As spring training gets underway, Baseball Canada alumni have either headed down to their respective teams’ training camps or are on their way soon. Recently, Baseball Canada.ca talked with 2001 national junior team member T.J. Burton to catch up on his life. To learn more about the right-handed pitcher, simply follow below.
BC: In your opinion, what makes baseball the best game in sports?
Burton: The big thing is baseball’s a game where there’s a different scenario every night that determines the winner and loser, and it carries a very competitive nature.
BC: If you could be a pro athlete in any sport besides baseball, what would it be and why?
Burton: Wow. Probably football. Being on a humongous stage in the U.S., I’d love being a wide receiver so I could do a touchdown dance in front of the crowd. It amazes me how they have 80,000 people in a stadium every Sunday and everyone is tuned into football.
BC: Who is one person, dead or alive, with whom you’d want to have lunch? Why?
Burton: My grandfather because I was young when he passed away. He was around a lot when I was young but he never really got to see me grow and play baseball. I would like to spend time with him today for him to see me and so we could catch up.
BC: Playing for a country’s national team in front of the world as an adult is a huge feeling. What is it like as a youth?
Burton: I thought it was a great experience. When we played in Joplin (Missouri) in front of a thousand people, that was my first experience. Just being 17 and playing for your country, it was a big deal. Then in the Dominican Republic, it’s such an experience. Knowing you’re a part of an elite group with the chance to play for your country, we were very lucky.
BC: What do you think of Jose Canseco’s steroids accusations?
Burton: I think he’s a man who knows he’s out of the spotlight and this is the way he feels he can get back in the spotlight. I think that his main focus is to make some money. He’s not helping his chances to get into the Hall of Fame by making these accusations and I can’t think of any reason why he’d do it other than for attention or money.
TJ Burton, 21, now works with kids aged 10-14, teaching and coaching baseball in the Ottawa area. A pitcher in the Cleveland Indians’ organization, he will begin spring training March 6 in Winter Haven, Fla., and envisions beginning the 2005 season with the Kinston Indians in the A-Carolina League.
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