Baseball coach played for Angels
Tom Burgess, 81, a first baseman and outfielder who played for the Los Angeles Angels in the early 1960s and later coached in baseball’s minor and major leagues, died Monday at his home in London, Canada, after a lengthy battle with cancer.
He played mainly in the minor leagues from 1946 to 1962. In 1954, he joined the St. Louis Cardinals for a season and spent a season with the Angels in 1962.
While he was with the Cardinals, he played sporadically behind baseball great Stan Musial, who later gave him a note that said: “Tommy Burgess. A real fine hitter. Never got the opportunity,” Burgess said in 2000 in the Edmonton Journal. “That was the greatest compliment.”
Born in 1927 in London, Canada, Burgess entered the Cardinals’ farm system as a teenager.
He retired as a player in 1962 and served as a hitting instructor or manager for several minor league organization from 1968 to 1995.
In 1977 and 1978, he was a third-base coach for the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves.
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