an animal,” Guardians pitcher Parker Messick told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “He loves the game of baseball. He takes it very serious every at-bat. Every time he’s on first base, every play in the infield, he’s locked in.”
Despite being a rookie, the 24-year-old has excelled in the Guardians’ late surge for a spot in the MLB playoffs. In September, when Cleveland won seven of 10 games, Travis’s five home runs and safe hitting have helped put them into a strong position in the American League Central division alongside the Chicago White Sox.
Travis has impressed in his rookie season, earning a call up to MLB’s All-Star team. Photograph: Aaron Josefczyk/UPI/Shutterstock Travis grew up in Wahroonga, in Sydney’s Upper North Shore, and began playing T-ball as a three-year-old for the Ku-Ring-Gai Stealers. His father, Gary, decided to register Travis after seeing his excitement at his brothers’ games.
“Travis was in nappies at the ballpark,” Gary says. “Some of his first words were like ‘ball’, ‘hit’, ‘swing’, ‘catch’. He was buzzing around and really interested in everything that was going on. He had a little bat made from a cut-off broomstick, and he would put tennis balls on a tee and rifle them all around the park and annoy people all day long.”
That enthusiasm wasn’t limited to the ballpark.
“The fact that Gary was coaching youth teams meant there was generally a team kit bag in the house,” Jenny says. “At the age of three, Travis would empty the entire contents of the bag on to the floor in the lounge room. This was done with great attention to detail. All the bats and helmets were carefully lined up in a row as if getting them ready for a game.”
Travis (in front on far right) at his brother’s birthday party which included a baseball clinic with Australian player Glenn Williams (centre back). Photograph: supplied by Glenn Williams Travis played other sports at school – but baseball was always No 1. When the internet became widely available, Travis used it to conduct extensive research.
He would spend “hours each night looking up every hitting instruction video he could find and watching highlights of MLB and college baseball games”, Gary says. “He was writing his own ‘how to hit’ manual from 11 or 12 years old. He later would take this book to tournaments and tours, and record any tips that coaches gave him in the tournament exit meetings.”
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That exposure included Baseball NSW clinics run by Glenn Williams, a former major-league player and two-time Olympian who noticed something different in Travis.
“Like many athletes, Travis worked exceptionally hard,” says Williams, who is now the chief executive officer for Baseball Australia. “What set him apart, however, was that his effort was always purposeful. Every session, every drill and every extra rep was targeted at the specific areas he knew would have the greatest impact on his development.
“That disciplined approach to continuous improvement – honest self-assessment, a willingness to learn, and focused execution – became one of the defining characteristics of his journey.”
Travis honed his craft with the Stealers and the Sydney Blue Sox, before moving to the US in 2021 to join one of the country’s best college baseball programs at Oregon State University (OSU). He made an impression before ever taking the field.
“He walked in the players’ lounge where all the career stat leaders are listed,” head coach Mitch Canham says. “He took a picture of it, and he’s like, ‘I’m going to break all these records.’ You don’t see that from a ton of people.”
After three seasons, he owned Oregon State’s career records for hits (251), home runs (45), doubles (52), stolen bases (66), total bases (460) and walks (180). Those numbers ranked him among in the top college players.
Travis quickly turned heads while playing US college baseball. Photograph: Icon Sportswire/Getty Images In 2024, Travis made the All-America first team for the second consecutive year, received the Pacific-12 Conference’s award as its player of the year and finished his career with a .360 average and 165 runs batted in. That performance motivated the Guardians to make him the first selection overall in MLB’s amateur draft that June.
Travis extends his passion beyond himself. He once produced a PowerPoint presentation for his OSU teammates that analysed the breaking action of curveballs and sliders, and gave them tips on nutrition.
“There wasn’t a guy that didn’t love ‘Bazz’,” Canham says. “His care level for other people was incredible. One time after a game, we sat on the bench for an hour and talked about how he can better help his teammates. I don’t think there was a guy that ever showed up in that clubhouse that didn’t want to spend time with him or learn a ton from him.”
Travis’s commitment the sport extends to the next generation of Australian players. During August’s Little League World Series in the US, he sent a video message of encouragement to the Ryde Hawks, his former team and Australia’s representative. The following week, Travis invited the Hawks squad to the Guardians’ clubhouse at Cleveland’s Progressive Field before a game. Nick Robson, who pitched and played second base for the Hawks, told ESPN what it means to see Travis succeed: “It shows that anyone from Sydney can be in the big league.”