Former Long Beach baseball star Sean Burroughs, seen with the Arizona Diamondbacks on July 19, 2011, in Phoenix, Arizona, died Thursday at the age of 43. Sean Burroughs, a celebrated baseball standout who led the Long Beach All-Stars to back-to-back Little League World Series titles and played seven seasons in the major leagues, died Thursday. He was 43 years old.
“It was very shocking,” Wittman said. “It’s a real sense of family at Long Beach Little League. So when we lose one of our own, it hurts.” Burroughs was an assistant coach for his son’s team. When he did not arrive in time for the start of the game, others became concerned and went searching for him, which is when he was found.
He continued to star at Long Beach Wilson High and was drafted ninth overall by the San Diego Padres in 1998. He won an Olympic gold medal as a member of the USA Baseball National Team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and made his major league debut with the Padres in 2002. “I was kind of like a garbage can,” he added. “Whatever I had or needed, I would find and take it. I wasn’t an out-of-town type of guy. Whatever I had or needed, I would find and take it. I would just try and fill myself with as much substances as I could, legally or illegally.”