LOS ANGELES — Sean Burroughs, a two-time Little League World Series champion and first-round Padres draft pick who went on to a major league career interrupted by substance abuse, died of fentanyl intoxication, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office.
His death on May 9 near his car at Stearns Champions Park in Long Beach, was accidental, according to online records released this week. Burroughs was 43.
The Long Beach Fire Department responded to the park on a report of a person in full cardiac arrest in the parking lot. “We did all of our lifesaving measures, but we weren’t successful,” public information officer Brian Fisk said at the time, adding that the person was pronounced dead at the scene.
Burroughs delivered a walk-off hit with two outs in the 10th inning as the Padres won their first-ever regular-season game at Petco Park on April 8, 2004.
Burroughs played parts of four seasons with the club, posting career-highs of seven home runs and 58 RBIs in 2003. Burroughs was addicted to drugs and out of baseball by 2008. He told the Union-Tribune in 2011 that he may have died if not for family and substance-abuse counselors.
“I was living hotel to hotel, running from people that weren’t real, talking to light poles, sitting in bathrooms for six to eight hours because I was scared to get out,” he said.
An old Padres connection brought Burroughs back to baseball after he completed treatment.
Kevin Towers, who drafted Burroughs ninth overall in 1998, gave Burroughs a minor-league deal to the Diamondbacks. Months later, he was back in the big leagues. He spent part of the 2011 season with Arizona, played 10 games for Minnesota in 2012, and then retired.
Burroughs grew up in Long Beach and coached in the city’s Little League program.
He was a standout as a pitcher in the Little League World Series for the Long Beach team, which became the first U.S. squad to win consecutive titles. They won the 1992 championship after the Philippines, their opponent in the title round, had to forfeit for using overaged players.
Burroughs pitched consecutive no-hitters in the 1993 LLWS — with a then-record 16 strikeouts — and his team won the title over Panama, 3-2.
He won a gold medal with the U.S. baseball team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Burroughs was a career .278 hitter, with 12 home runs and 143 RBIs with the San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay, Arizona and Minnesota.
Includes information from The Associated Press.
