Burns was actually discovered by Chicago Tribune book critic Bob Cromie. While in Birmingham in 1978, he read about a local whiz kid who had fanned 18 batters in one game. Cromie sent the clipping to his friend Bill Veeck, the White Sox owner. Later that season Burns made his Chicago debut at age 19. In 1980 the 6′ 5″ Burns was named TSN Rookie Pitcher of the Year on the strength of a 15-13 (2.84 ERA) season. He pitched 30 consecutive scoreless innings in 1981, a year marred by his father’s death two months after being hit by a car. Over the next three seasons, injuries set in, and Burns’s ERA ballooned. But he pitched his heart out in the last game of the 1983 LCS, holding the powerful Orioles in check for nine innings. The White Sox could not score either, and Tito Landrum‘s tenth-inning home run beat Burns. After rebounding in 1985 to go 18-11, he was traded to the Yankees, for whom he never pitched: A chronic, degenerative hip condition ended his career.
