Burke Is No Longer Vigilant About His Baseball Career

As the Vigilantes’ bus inches toward its next destination, a first baseman with Popeye forearms slouches in his seat and imitates a teammate to break the silence.

“I haven’t perfected my [Manager] Buck Rodgers imitation yet, but I do a great Ceterko [Steve, a pitcher on the team],” Alan Burke said.

Burke, who has decided to retire at the end of this season, has a relaxed attitude about baseball. He simply sees the game as an escape from the real world pressures of a job, car payments and rent.

“I have gotten to a point where baseball is just fun for me now and I don’t feel as much pressure to perform,” Burke said. “I don’t worry about scouts watching. My mom and my sister come out to watch me play now.”

His new outlook must be working. At the start of the week, he led the Western Baseball League in home runs with seven and runs batted in with 27.

“He’s our cleanup hitter, our best RBI guy, our best hitter and a large part of our lineup,” Rodgers said. “He will be very difficult to replace.”

Baseball was not always like this for Burke, a 27-year-old who played at Chino High. There was a time when his greatest joys and his deepest lows came from the game.

As a senior at Long Beach State in 1992, Burke hit .335 as the 49ers reached the College World Series. He was drafted by the Phillies in the 13th round, early on the second day of the ’92 draft.

“I remember walking into my coach’s office and he told me,” Burke said. “I was so pumped. I called my mom and dad, my cousin. I wanted to tell everybody, I was so excited.”

Burke rode that high to Batavia, N.Y., for the rookie league short season. Then it was on to the Phillies’ Class A team in Spartanburg, S.C., where he hit 20 home runs and had 100 RBIs in 1993.

“That was one of my greatest experiences in baseball,” Burke said. “I honestly thought I had a legitimate shot at making it to the majors.”

In 1994, Burke was promoted to double-A Reading, Pa., where things began to turn sour. He was asked to play the outfield and third base instead of first base. He also could not adjust quickly to the steady stream of curve balls. His production plummeted to seven home runs and 50 RBIs.

A demotion the next season, to Class A Clearwater, Fla., marked his last stop with the Phillies.

“I went one for four my first day, then sat for three [days],” Burke said. “Then I went one for three and sat two more days. They sent me a clear message that they had younger guys they wanted to look at.”

Frustrated after a couple weeks, Burke asked for and got his unconditional release.

Burke spent the rest of the 1995 season with the Long Beach Riptide. The franchise moved to Mission Viejo in 1997.

“That first month on the team was the hardest time I ever had in baseball,” Burke said. “I thought my career was over and I just had negative thoughts.”

Quickly, things began to change for Burke. He got a job as a sales representative for an after-market car products company in Lake Forest and he met his girlfriend, Michele D’Amato.

“When I came home [from Clearwater] I just realized there is more to life than baseball,” Burke said. “I’m glad I played, but I think it’s time for me to move on and concentrate on my job.”

Burke said he wishes he had the 35 pounds of muscle he has since added and his current level of maturity when he was playing in the minors, but he doesn’t brood over those things.

“I still fantasize that a major league team will call to send me to their minor league team,” Burke said. “But that fire has subsided. I’m not dwelling on the past. I’m just having a good time now and appreciate the career I’ve had.”