By Dick Dornan
MyBurbank Sports Editor
With the baseball season now underway and the excitement beginning to arise as opening day approaches on March 1, the Burroughs High baseball team received an unexpected surprise two weeks ago.
Jeff Suppan, a veteran of major league baseball for 17 years who recently retired, came to practice one evening to share his thoughts, wisdom and valuable insight into America’s past time.
Suppan had a distinguished MLB career spanning from 1995 – 2012. He played for Boston, Arizona, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Milwaukee and San Diego. “Soup” compiled 140 victories while striking out 1,390 batters over the course of 2,542 innings.
That’s one more victory, one more strikeout and one more pitch than any of us could ever imagine…..in the big leagues.
As a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, he was named the National League Championship Series MVP in 2006 after posting a 0.60 ERA in 15 innings of work against the New York Mets. This included a stellar performance in Game 7 in New York.
A couple weeks later, Suppan reached the pinnacle in his profession when he won a World Series ring as the Cardinals beat the Detroit Tigers. A World Series champion forever he became!
Suppan came by Burroughs as a courtesy to Coach Craig Sherwood who coached “Soup” at Crespi High School. Sherwood, in his first season as head coach at his alma mater, introduced Suppan to a group of aspiring young players with the same hopes and dreams Suppan had back in the early 1990’s.
Always the gentlemen, Suppan spent most of the practice talking to the team as a whole about mental and physical preparation and respecting the game, then turning his focus to working with the pitchers in the bullpen on technique and mental approach.
It was a valuable experience for the Burroughs players and coaches who soaked in the knowledge and acumen that Suppan provided them. As a sportswriter who loves the game of baseball, I learned more about pitching in 30 minutes with Suppan than I have my entire life. Egg-egg!
Suppan, who owns “Soup’s Grill” in Woodland Hills and welcomes everyone from the city of Burbank to his restaurant with open arms, was recently hired to be the freshman coach at Crespi.
It was nice to see Suppan take time out of his day and drive to JBHS to visit with the Indians. Only time will tell if the young men at Burroughs apply “BGOTY” to their daily regimen.
Here is a well-written piece on Suppan shortly after he retired last month:
