Perspective: Finally making the big time

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Perspective: Finally making the big time
03/04/2009 10:00 AM ET
By Lisa Winston / MLB.com

Veteran Minor Leaguer and perennial fan favorite Gary Burnham had to travel halfway around the world to finally make it to the big leagues, but he's not complaining.
Sure, maybe it's not Major League Baseball, not yet, anyway. But for the 34-year-old first baseman/DH, who began his pro career back in 1997, his stint with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan's Pacific League, is the next best thing.
"I got to the point where I flat-out have to get the best contract I can, and the only place I could go at this time was Asia," said Burnham, who will be getting married next year and looks forward to starting a family. "I'd done the Triple-A thing for awhile and had put up solid numbers, but this is a great deal and exactly what we need."
He got his first nibble of that big league lifestyle at spring training on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa, where he arrived in January. Led by Marines manager Bobby Valentine, the club will be "scrimmaging" there leading up to Opening Day on April 3.
"The resort we stayed at was amazing, the food was out of this world and everything was first class," raved Burnham, whose previous Spring Training stints had found him all over Florida's Gulf Coast.
Over the course of his 12-year career, he also had a few stints in the independent Atlantic League and, most recently, Taiwan.
That latter outpost came in 2008, even though Burnham ranked among the top five players in several offensive categories in the Triple-A International League in '07.
He'd earned team MVP honors that summer for the Ottawa Lynx after hitting .292 with 12 homers, 84 RBIs (second in the league), 35 doubles and a .391 on-base percentage.
Those numbers were pretty much on par with what the former 22nd-round pick out of Clemson had posted over the course of his career.
Drafted by the Phillies, he spent the first five years of his career with that organization, including three summers (1999-2001) with Double-A Reading, where he combined for a .279 average and 40 homers.
Signed the following offseason as a free agent by Toronto, Burnham spent the next two seasons manning first base at Triple-A Syracuse, followed in 2004 by briefer stays at Louisville (Reds) and Memphis (Cardinals).
The 2005 campaign found him on baseball's version of artificial respiration with the Bridgeport Bluefish, but the good news for Burnham was that not only was it close to his Connecticut home, but his .320 average, 18 homers and 84 RBIs reminded people he was still around.
Though he returned to Bridgeport to open 2006, it wasn't long before his old team, the Phillies, came calling and brought him back to Reading for a fourth tour. There, he hit .341 and 16 homers in 80 games, making him the R-Phils' career home run leader.
After his '07 season in Ottawa, the Phillies wanted to bring Burnham back to their new Triple-A club at Lehigh Valley. With no guarantee of anything more than yet another season at that level, Burnham started thinking about whether it might be time to hang up the cleats and start putting into practice the degree in health science he'd received from Clemson.
"If I weren't playing baseball, I would try to get into the medical field as a salesman selling hips, knees, shoulders, the whole orthopedic avenue," he mused. "I've always enjoyed helping people."
But the truth was, it wasn't time yet. Burnham, known for his remarkable energy and verve, still felt he had a lot of baseball left in him. So he let his agent know that he was willing to look farther afield than these United States.
That resulted in a spot in Taiwan with the La New Bears, for whom he hit .323.
Being sort of a "renaissance man" -- among ballplayers anyway -- one who excels in art and revels in the opportunity to try something new, Burnham made the best of the situation.
"I got close to a guy who owned a green tea shop and another who was a professor who spoke fluent English and Chinese," he recalled. "I would wake up every day and run around the lake and there were monkeys everywhere."
While in Taiwan, Burnham had been corresponding via e-mail with Valentine, another Connecticut native, hoping the baseball icon would keep him in mind should a spot open in Japan.
At the end of his Taiwan season, Burnham flew to Tokyo for a tryout with Valentine's team and got the Christmas present of his life when the club called and offered him a contract.
As a thank you gift and token of his appreciation, Burnham immediately got to work on a portrait of Valentine, which he brought with him to Okinawa.
"Bobby absolutely loved the portrait," Burnham said, "and the media was all over it when I got off the airplane."
So Burnham settles in for what he hopes will be his lucky 13th professional season. If all goes well, he'll enjoy an amazing adventure and earn more money than he ever has in his pro career.
"It's funny because I would just tell myself every year to grind it out for one more season," he said. "Now I have a good contract in Japan and this is the Major League level for me."
And, perhaps, if Valentine comes back stateside for 2010, he might bring Burnham with him to finally make The Show over here.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.