Growing up a baseball fan in Australia, Brandan Bidois had only a handful of fellow Aussies in the Major Leagues he could look up to. Liam Hendriks is maybe the most notable, and Bidois was quick to point to left-handed reliever Graeme Lloyd, who won a couple of World Series with the Yankees in his decade in the game.

Then there is Grant Balfour, who was one of the best relievers in the game in the first half of the 2010s. During that run, Balfour returned to his home country to take in a Brisbane Bandits game. Bidois was 11 or 12 years old at the time, and he got a card signed by Balfour, who left an extra note for the aspiring player:

“Good luck with your career.”

“Having those kind of guys to look up to … there’s been a few Aussies, not too many, that have made it to the big leag

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