Drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1997 Gary Burnham  spent 10 years playing for four major league organizations. He’s the all time HR leader of the Reading Phillies (AA) and was voted team MVP three times  (AAA - 02,07/Reading - 06). Prior to the 2008 season he  signed with the  La New Bears of the CPBL.    

EWC: So how’s your week been?

Gary: Well, for me its been life in the minors again. Its been 50% of the first half. This was something I didn’t expect. The team hired more foreigners than are allowed on the roster and are going with all pitching for now. Very frustrating for me considering I am trying to market myself to Korea and Japan.

On the field its been torrential down-pouring and batting practice in the cages I have had a lot of time to myself to think about my career, family, goals, and where this is all heading. Time in the minor leagues in a foreign country can play tricks in your mind and sometimes I feel as if the baseball gods are punishing me and testing my emotional fortitude in the minor leagues for something I did in the game. When you are in the minor leagues as long as I have been you always start to question the reasons and what it is you have to work on to finally get that secure feeling that you are in the majors to stay, you never get it.

Being in the minors here brings me back to my days in extended spring training with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2003 when I was rehabbing an injury. The players are very young and very inexperienced. As a guy who is 33, with over 4,000 minor league at bats playing with guys college age and no experience I try to find a purpose in helping myself and helping the younger players — to somehow, someway to leave a positive impression on the organization and feel good about going to work. The negativity creeps in several hundred times a day and I fight it all the time. Feeling sorry for yourself can get easy when no one can speak English, when you are 1000’s of miles from your family and you feel you are not being paid even close to what your value is never mind not even given the opportunity to increase your value from a marketing standpoint to other leagues.

So with that all being said I find myself getting closer to God and becoming more spiritual and leaving the ultimate destiny out of my hands. Running poles for a half hour late at night helps my mind deal with all of this. I try to remain positive. Something keeps me going and I am not sure what but it does. That faith, that someone sees my success and signs me to a bigger contract. Some team out here that needs my offense.

On another note, the guys on the minor league team are great. They have a lot of respect for me — I can tell by the way they talk to me and look at me. I give appreciation to that everyday. A funny story: I was trying to do soft toss for one of the players the other day and a younger player basically pushed me out of the way to take over. I took it personally and thought I wasn’t good enough for their liking, which is a feeling I get several times a day. The player kept saying, “Ni koh eye, wo sim pie.”

When I found out what he was saying he was referencing a Japanese term meaning since he is younger he is to do the work and since I am older he shows respect to me and I rest. I thought that was pretty cool. So now, I make jokes to the guys and make them get me water, laughing and saying “Ni Koh Eye.” They get a kick out of it.

EWC: What are the minors in Taiwan like?

Gary: Well, from what I’ve gathered so far its pretty much the same routine as the major league clubs. Stretching is the same exact routine, warm ups, and BP is the same. What’s odd to me is that after we warm up and stretch its basically on your own to warm up your arm and have a catch. In the US its a very formal thing, part of the routine of stretching then long tossing right after that with everyone in a single file line and your partner slowly backing up as you get your arm loose. Here in Taiwan I’ve found that for several days I haven’t even had a catch before I go and take BP. This is odd to me. I warm my arm up on my own by throwing in the balls from the outfield to the pick up bucket.

I guess there isn’t much difference in routine like I mentioned but its night and day when it comes to players ability. The major league teams are much more talented and older. The minor league guys are very young and inexperienced.

EWC: How do the callups work? How do they decide to leave you on the inactive roster?

Gary: Well, all the information we receive as players is told to us by the interpreter. We have no interaction with the manager. If you want to talk to him you have to go get the interpreter and go in his office. If you’re placed on the minor league roster its a minimum of 14 days. There are no postings on the walls in the locker room or anything like that. Very informal if you ask me.

In the US the coaches and staff fill out a report every single game. Here it seems very informal. I question whether players have a legitimate chance to actually be called up or not. From what the other players tell me — and this is just them speaking to me friend to friend — if the manager doesn’t think much of you, you can forget about ever getting a chance again.

EWC: Who was your idol growing up? Do you still idolize players or does it become more of a respect thing once you’ve played professional baseball yourself?

Gary: Don Mattingly and Bo Jackson. Both of those guys could do no wrong in my mind. I loved Mattingly’s hitting style and his defense and imagined myself as him when I was a kid. Bo Jackson had the explosiveness and excitement that attracted me.

As for now you are right about idolizing other players. I don’t see them the same as I have grown up but have a totally different respect for certain major league players. I’ve realized over the years that some players are just flat out genetically superior than others (like myself) in certain areas of the game. There is nothing to be said about technique, focus or anything with some of these guys — they’re just gifted.

I always have had an extreme respect for guys with a lot of explosive running speed because this is one area that I was genetically not gifted in. I am fascinated by guys with a lot of speed. I’ve been blessed with hand eye coordination which enables me to barrel the ball most of the time. This is my only asset. So athletically, I have a respect for guys rather than idolizing them.