Sean Burroughs — winner of the Little League World Series, a 2000 Olympic gold medalist and a first-round pick in the MLB draft — has died at age 43, USA Today reported.
Burroughs collapsed while coaching his son’s Little League team Thursday, per the report. No further details were immediately available.
Growing up in Long Beach, Calif., Burroughs won consecutive Little League World Series championships in 1992 and ’93, throwing back-to-back no-hitters. He then went on to star at Long Beach Wilson High.
The son of 1974 American League MVP Jeff Burroughs, the third baseman was selected with the No. 9 overall pick by the San Diego Padres in 1998. He made his major league debut in April 2002, recorded the first walk-off hit for the Padres in Petco Park history in 2004 and was out of baseball in 2007 before returning to play from 2011-12.
“I just didn’t have the drive or the passion,” Burroughs told ESPN in an interview in June 2011 of his decision to walk away from the game. “I was spent physically and spent mentally. It just wasn’t there. I was emotionally drained. I still loved the game and respected the game, but I didn’t have the drive to go to the park every day. I kind of lost the desire.”
In the interview, he said that in part of the span in which he was out of baseball, he was a substance abuser living in cheap motels in Las Vegas and eating out of trash cans. It lasted until he looked in the mirror, decided he didn’t recognize himself and vowed to turn things around.
He moved back into his childhood home, under the house rules, and worked himself back into baseball shape.
Burroughs played for the Padres from 2002-05 and was traded to Tampa Bay in late 2005. The Rays released him the following August. After a brief stint in the Seattle Mariners organization, he walked away.
He signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2011 and ended his MLB career in 2012 after 10 games with the Minnesota Twins.
He played 79 games with the independent Long Island Ducks (2015-16), winning the Atlantic League batting title in 2015.
In his major league career, Burroughs appeared in 528 games, batted .278, hit 12 home runs and drove in 143.
–Field Level Media
