Joseph Burke (minors04)

Joseph Hubert Burke

• Bats Right, Throws Left
• Height 6' 3", Weight 195-210 lb.

• Born ~1933

BR minors page

Biographical Information

Joe Burke was a pitcher for three years in the minor leagues. He began his career with the 1952 Oshkosh Giants and went 5-6 with a 5.63 ERA. He struck out an impressive 109 batters in 80 innings, but walked 106 and threw 12 wild pitches. He fielded only .765 and was 1 for 29 at the plate. He made three stops in the New York Giants chain the next year, going 4-5, 3.46 for Oshkosh (74 BB, 77 K in 78 IP), 0-1 for the Danville Leafs and 0-4 for the Muskogee Giants. He finished his career with the 1954 Olean Giants, losing his lone decision and winding up with a career mark of 9-17.

Personal Recollection

I played baseball on the Oshkosh Giants (1953) with pitcher Joe Burke. Joe was a big left-handed pitcher from New Jersey. He was signed to a contract by the New York Giants right out of high school. At that time, his $35,000 signing bonus was considered quite large. When I played with Joe, He was considered the fastest pitcher in the entire Giants organization, including the big league club. Joe also had a live arm and great movement on his fastball. Catchers even had a difficult time catching him when warming him up in the bullpen due to the speed and movement on his ball, and his wildness. Amazingly, Joe also was a one-eyed pitcher, having a glass eye. Due to this physical difficulty, he sometimes had trouble fielding bunts and holding runners on base. To my knowledge, Joe never did make the major league level. Joe stood 6'4" and weighed 210 pounds.

Often the bare statistics in baseball record books do not reveal the humanity behind every name. All those names of minor-league players over the years. Thousands of them. And every one has a story. Joe Burke. A tall wild left-hander from New Jersey, with an unbelievable fastball. Even with only one eye, he was given a hefty bonus to sign with the New York Giants, right out of high school. Joe was a tall, dark, and handsome pitcher ala the Bo Belinsky type, who came later and pitched in California, while dating Hollywood starlets. Joe had a better arm, but was too wild to make it higher than the lower minor-league classifications. Joe was a cool guy when I knew him in Oshkosh. He wore dashing sunglasses most of the time, and my earliest memory of him is sitting in the locker-room, feet up, wearing his pitching undershirt, and reading the Wall Street Journal. Joe had invested his bonus money. He drove a new Pontiac, while the rest of us, most of us, were without wheels. Joe had a dry sense of humor about himself, but also a certain swagger. He knew he had a great arm, and he already got the money (bonus), so his lack of progression up the baseball ranks didn't seem to bother him. I remember he dated a tall blonde girl in Oshkosh that summer, she being one of the more "upper crust" gals in that provincial Wisconsin city. She already had an Oshkosh sweetheart, a local boy, also a baseball player, who was far from home out in Utah playing minor-league ball. Summertime, and absence makes the heart grow fonder -- for somebody else. Decades later, I met a man by chance, who happened to have been Joe's best friend in high school, many years before, in New Jersey. He looked sad when he told me Joe had died a few years before of liver failure. He had died in a New York City hospital. His alcoholism had led to his death. The man told me he felt guilty because he had not gone to visit Joe when he was dying in the hospital. He said Joe had wasted away so much he couldn't bear to see him. He went on to say Joe had married a wealthy widow from Oklahoma, whose deceased husband had become rich via oil wells, and that Joe had become a "jet-setter" with her, traveling all over the world.

So --- this is a little history behind the statistics in the record book. Just a anecdotal story behind the numbers. There are thousands of other stories in that book.

Submitted by Bill O'Donnell