Razed Sports

Even as his body began to betray him as he grew older, Tim Harkins didn't stop challenging himself, he just changed the nature of the challenge. And that strength was both an example and a blessing for his family until the very end.

Listen to all of Season 3:
https://www.razedsports.com/season-3

Razed Sports is a proud member of the Story Hangar podcast network:
https://www.storyhangar.com/

Whether encouraging his kids in sports or just sharing general wisdom, Tim Harkins had a way with words, and he always delivered them with humor and humility.

Listen to all of Season 3:
https://www.razedsports.com/season-3

Razed Sports is a proud member of the Story Hangar podcast network:
https://www.storyhangar.com/

Whether it was his beloved Gonzaga Bulldogs, his friends or his family, Tim Harkins possessed an unending supply of loyalty, always there for support, for guidance and sometimes a helpful push..

Listen to all of Season 3:
https://www.razedsports.com/season-3

Razed Sports is a proud member of the Story Hangar podcast network:
https://www.storyhangar.com/

Tim Harkins was not only a competitive person, he was also kind, thoughtful and compassionate. He had “grace.” In Episode 2, we share stories from childhood through adulthood that illustrate how he often handled himself in a way that drew others to him.

Listen to all of Season 3:
https://www.razedsports.com/season-3

Razed Sports is a proud member of the Story Hangar podcast network:
https://www.storyhangar.com/

Having wrapped up Season 2 just as spring training was starting to crank up, it was time to catch up with Cole Uvila.

So I headed out to Surprise, Arizona, and on Feb. 22, Cole and I sat down for a more traditional interview. Cole caught us up on everything that had happened since the end of the Arizona Fall League, touched on goals he has for the 2020 season and shared his thoughts on how much he has grown as a pitcher over the last year.

Listen to all of Season 2:
https://www.razedsports.com/listen-2

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In our season finale, Cole Uvila heads home to begin his offseason, taking with him a new-found momentum after a strong showing in the Arizona Fall League. That showing included one eye-opening pitch in the league's All-Star game that not only bested the top prospect in the AFL, but also grabbed the attention of some scouts, reporters and analytics experts across minor league baseball.

Listen:
https://www.razedsports.com/listen-2

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After an embarrassing four-walk game, Cole Uvila goes to the video tape to try to figure out what's wrong. When he does, he spots a tiny mechanical issue that seems to be at the root of his command issues.

Cole's ability to identify and fix problems is a big strength of his, and it comes in part from a mantra he was taught by his late mother, Denise. She told him that there is always a reason for things that happen, and when you understand that you can figure out how to deal with them, and to be better.

Cole puts this into practice on the field, and after making an adjustment to his mechanics, he finds the results are even better than expected.

Baseball is often referred to as America’s pastime, but that title could just as easily be applied to another activity -- the card game poker. Like baseball, poker might have its roots in games from other countries, but poker as we know it today is generally considered an American invention, dating back to the early 19th century, and over the years it’s become stamped into the fabric of American culture.

Cole Uvila loves poker as much as baseball. In fact, he's actually made more money at the card tables than he has on the mound. In this episode, Cole shares how he got into the game and details how he can take the lessons he learns in poker and apply them to baseball.

Meanwhile, as the second half of the season continues, Cole's tinkering on the mound leads to a bout of wildness, prompting him to take a deep look at how to fix it.

The great Ernie Harwell once said: “Baseball is a lot like life. It's a day-to-day existence, full of ups and downs. You make the most of your opportunities in baseball as you do in life.”

As the second half of the 2019 season begins, Cole Uvila finds himself experiencing this truth on multiple fronts. He has to deal with a bizarre outing in which he feels great but the ball does not bounce his way, and he shares what life is like on the bus as his team powers through a series of difficult road trips.

But he's not the only person having to deal with the challenges of a long baseball season. His fiancee Kayla, who is clear across the country in the state of Washington working on a career of her own, is also learning to adjust to the baseball life. Cole and Kayla share their thoughts on how they deal with being apart for weeks on end and how they plan for the future in a business that is designed to make that nearly impossible.

As the Carolina League All-Star break rolled around on the 2019 season, things were going great for Cole Uvila. His Down East Wood Ducks had dominated the Carolina League, winning 50 of their 70 games to take the first-half crown and clinch a playoff berth in the process. Cole had finished strong as well. He had worked on the issues that had been bothering him -- his command, his pitch selection -- and had some good momentum heading into mid-June. In his last seven appearances before the break, he’d allowed just one earned run across 10 innings, striking out 12.

But now, as he headed home to Seattle for a brief break, it wasn’t going to be a vacation. He was returning to Driveline Baseball to get back on their mound and fine tune some things. Of all the different factors that had played a role in Cole reaching this point in his career, perhaps nothing – aside from his own determination – had had a bigger impact than Driveline had.

