PEORIA, Ariz. – Jamie Burke has been fooled before.
He’s sat in a major league clubhouse in the final days of spring training, added up the catchers who remained and counted himself on the opening-day roster. Then at the last minute, he’s the one who was subtracted.
It happened three years ago when the White Sox told Burke he’d made the team as the third catcher, then changed their minds when they needed an extra pitcher.
So, when the Mariners optioned Rene Rivera to the minor leagues on Wednesday, leaving just two catchers in camp, Burke sealed his joy beneath the face of 14 years of experience in this game.
He’s a 35-year-old career minor leaguer with just 73 games of major league experience, most of them as a midseason callup.
“I think I’m old enough to realize what’s going on,” said Burke, who was born in Roseburg, Ore., and still lives there in the offseason. “It’s pretty exciting, especially being from the Northwest. You always dream about being around home on the big-league squad. Dreams come true.”
Nobody is saying what the roster will look like when the Mariners open the 2007 season Monday, or if Burke will even be on it. Mariners scouts have been looking for backup catching all month, and the next few days could reveal some possibilities as other teams make cuts.
“We’ll carry two catchers, but we just don’t know who the two are yet,” manager Mike Hargrove said.
It wasn’t a grand endorsement of Burke as the probable backup catcher on opening day, but he’s clinging to that dream nonetheless.
It’s been that way since 1993, when he was drafted in the ninth round by the Angels and began spending his summers in minor league outposts such as Boise, Cedar Park, Lake Elsinore, Midland, Vancouver, Edmonton, Salt Lake, Charlotte and Oklahoma City.
Burke has had his major league moments. The Angels called him up for nine games in 2001 and, after the White Sox obtained him, he got six games with them in 2003. After having the opening-day thrill pulled from him in 2004, Burke came up that year and played 57 games for the White Sox. He has played one big-league game since, two years ago with the White Sox, who brought him up for a day and then sent him back to Class AAA Charlotte.
He signed with the Rangers last year and played the entire season at Triple-A Oklahoma, became a minor league free agent again and signed with the Mariners last November.
Burke has been through major league camps and gotten the call into the manager’s office, just as Rivera did Wednesday. His locker has been next to Rivera’s throughout spring training and they’ve gotten to know each other, Burke the journeyman and Rivera the 23-year-old backup from last year.
Burke could see that Rivera was shaken when he returned from Hargrove’s office, and he sat down and talked with him.
“I’ve been in that situation a few times,” Burke said. “But the kid was upset and I just tried to tell him to keep his head up and go down there and work. He’s the type catcher who will come back up here and catch every day.”
If nothing else, Burke is a major league veteran in his patience. He said he has never considered doing anything else, despite spending 14 years trying to become a major league regular.
“It’s like a doctor going to school for eight or nine years. That’s how I look at it,” he said. “There’s nothing else I’ve ever thought about doing because this is something I want to do for the rest of my life. There are times when you get tired of situations, but I’ve gone through those and they’ve made me a stronger person.
“I’m going to make somebody rip the uniform off me.”
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