Beuerlein handles adversity
If UNLV junior catcher Drew Beuerlein was ever angry or bitter after breaking his right hand following a sensational start last season, those closest to him didn’t see it.
Anger and bitterness are not part of his makeup. Considering the trauma he had already experienced from a staph infection as a high school senior, Beuerlein knows a season-ending injury is not the same as a life-threatening illness.
“The doctors told my parents they didn’t think I’d make it,” he said of the staph infection. “A broken hand … is just a little steppingstone. I’m just blessed to be out here playing the game.”
Beuerlein had already signed with UNLV when he contracted mononucleosis as his senior season was beginning at Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale, Ariz.
After he recovered enough to play baseball, he cut his chin sliding into third base. A large welt developed on his forehead in early March 2006, which the family thinks allowed the staph to enter his bloodstream.
Beuerlein soon began to feel pains in his right side. For several weeks they disappeared, only to return. No one could diagnose the cause, and Beuerlein’s condition worsened. He developed night sweats, and his weight plummeted by more than 30 pounds to around 160.
His dad, John, called a friend, Dr. Paul Sieckmann, who diagnosed fluid on Beuerlein’s lungs and prescribed antibiotics. When Beuerlein’s health failed to improve, Sieckmann checked him into a hospital, and through a C-T scan discovered a softball-sized lump above his kidneys.
“It very well could’ve killed him,” John said. “We’re very lucky, because he’s healthy and doing what he loves to do. But to this day as a parent, it just gives you chills.”
As Beuerlein began to recover and regain his strength, UNLV coach Buddy Gouldsmith stuck with him, never considering pulling the scholarship offer.
Beuerlein rewarded that faith by batting .324 as a freshman in 2007. Then last season, he was hitting .407 with 22 RBIs before breaking his hand March 18 at UNR.
“I don’t know that we ever really recovered from it,” Gouldsmith said.
The Rebels lost 25 of their final 40 games to end the season 26-32.
This season, Beuerlein is hitting .367 with team highs of eight home runs and 46 RBIs entering tonight’s series opener against Brigham Young at Wilson Stadium.
Although he’s known more for his skills with the bat than behind the plate, it’s almost as if he was destined to be a catcher. His dad, an uncle and a cousin were minor league catchers, with John making it as far as Triple-A Denver in 1987 when that city was affiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers, before the Rockies arrived.
“It was DNA,” Beuerlein said. “My dad gave me a catcher’s glove when I was 2 years old, and I’ve been a catcher ever since.”
The catching gene apparently bypassed Beuerlein’s cousin, Steve, an NFL quarterback for 14 seasons.
As much as Beuerlein makes the difficult act of hitting a baseball seem simple, he keeps getting reminders that life off the field is anything but easy. He received another jolt in January when his high school pitching coach, Terry Kellen, 43, died of heart failure.
The two were close, and Beuerlein traveled home for the funeral. Just as he handles other issues, Beuerlein held his emotions inside, but Gouldsmith noticed a little less smiling, and John said Kellen’s death “hit Drew very hard.”
But these days the smile has returned and Beuerlein is focused on trying to help UNLV (24-19) achieve its first winning season in five years.
He will graduate this summer, when he could have a major baseball decision to make.
Gouldsmith expects Beuerlein to be drafted somewhere between the eighth and 12th rounds and doesn’t plan on his catcher returning next season, even though Beuerlein used a medical redshirt in 2009.
Gouldsmith said Beuerlein understands all too well about the fragility of life and couldn’t pass up an opportunity to play professional baseball.
“There’s always something in the back of your mind that leaves you a little timid,” Gouldsmith said, “like maybe your chance will come and go, and you won’t take it.”
Contact reporter Mark Anderson at
manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914.