“I guess Driveline has a lot of missions," Cole says, "but specifically what started Driveline was the idea that baseball players can be trained and created, not just, that they're born with 100-mph arm.”

So Cole returned to Driveline with a very specific mission: He wanted to turn his curveball from merely a complement to his fastball into a dangerous weapon.

As we left episode 3, Cole Uvila was unhappy with himself. After his promotion to Advanced-A, with the Down East Wood Ducks of the Carolina League, he had started well. But through the bulk of May he had some struggles. After giving up just the second homer of his professional career early in the month, he went through a stretch of five straight appearances in which he allowed at least one run.

But when he took a moment to examine his season, and his pro career as a whole, he realized that things weren't quite as devastating as he'd thought.

“And I looked and I was like sheesh, all in all if you had told me in a year after I got drafted I'd be in High-A with and done what I've done, I kind of like, 'this isn't as bad as it feels,'" Cole says. "And I was just like, if this month, which had felt like it was the worst I'd pitched ever, has resulted in this, then like I said it's not that bad. It's not career-ending.”

Meanwhile, back in Washington, Cole’s father Steve had been deep in a transition of his own – he was getting back into the hobby he loved – drag racing. He had given up his sporting passion in order to help Cole shoot for his dream, but now he had time for racing again. He had bought one of his old cars back from a buddy who’d held onto it for 27 years – yes, the car pre-dated Cole. Steve started tuning it up, taking it to the track again.

“It's a white 1967 Camaro called Thumper. And it's got 'Thumper' down the side of it and a big rabbit painted on it." Steve says. "It's kinda old school cool and a lot of the kids love it. It's known around and whatnot. It's been a race car since 1971, so it's got history.”

The car has history, just as racing is a part of Steve’s history, and in a way, Cole’s, too. And that history is complex and runs deep. It involves a decision Steve made years ago. A decision that changed everything, though, as we’ll find out, not forever. Sometimes, things can come full circle.

That’s what happened on June 2, 2019.

As Cole Uvila heads into May, he starts to experience some challenges for the first time as a professional baseball player. The umpires of the Advanced-A Carolina League have tighter, more consistent strike zones, and the hitters, who are more experienced, are eager to take advantage of this fact.

“The batters are much more disciplined. They have a little bit more of an approach," Cole says. "There's a lot of free swingers the younger guys get. They're a little bit more free swingers. Now I'm facing guys 23, 24, 25 years old with some experience. They hunt pitches.”

All of these differences came to a head for Cole in early May, when he allows his first home run of the season and goes on to give up runs in five consecutive appearances. 

He knows he has to make some changes -- he can know longer rely on simply throwing his fastball past people. So he goes to work to refine his game.

We’ve learned a lot about brain injuries in football during Season 1 of Razed Sports. But there is one nagging question that we haven’t really addressed : 

Knowing all that we now know about the long-term risks of tackle football, why are we still playing the sport?

I’ve heard a lot of responses to this question over the last few months, some of which make some sense, some … well … not so much. But I’ve never heard an answer laid out quite so eloquently and sensibly as when I heard Erick’s interview with Ken LaVigne.

LaVigne has dedicated a huge portion of his life to the sport, both as a player and a coach. He had to quit football due to concussions, so he does not have his head in the sand when it comes to the sport’s risks. But he also credits the game, and the mentors he met through it, with saving his life. To him, the rewards outweigh the risks. 

He does provide two caveats though — the sport needs to evolve and become safer and it’s the responsibility of coaches to put player safety first, like his coaches did for him.

Listen to Ep. 9 for LaVigne’s story and also check out his new book titled “Coaching the Soul.”

In late 2016, the Supreme Court rejected challenges to the settlement of a landmark lawsuit against the National Football League. That cleared the last hurdle to a billion-dollar agreement — former players could finally be compensated for brain ailments they suffered playing professional football.

While the lawsuit and settlement rocked the sports world, the way it all started was almost unbelievable. It involved an unlikely friendship between two men from vastly different backgrounds.

One was Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born forensic pathologist who had discovered CTE in the brain of former Pittsburgh Steelers lineman Mike Webster. The other was Jason Luckasevic, a lawyer who grew up worshiping his heroes in black and gold.

During a meeting in 2006, Omalu told Luckasevic that the NFL was unhappy with his work. They were coming after him, trying to discredit him and ruin his career.

“And I said ‘well do something about it, look into it, figure it out, fight back,’” Luckasevic says. “And he said ‘well you’re a good lawyer you figure it out.’”

And so, in an effort to defend his friend and help players who had been used and discarded by the NFL, Luckasevic went to work.

This is his story.