Bauer gives bullying victim 'incredible' day

When Megan Aronson asked her Twitter followers to wish her son, Kanon, who was dealing with bullying at multiple schools, a happy 11th birthday, she was only expecting a few of her followers to respond.

But hours after tweeting, Aronson noticed the tweet had gone viral. Kanon was the No. 1 trending topic on the website. It was even ahead of President Joe Biden, who was scheduled to give a speech later that night.

“I was just sitting at home and Kanon sent me this journal entry from school, that he had to write this life book report thing, talking about how his life was,” Aronson said. “He just said his life had been really hard because he’d been bullied a lot and he had to move so many times, and hearing it in his own words like that was just heartbreaking for me to hear him say that his life had been tough so far. It just kind of broke my heart open.”

Kanon and his family had to move twice over the last year. His family moved from Arizona to Tennessee in June 2019. As the new kid in school, Kanon was bullied “pretty bad.” Once the coronavirus pandemic hit last year, the family decided to head back to Arizona, but Kanon had to attend a different school because his previous one was closed for good. The bullying ensued at the new school.

“He was just kind of the different kid,” Aronson said. “And he got picked on a lot for that.”

The story resonated with Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer, who has been open about his experiences with bullies when he was a child. When he saw Aronson’s tweet, or “Kanon’s mom,” as she now describes herself following the viral tweet, he wanted to make sure he did something special for the 11-year-old boy.

“The next thing we know, we get a call from the Dodgers, and Trevor had experiences being bullied as a kid and said that he had seen the tweet and it really ripped at his heartstrings,” Aronson said. “He said he wanted to invite us to come be their guests at a game, which is just incredible.”

On Saturday, before he took the mound against his old Indians team, Bauer got his chance to meet Kanon, his three siblings and his parents. The family, who are all Dodgers fans, sat behind home plate to watch Bauer pitch. The right-hander also gave Kanon a personalized No. 27 jersey with his name on it. It also came with a special message: “It’s cool to be different!! Keep being you! -- Trevor Bauer.”

“That was my entire childhood. I got bullied mercilessly nonstop by kids in school,” Bauer said. “I hated going to school. I was just miserable for 17 years of my life. I just wanted to try and do something special for him and give him some hope that things get better and keep being himself and all that.”

Kanon has received thoughtful messages from just about everyone over the last two weeks. It has ranged from Starbucks’ official account to actors in "Hamilton." The NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and Phoenix Coyotes also reached out, sending him signed jerseys and a puck.

But getting a chance to meet Bauer on Saturday really stood out.

“That was just incredible,” Aronson said. “That was just amazing. Kanon just flipped out. The whole time that we were sitting talking to Trevor, Kanon said he was shaking like a leaf. He got really nervous, you know, it was a big moment.”