Wings' Burroughs Comes Back From "Death"
By: Thad Brown
Updated: June 27, 2012
Sean Burroughs has been many things on the baseball field.
He was the hero of the 1993 Little League World Series. He was a can't miss prospect and then a solid, if unspectacular major leaguer.
Off the field, he was a disaster.
Burroughs left the game in 2007 for three seasons. "I was tired of it," he said.
He lived in Las Vegas "like a 21 year old." He abused any substance he could ingest. He ate cheeseburgers from garbage cans. He slept in ratty motels--when he did have a roof over his head. It's a period of his life Burroughs sometimes refers to as death.
"The things I did then were pretty miserable," Burroughs said. "I got sick and tired of living that way. (But) I needed some friends to help me. I couldn't do it (change his lifestyle) myself."
Burroughs moved back in with his parents, despite being financially secure. "I needed monitoring," he said. "I needed someone to be responsible to, someone to check in with."
Eventually, Burroughs felt ready to give baseball another try. He signed with the Diamondbacks in 2011, starting in double-A. Quickly, he rose to triple-A and then got another call-up to the majors. "It was a dream come true," he said.
Burroughs now thinks he tried to grow up too fast. He's matured now and happy to be just another guy battling in Triple-A. "This is fun," he said. "Where I was, that wasn't fun. This is fun."
He was the hero of the 1993 Little League World Series. He was a can't miss prospect and then a solid, if unspectacular major leaguer.
Off the field, he was a disaster.
Burroughs left the game in 2007 for three seasons. "I was tired of it," he said.
He lived in Las Vegas "like a 21 year old." He abused any substance he could ingest. He ate cheeseburgers from garbage cans. He slept in ratty motels--when he did have a roof over his head. It's a period of his life Burroughs sometimes refers to as death.
"The things I did then were pretty miserable," Burroughs said. "I got sick and tired of living that way. (But) I needed some friends to help me. I couldn't do it (change his lifestyle) myself."
Burroughs moved back in with his parents, despite being financially secure. "I needed monitoring," he said. "I needed someone to be responsible to, someone to check in with."
Eventually, Burroughs felt ready to give baseball another try. He signed with the Diamondbacks in 2011, starting in double-A. Quickly, he rose to triple-A and then got another call-up to the majors. "It was a dream come true," he said.
Burroughs now thinks he tried to grow up too fast. He's matured now and happy to be just another guy battling in Triple-A. "This is fun," he said. "Where I was, that wasn't fun. This is fun."
