Born on February 10, 1989, Travis Emmanuel d’Arnaud, also known by his nickname “Lil D,” is an American Major League Baseball (MLB) catcher for the Atlanta Braves. In the 2007 Major League Baseball draft’s supplemental first round, he was chosen by the Philadelphia Phillies. He was formerly a player in Major League Baseball for the Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, and New York Mets. In 2013, he made his MLB debut.
On February 10, 1989, in Long Beach, California, d’Arnaud was born.[4] He was raised in a musical household; his father played the trumpet, piano, and trombone, while his mother Marita directed a Long Beach after-school performing arts program. Two of d’Arnaud’s uncles were pianists in his extended family, and his cousin was an electropop artist.[5] D’Arnaud talked of his Long Beach background as having a “huge baseball community” in addition to music.[6] He grew up as a Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball (MLB) enthusiast and took the Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza as his baseball role model.
When they were younger, d’Arnaud and his elder brother Chase used to talk about “how cool that would be if we played with each other or against each other in the big leagues”.[8] D’Arnaud opted to attend Lakewood High School, a rival school of Los Alamitos, instead of following Chase and playing for Los Alamitos High School.[9] As a high school baseball player in 2007, d’Arnaud started to catch the interest of scouts, and he received an invitation to practice with the Toronto Blue Jays.[10] After graduating in 2007, d’Arnaud was named Co-Athlete of the Year in 2008 and inducted into the Lakewood Youth Hall of Fame.