By Lucas O'Neill, Special to SI.com, RISE
All he did was play his best. And yet, Hillsborough (Tampa, Fla.)senior center fielder Michael Burgess is now, in the words of his coach, a "marked man."
Burgess, rated the nation's No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2007 by RISE, is an Aflac All-American who was the recipient of the 2006 Jackie Robinson Award as the country's best high school baseball player. He helped lead Hillsborough to the Class 5A state championship game last season by hitting .511 with 12 homers, 48 RBIs and 24 stolen bases.
His reward for all those accomplishments? Baseball's version of the silent treatment. Few pitchers have dared to give Burgess anything to hit this spring, pitching around him whenever possible. In his first three games of the 2007 season, Burgess was walked eight times. And through the team's seventh game, he had 17 free passes -- as many as all of last season. "Yeah, it's been pretty hard, but anything that's around the plate or real close I'm hacking," says Burgess, a 6-foot, 210-pounder who also pitches for Hillsborough but whose future is as an outfielder.
It's reached the point where scouts arrive early to catch Hillsborough's batting practice since that's often the only time they're able to see Burgess do what he does best.
A lesser player would get frustrated and start swinging at bad pitches. Burgess has opened up his strike zone a bit this spring, certainly, but he's still not swinging at garbage. Instead, he's focusing on excelling at aspects of the game that are within his control.
"He doesn't get many pitches to see, but I see him doing so many of the little things right," says first-year Hillsborough skipper Kenny White. "Even if he hits a weak fly ball or a weak ground ball, he's 100 percent to first base. He just never puts his head down."
And why should he? Burgess is projected as a first-round pick in next week's MLB Draft and has signed with Arizona State in case he decides not to go pro straight out of high school. A five-tool player, Burgess sees himself making his mark at the professional level. "I look forward to winning a World Series with the team that drafts me and being the first player to bat over .500," he says.
As lofty as those goals are, Burgess can also be realistic. He knows he has strengths -- power to all fields, speed on the basepaths, canon for an arm, tremendous glove -- as well as weaknesses.
"My strength is really that I can hit the ball out of the park at any given time, anywhere on the field," he says. "The thing is doing it on a consistent basis."
No easy task when you see only a couple hittable pitches per game. The Legend of Michael Burgess began with his very first tee ball game, when the already-smooth lefty hit one out of the park. Who hits a home run in tee ball?
Since then, the legend has only grown.
There was the district playoff game against Middleton his freshman season when he went 2-for-3 with a pair of opposite-field doubles that smacked up against the left-field wall -- his breakout high school game. Then there was last year's state championship, an 11-7 loss to Pace, when Burgess lifted a ball over the 60-foot wall in center field at Sarasota's Ed Smith Stadium, becoming one of just a handful of players to accomplish the feat. The others include Bo Jackson and Frank Thomas.
These triumphs go a long way toward explaining the treatment Burgess has received from opposing pitchers this season. They also reveal why expectations are unfairly high for the 18-year-old slugger. Yet, by all accounts, Burgess has kept his composure despite the hype that surrounds him.
"It's a lot of pressure, but he comes to the field every day with a smile on his face just ready to play baseball," says White. "He has handled everything better than I expected.
It helps that Burgess comes from an area -- and a high school -- with a rich baseball tradition. Hillsborough counts major leaguers Dwight Gooden, Gary Sheffield, Carl Everett, Elijah Dukes and Jason Romano among its graduates.
"Plenty of players come out of the area, but how many are going to make it that's the question," says Burgess. "I think about it before I get on the field, and I try to play my heart out to be the next player out of Tampa, Florida to make it to the major league.
"I've talked to Gary, talked to Dwight, Carl, Jason Romano. I talked to all four of them, and they gave me real good advice on what it takes and how hard you have to work," Burgess adds. "Jason told me that no matter what happens, even if you don't make it to states, just always play with your head up."
Burgess will do that even if he doesn't see another good pitch to hit anytime soon. As far as he sees it, his legend is just beginning.
