Former third baseman Sean Burroughs, star of little league, college and Major League Baseball, died this week:

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

To correct the tweet, Burroughs would be 44 in September. Yardbarker has more:

He was out of baseball entirely for several years after that and had since candidly spoken about a subsequent spiral of drug addiction and alcoholism. In a heart-wrenching interview with ESPN’s Jim Caple in 2011, Burroughs described the harrowing experience of spending years living in cheap Las Vegas motels, eating out of trash cans and abusing virtually any substance he could find. “I would just try to fill myself with as much substances as I could, legally or illegally,” he acknowledged.

Despite that low point – which Burroughs likened to the Nicolas Cage film “Leaving Las Vegas” – Burroughs’ baseball career had a second act. 

YardBarker.com

Burroughs never hit for much power, but early in his career did an excellent job of getting on base. His best season came in 2004 at age 23 when he slashed .298/.348/.365. He was two years away from his peak at that point, so without the substance abuse he might have turned into an outstanding player.

His father, MLB star Jeff Burroughs, is still with us and faces the heartbreaking task of burying a child.