Dougie Bedinger using autism journey to inspire others after parents told he'd never play sports

CBS News

20-07-2025

When Dougie Bedinger was just a few days old, his parents were told he'd never play sports.
Not only has he overcome the odds, but he's now helping to inspire others.
It's a familiar sound of summer. Dougie Bedinger plays travel ball with the Rhino Sports Academy in Shorewood.
"It's pretty good. I've played with one of my teammates for years," he said.
"It's pretty exciting just to be able to show up every weekend and know who he is and what he's gone through and being able to compete with peers who are trying to fight for going to college and looking at scholarships, and him being included is pretty cool to watch," Doug Bedinger said.
Doug, who is Dougie's father, mentioned all that his son has gone through.
Dougie was born with a heart condition that required multiple surgeries in the first few weeks of his life.
"It was obviously tough to see your child two days old, laying there, hooked up to every machine that you can see, thinking what's going to happen, if we're even going to have him around," he said.
The need for those surgeries was due to a genetic disorder. Part of his 22nd chromosome is missing. It would eventually lead to Dougie being diagnosed with autism.
"My mom antenna was up. We got him tested and the rest is history. I actually felt a sense of relief when he got diagnosed with autism because I finally knew what was going on, and we had a path that we could follow in school and everything, and I knew he would be fully supported," Mary Bedinger said.
"I didn't let that stop him or us from doing what he wanted to do. We've never hidden his defects or his autism from anybody. It is what is, and we just kind of work with it," Doug said.
On the field, Dougie is just one of the guys, playing the game he loves, pitching a little, and playing first base as well.
"I just like to throw, throw hard. I just love baseball," he said.
"When he walks on that field, you can see it. You don't have to ask questions, you don't have to do anything. You can just see it in his eyes, he puts that baseball uniform on, and he's ready to go," Coach Brian Dewalt said.
"Just to see him love something so much in life, that's all we could ask for," Mary said. "We're extremely proud of him, again embracing his autism. That's what I'm most proud of is that he's not afraid to be who he is."
Dougie recently embraced his autism when he got the opportunity to design a glove for Chicago-based Wilson in connection with Autism Speaks.
"They invited us to the Wilson headquarters in Chicago. Dougie got the big league experience. He went in. They showed us around the faciilty. We sat down with their glove designer. He was awesome. They hashed everything out on what he wanted. He actually did the first baseman's mitt and a pitcher's glove as well," Doug said.
"It was scary at first. Then I was pretty nervous, and then they put on the school website holding my gloves up," Dougie said.
His teammates weren't the only ones who liked it. Wilson sells the glove on their website, and Detroit Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson showed off his love for Dougie's glove on Instagram.
Dougie wants to keep showing off his skills playing the game he loves.
How did that opportunity with Wilson come about? Mary actually wrote a letter to the company's president, Tom Hackett. He read it, loved the idea, and the rest is history.