Alex Bregman, Mike Trout Quietly Brighten a Cancer Devastated Family’s Week — A Look Inside Baseball’s Close-Knit Community

Creed and Cohen Fuller already have Mike Trout bats, personally handed to them by the best player of his generation, and now they’re each getting an Alex Bregman bat. With a beaming Bregman delivering them and then inviting the kids to follow him into the Houston Astros’ clubhouse. The 12 and 11-year-old brothers exchange “Are you kidding me?” looks with each other, before hustling to follow the Major League star.

This is a true dream scenario for any baseball-loving kid — and the Creed and Cohen are two extreme baseball fanatics who play on youth travel and all-star teams.

Their dad Cody Fuller is fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer. That’s why the family is in Houston with Cody meeting with a doctor at MD Anderson Cancer Center. While here, Creed and Cohen Fuller’s uncle and aunt, Clay and Mackenzie Fuller, took them to Minute Maid Park for the Astros’ home opener.

“Just having a day to go out and play ball and meet some people,” MacKenzie Fuller says of the plan.

That is when Bregman and Trout started making sure this family whose world has been rocked by cancer had an unforgettable day.

First, Trout comes to introduce himself to the boys, bringing two of his signature red bats, signed. Trout talks about the game all three of them love and seems in no hurry to excuse himself. Then later, Bregman makes a special trip back out of the Astros’ clubhouse after batting practice ends to deliver two bats of his own. And invite the whole family into Houston’s clubhouse.

“It means that when something bad is going on in your world, there’s still good,” Clay Fuller tells PaperCity. “And people who are willing to try and help bring a smile. Mike and Alex didn’t have to do that. But they showed the boys that people really do care.”

Baseball is a lot of things. It is a multi billion dollar business at the Major League level. It is a game of majestic home runs (like the two shots Yordan Alvarez hit for the Houston Astros in their home opener). It is an international game, one where the biggest star in MLB is Japanese two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani. It is a battle ground for contract disputes and labor battles.

But it is also a tight-knit community, where stars like Alex Bregman and Mike Trout reach out to help those in the community who are hurting.

The Fuller family has ties to both Trout and Bregman. Baseball ties. Mackenzie Fuller is the daughter of Kim Mulkey, the pioneering women’s basketball coach who built a dynasty at Baylor before moving to LSU with a $23.6 million contract that is helping to change perceptions of how valuable women’s basketball coaches are (and how they should be rightfully compensated). Mackenzie’s brother Kramer Robertson played with Bregman at LSU. He’s currently in Triple A in the St. Louis Cardinals organization.

Clay Fuller, the boys’ uncle, is a former minor league baseball player himself. He played with both Trout and Astros catcher Martin Maldonado in the Angels organization and spent six years there himself before walking on at Baylor to play college football, turning himself into a standout receiver who helped win two Big 12 titles.

It doesn’t matter to Trout or Bregman that Clay Fuller never made the Major Leagues. Or that Kramer Robertson is still fighting to get there. They’re still part of the greater baseball community. And baseball players help each other out,

“This world is good and close knit,” Clay Fuller says of baseball. “And you can feel that love in times of heartache.”

The Bonds of Baseball

For Clay Fuller getting to go into the Astros’ inner sanctuary and relive old minor league clubhouse stories with Martin Maldonado is a nice bonus. But to Creed and Cohen Fuller, it’s so much more. So much so that it’s understandably hard for 12-year-old Creed to even put it into words.

“I don’t know,” Creed Fuller says when asked to describe it. Parents of 12-year-olds everywhere can relate.

“Just celebrating the day,” Mackenzie Fuller says with a bright smile.

This isn’t a day about words, anyway. It is a day about giving a lift to some baseball-loving kids whose family is having a tough time and has a demanding road ahead. One that won’t always have a lot of fun in it.

Clay Fuller is most excited by how this day — the way Bregman and Trout went out of there to make the boys feel welcome and special — will lift the spirits of his older brother Cody, the proud dad who has all those hospital visits ahead.

He feels grateful for all the players who shared a moment with Creed and Cohen.

“Mike (Trout) is the same guy I played with in the minors,” Clay Fuller says. “For the brief amount of time he was in the minors.”

“It means that when something bad is going on in your world, there’s still good. And people who are willing to try and help bring a smile.” — Clay Fuller 

This interaction — two of baseball’s bigger stars connecting with two baseball loving brothers — is not the kind of thing that makes headlines. It’s not something that draws interest during the Astros’ first home stand. It plays out at a time when there are relatively few people in the ballpark, a good three hours before first pitch. It’s not going to fuel a sports radio debate or one of the competing hot take shows. But it means so much to one family that feels like it’s had a hole ripped open in their world.

“We’re having a good day,” Mackenzie Fuller tells PaperCity. “A great day.”

Mackenzie looks over at her two nephews, standing on the Minute Maid dirt, just staring around in wonder.

Baseball helping baseball is a real thing. At a time when he’s not sure of much else, Clay Fuller is sure of that.

To learn more about Cody Fuller, his fight and his loving family, or to donate to a GoFundMe set up to try and help out with the overwhelming medical costs, click here.