‘Gas’ Burton is Burning Up the Basepaths in the Minor Leagues

Teammates call him Gas and its seems fitting to say that Essex Burton can motor.

Named after a San Diego street, Burton has more stolen bases (54) than all but one minor-league player and as many as the major-league leader, Marquis Grissom of the Montreal Expos.

In addition, Burton is only one swipe from tying the South Bend (Ind.) White Sox’s stolen base record, set by Rodney McCray in 1988.

“I’ve got a goal of 70,” said Burton, a 1987 graduate of Mira Mesa High now playing second base for South Bend, a Class-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. “I came into this season wanting to get 100 in 140 games, but I set a minimum of 70. You have to get on base an awful lot to steal 100.”

Getting on base was not much of a concern for Burton during his senior year at Mira Mesa. He was more interested in scoring touchdowns and winning races, both of which he did frequently.

In football, Burton finished fifth in the county in rushing, averaging 135.3 yards per game, and eighth in touchdowns with 13.

In track, he set school records at 100, 200 and 400 meters and finished sixth in the state meet in the 200.

Though he played baseball during his junior year, he opted not to his senior year.

“I liked football much better then,” Burton said. “Baseball was just something to keep me going during the off-season. I thought football was the sport I would play in college.”

He was half-right. He wound up playing and excelling at both football and baseball at Mesa College and San Francisco State, earning all-conference honors three times in both sports.

The problem with baseball, Burton said, was that everyone always wanted him to play outfield.

“I got bored in the outfield,” he said. “In the infield, there’s always action. There’s always something going on. I’m an active person. I like to be where the action is.”

Though he begrudgingly played outfield his first three years in college, he demanded a switch prior to his senior year at San Francisco State.

“I thought I was going to be drafted (after) my junior year,” Burton said. “But nobody came and got me so I knew I had to get back in the infield. I didn’t have the arm for the outfield.”

Burton always had the legs and was drafted by the White Sox in the 26th round in 1991.

In addition to this summer, he has 91 stolen bases in his first 160 professional games. In all of baseball, only Quilvio Veras, a Class-A infielder in the New York Mets’ organization, has more stolen bases (61) this year.

Burton might have had more, but he’s switch hitting this season for the first time.

“Right now, I’m just starting to feel good about switch-hitting,” said Burton, who’s batting .254, 24 points lower than he hit last year as a right-handed batter. “There were times I wanted to chuck it. There were times I was really struggling. I credit my coaches and manager (Terry Francona) for encouraging me to stick with it. This will pay off down the road.”

Said Francona: “It’s not easy doing what he’s trying to do in the Midwest League. This is not the ideal place to start being a switch hitter, but he’s handled it well. He’s getting better every day and he’s worked really hard to get better. He deserves all the credit in the world.”

A step up: Brent Hansen is finding professional hitters a little tougher to deal with than the ones he faced this spring pitching for NCAA Division III UC San Diego.

At UCSD, Hansen was 10-0 with a 1.98 earned run average (19 earned runs in 86 1/3 innings).

This summer for the Boston Red Sox’s Class-A team at Elmira, N.Y., he has allowed 22 earned runs in 21 1/3 innings (9.28 ERA) and is 0-3 after five starts.

Decision maker: Former Mission Bay High pitcher Sean Rees has recorded 19 decisions in 22 starts this year and 24 in 30 starts since joining the Seattle Mariners’ organization out of Arizona State where he was a first team All-American in 1990.

Rees, the 1988 San Diego Section player of the year, is 9-10 with a 3.45 ERA this year for the Peninsula Pilots at Hampton, Va., in the Class-A Carolina League. He also has 104 strikeouts in 128 innings.

Decision made: John Lynch, a former Torrey Pines’ two-sport star and the Florida Marlins’ second draft pick, has returned for his senior season of football at Stanford University where he plays free safety.

Lynch was 0-3 but had a 2.15 ERA in seven starts and 29 1/3 innings for the Marlins’ Class-A team at Erie, N.Y.