June 20, 2023

By J.P. Antonacci

Canadian Baseball Network

Brianna Brumbaugh was already disappointed to have missed seeing her favourite ballplayer inducted into the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.

So when a Google alert informed her that Rich Harden would be in St. Marys, Ont., on June 17 as part of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s class of 2023, Bumbraugh and her wife, Myriem Seabron, packed their dark green Oakland Athletics Harden tees and planned a road trip from their Baltimore home to Ontario.

“Rich Harden’s my favourite baseball player of all time,” said Bumbraugh, a Missouri native who was raised a St. Louis Cardinals fan before switching her allegiance to the Athletics in the mid-2000s.

“I was drawn to the A’s just because of their energy at the time,” she said. “It was just fun to watch them, and it looked like they were having fun.”

A fan of pitching and defense in general, Bumbraugh was particularly taken by Harden.

“He was always amazing,” she said. “It was always fun to watch him. He had such great stuff.”

The photos she took with Harden in St. Marys will join a treasured keepsake Bumbraugh has of the time she met the right-hander at an A’s game after moving to California.

“I just hung around watching batting practice every day I could, and one day Rich was like, do you want to take a photo? Because I was super shy,” Bumbraugh said.

“So that happened because of him.”

This jaunt to St. Marys wasn’t the couple’s first Harden-inspired road trip. They previously drove to British Columbia to watch Harden throw out the first pitch at a Vancouver Canadians game.

“I went to that because he’s been pretty private and not in the public eyes for years, and this might be my one chance (to see him again),” Bumbraugh said.

Heading cross-country to a baseball game together brought back memories for the couple, whose courtship consisted of driving or flying to Athletics away games from their respective home states and meeting at the ballpark.

“So it’s kind of nostalgic for us to road trip and see this player. It’s part of our story,” Bumbraugh said.

Could Seabron also be considered a Rich Harden superfan?

“I’m a superfan of my wife,” she laughed.

As evidence of her fandom, the couple made the drive to St. Marys on Seabron’s birthday.

“I mean, how many times does someone get inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame?” she said with a smile.

Seabron admitted to being “more of a Huston Street fan,” referring to Oakland’s closer at the time.

“But I still liked (Harden), liked the way he handled himself and was sorry to see his career cut short by injuries.”

The couple caught up with Harden before the ceremony.

“He was very sweet. We just asked for a photo,” Seabron said. “His family seemed very charmed that there were fans there.”

Bumbraugh said she used to schedule her life around baseball games, but as her favourite players retired, her interest waned.

The two still catch a few games a year, but “they keep changing the rules and I’m like, that sounds dumb,” Bumbraugh said.

“It makes us feel very old when we start talking about how the rules are changing,” Seabron chuckled.

As for their impressions of St. Marys, the visitors came away impressed.

“It’s very chill. I like it,” Seabron said.

“We rolled in and there were Pride flags and the Canadian flag. It just was very welcoming, and everyone’s been very nice.”