Sean Burroughs

20+ years ago at the Little League Championships in Williamsport, Pa. the winning team was from Long Beach, CA. In those days ABC televised all games involving American teams and much of the nation saw Long Beach's winning effort. There is a famous photo of the team congratulating the winning pitcher, a big (for his age) blond kid named Sean Burroughs. Sean was the son of former major league all star slugger Jeff Burroughs. Sean was about 12 years old then. Years later he was selected in the amateur draft by the San Diego Padres and after a brief time in the minor leagues the team called him up to play third base.

At the time of his call up some San Diego sportswriters questioned the wisdom of bringing someone up that young and anointing him the team's savior. The Padres, however, said he was ready and at first it seemed so. He got off to a pretty good start his first year. The Padres always envisioned him a slugger but his home run results, initially, were marginal. Nevertheless, he contributed to the team and he was a good defensive third baseman.

The second year things began to go south. Pitchers figured out his batting weaknesses and began to get him out more easily. His fielding also took a downturn, and despite his young age 24, whispers went around that he was a bust, that he would never be a big time player. After struggling more and more and with his frustration level at an all time high, the Padres released him. Next he wound up playing for the really struggling team the Tampa Bay Rays. His problems continued there and it wasn't long before he was back in the minors and then released altogether. His last year of playing professional baseball was 2006.

Kevin Towers, the Padres former General Manager began the 2011 baseball season as the new General Manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He did something unheard of for the most part in professional sports; he contacted Sean and asked him if he thought he could still play baseball after 4 years. You must understand 4 years away from professional sports is considered an eternity. Sean said he would like to give it a try and so the Diamondbacks signed him to a minor league contract.

Last week,The Arizona Diamondbacks called Sean Burroughs up to their major league club. This is a story that is nothing short of miraculous. I always thought the Padres had ruined him by putting too much pressure on him at such a young age. I also believe it was partially because of that photo of Sean almost single handedly winning the Little League championship game. After all, he not only was the winning pitcher but he hit a homerun in that game and then agin his dad was a feared batter and respected player. The Padres must have thought he couldn't miss. They did him no favors! When Sean's baseball game started to unravel, years ago, he also began drinking more and more. By his own admission, the drinking contributed to his rapid descent out of baseball. Here he was at age 27: a washout, a bust with a drinking problem and possibly a future tragedy in the works. Or so everyone thought.

Sean is now alcohol free, playing once again in the majors, a resurrected man. Whether or not this unusual (for professional sports) retry works out, Sean Burroughs is living proof we can all resurrect ourselves. Life will give us a second chance if we first give ourselves a fighting chance.


I never liked Kevin Towers as the General Manager of the Padres, and he was the General Manager that brought him up. Whether or not Kevin feels he owed Sean a second chance I don't know, BUT I have gained a lot more respect for Kevin Towers. a I will root for Sean. Rocky Balboa kept getting up after being knocked down (the theme of the movie Rocky) and now in real life so has Sean Burroughs. This pumps me up and I hope you too.