No pedigree, no shortcuts. A Minnesota kid who kept showing up, got a lot wrong along the way, and eventually started paying attention to the numbers.
Sartell, Minnesota
Sartell sits on the Mississippi just north of St. Cloud — hockey country, snow six months a year. I grew up throwing anyway: garage walls, frozen springs, summer legion ball. Graduated St. Cloud Cathedral in 2018 with one plan that never changed: keep pitching.
The Grind · Three Colleges
Nobody hands a Minnesota lefty anything. I started at Minnesota State–Mankato, transferred to Saint John's University, and finished as a redshirt senior at Seattle University — a Division I mound, earned the long way. Three programs, three pitching coaches, a thousand bullpens. That winding road is exactly why I can coach: I've had to rebuild my own mechanics more times than most pros ever will.
1954 · The Legacy
My grandfather, DuWayne Hanson, pitched for Saint John's in 1954. Seventy years later I toed the same rubber in Collegeville. Baseball runs in this family's blood — the work, the patience, the respect for the game. When I talk to young players about playing the long game, that's where it comes from.
2026 · Under the Blacklights
Then came the call from the loudest experiment in baseball: Cosmic Baseball. UV lights, glowing uniforms, packed stadiums coast to coast. Now I'm Nº 15 for the Cosmic Chili Peppers on the 2026 Takeover Tour, playing the game I love in front of crowds that treat every night like a playoff game at a rock concert.
Now · The Second Job
Somewhere in the middle of all that I got serious about the training side, and then I did the thing nobody my age bothers with: I got a full blood panel. Eighty-plus markers. Some of them were not where I thought they were. Fixing that changed how I train, how I eat, how I sleep, and how I feel at 27 versus 22. Now I coach other people through the same process, and I test twice a year to make sure I am still practicing what I sell.
I got into this because I was tired of guessing about my own body, and I kept going because the same thing is true for almost everyone I meet. Smart people working hard on the wrong things, with no data to tell them so.
Nobody should have to spend four years learning this the slow way. So I coach.
"Play the long game."