Page 115 - 1975 BoSox

108 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
e next season, after pitching for Bayamon in Puerto Rico over the winter, Burton bounced back after being brie y sent to the Pawtucket bullpen because of wild- ness. He led the Pawtucket sta in innings, strikeouts, and fewest hits allowed per nine innings. Down the stretch, he went 4-1 with a 1.54 ERA as Pawtucket raced to the International League title. e Red Sox rewarded Burton with a call-up in September. Nearly two years after his career-altering pitch to Joe Morgan, Burton threw 22⁄3 scoreless innings of relief against the Orioles in Baltimore on September 17, 1977.
Burton had clawed his way back to the majors, but his descent would not take nearly as long. He couldn’t know that the brief stint against the Orioles was his nal appearance in the major leagues. e Red Sox traded Burton to the New York Mets for in elder Leo Foster during spring training in 1978. Burton was going from a team with talent to one that oundered in the aftermath of the blockbuster trade that sent the franchise’s best player, Tom Seaver, to the Reds.
e Mets transferred Burton to Tidewater where he struggled with his control. He was sent further down the ladder to Lynchburg in the Class A Carolina League. For Burton, this was a new experience. As a highly touted prospect seven years earlier, he had bypassed Class A and started in Pawtucket fresh out of college.
Speaking to the Washington Post in 1978, Burton ac- knowledged that he was concerned about heading to Class A because he had heard horror stories about players getting “buried down here.” “It was hard to come here, but not as hard as people might think,” he said. “It doesn’t matter that it’s A ball. What matters to me is how I’m throwing. I know what I have to do to pitch in the major leagues. I do feel I’m coming back. My con dence has been battered around a lot, and a lot of it is mental. It’s something that I can regain. I don’t think I’m that far from it.”17
Pitching in the low minors with guys who would never even have a sni of the majors, Burton stood out — he was the guy who gave up the World Series-winning hit to Joe Morgan. Burton recalled warming up on
the mound in Salem, Virginia, while the public-address announcer gave the crowd that day’s trivia question, “What pitcher in uniform tonight lost the seventh game of the 1975 World Series?”
“You hope that people will have a little sensitivity. But you can’t expect that. You can’t crusade for that because nobody wants to listen. at’s what being a professional is all about. You have to take the comments and the criticisms,” Burton told the Washington Post.18
Burton did get to pitch for a major-league team again, but it was for the Mets in an exhibition game against the Norfolk Tides of the International League. He went ve innings and surrendered eight hits and four earned runs. Tired of ongoing physical di culties, including an elbow problem, Burton hung up his spikes and returned to Michigan, retiring from base- ball in 1978.
e transition from ballplayer to regular citizen was di cult for Burton, who spent four years trying to ndhisway.“Alotofathletesstrugglewithre-assim- ilating. And I did, too, in that my sense of identity and self-worth were tied up with athletic success,” he told Hornig.19 A friend told him about the possibility of opening a commercial printing business in Charlotte, North Carolina. Intrigued by the idea of running his own business, as his father had done, Burton moved south and found his place. “It wasn’t until I began running my own business that the separation became permanent. It’s so time-consuming that it nally forced the transition,” he said.20 He ran the business for more than 30 years.
In addition to spending time with his family, which included three daughters, and running his business, Burton spent time traveling to Haiti for missionary work. He helped open a print shop for locals and printed educational materials for the schools.
His time in Haiti also provided him with a di erent perspective. Giving up a game-winning hit in the World Series isn’t quite as important after one sees life in the ird World. “You look back and you realize that baseball is such a small part of your life, when