What have you been doing since graduating from Linfield? 

A lot has happened since I graduated from Linfield in 1998 and it is hard to believe that was over 20 years ago! After graduation, I attended law school at Willamette University and received my J.D. in 2001. Following law school, I lived in Salem and was an associate attorney for an awesome law firm Crothers Hansen & Bell. I was a transactional attorney and my practice focused primarily on business law, contracts, and estate planning. In 2005, I moved back to my hometown Richland, Wash., and accepted a job with Battelle Memorial Institute as a Contracts Specialist. It was a difficult decision to leave Salem as I had developed some great friendships there, plus my brother Scott and his family lived in Vancouver so it was also nice living close to them and getting to spend a lot of time together. However, the move back to Richland was important for me as I wanted to be closer to my parents, Diane and Russ. They are incredible people and have provided me with so much love and support over the years that it was time for me to return the favor and be closer to them. After moving back to Richland, I spent the next 10 years working in various roles within the Contracts organization at Battelle before joining the Office of General Counsel in 2015 as a senior attorney.

I’m currently an Assistant General Counsel at Battelle and have been with the company for over 15 years. Battelle manages and operates the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the federal government and is a fantastic place to work. It is also one of the world’s largest research and development organizations in science and technology. Not only do I work with some outstanding people, but I am fortunate to be a part of some exciting projects involving cutting edge technology and innovation. 

On a personal level, I married the love of my life, Kim, in 2013. My mom gets credit for lining us up though. She met Kim first on New Year’s ski trip to Mt. Bachelor in 2010. I was not on the trip, but my mom was persistent in trying to convince Kim to meet me and nearly scared her away by referring to her as her “future daughter-in-law!” My mom quickly recovered by inviting Kim to help lead a trip a few months later to Brundage ski resort in Idaho. Kim and I were both on the trip and my mom strategically sat us close to each other on the six-hour bus ride! Fortunately, we had a blast on the trip, started dating shortly thereafter, and were engaged about a year later.

Since then we were blessed with an amazing son, Brody Guy Burks, in April of 2018. Brody has his mom’s great looks, my red hair, and he is a great combination of both of our personalities. He’s only 2½ years old, but he’s quite the athlete and loves playing outside as much as possible! He has some pretty good pop with the bat too! It’s still early, but it’s looking like he will be swinging and throwing lefty.

What was your most memorable game at Linfield? 

There were so many memorable games and moments in my career, but I’d probably have to give the nod to winning the conference title at Willamette in the final regular-season series of my sophomore year (1996). I was in center field when the last out was made to secure the title and making that sprint to the infield to jump on the dog pile was a thrill I will never forget! We also may or may not have buried our lucky rubber hot dog (the “wiener”) at Willamette’s field following the win. We earned a berth to the regional tournament that year and hosted it at the Catdome, which was another memorable experience.  

Another memorable moment for me personally was hitting the only grand slam of my career at Lewis-Clark State my senior year in front of family and friends who made the trip over from the Tri-Cities. That was pretty special!   

Do you keep in touch with anyone that you played with or were coached by/professors at Linfield? 

Absolutely, I made some lifelong friendships at Linfield but there are definitely teammates and old friends that I miss seeing and talking with on a regular basis. After college, a few of us put together an annual ski trip to Lake Tahoe and I think we went for 10 straight years before we broke our streak. The trip included several baseball alums and good friends JT Marquart, Jeff Menold, Bryan Rohr and James Montgomery. Marriage, kids and life has put our annual Tahoe trip on hold for a few years but hopefully we can get that back on track one of these days. I have also kept in close contact with my college roommate and one of my best friends, Kriss Fecht. We chat frequently and try to get our families together each year for a nice vacation. I also keep in touch with other former players such as Jeff Scott, Chris Wiggins, Rob Gloeckner, and Brian Barnett. Great group of guys and its always fun to catch up!

Last but not least, I have maintained a very close relationship with Coach Ray over the years and we have frequent conversations on the phone about baseball, families and life. He has been up to the Tri-Cities to visit us and we try to visit him and his wife Linda at least once a year. He’s like a surrogate dad to me and is still a huge influence in my life and post baseball career success. 

Do you keep up with the current baseball team at Linfield? 

Yes, I keep tabs on the baseball team each year. JT, Menold and I watch the team closely and text each other frequently throughout each season. We take a lot of pride in our offensive team stats from 1998 where we set some school records, including a team average of .369. We’ve had a couple teams give that mark a run over the years so look forward to watching Coach Spencer’s teams make another run at it. 

I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting Coach Spence and have had a few conversations with him over the phone and in person as well. I’m very impressed with Coach Spence and his vision for the program. He’s really made an effort to learn about Linfield’s traditions and history, but he’s also starting an exciting new chapter of his own there. He’s got a great staff and they have some great projects in mind to improve the facilities but sounds like they need a little help with the fundraising so I’m hoping we can rally the alumni to help make that happen. I’m excited about the future of the baseball program and look forward to seeing Coach Spence’s teams get back in the national title hunt!  

Have you attended any Linfield home games after you graduated? 

Yes, I attended most of the home games when I was still living in Salem and I still try to make at least one home series each year. I also try to make the series against Whitman in Walla Walla since it is close to home. 

The Linfield baseball program is near and dear to my heart so you can count on us to continue supporting the program and making trips to Mac for home games in the future! Best of luck to the 2021 team, I hope you can have a healthy, successful, and complete season. Go Cats!