Australian baseball great Adam ‘Hollywood’ Burton has died, aged 53.
Burton, who died on Monday, began his baseball career with Waverley, in Victoria, rising through the junior ranks to earn a spot on the club’s first Australian Baseball League (ABL) roster in 1990 at just 17 years of age.
After playing professionally in the United States with the Baltimore Orioles and Atlanta Braves, Burton returned to Australia and led Waverly to the 1995 national title.
Though injury struck at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, he continued to represent Australia at the Baseball World Cup.
‘He was brash, cocky, entertaining with a ‘can’t take your eyes off him’ talent. He was dynamic, explosive and had an intrinsic love of the spotlight,’ Waverley wrote in a moving tribute.
‘He had style. He had charisma. He would light up a room, hold court with a catalogue of stories, some with a liberal dollop of mayonnaise, but that is how he rolled.
‘Hollywood carried an impish glint in his eye, there was a hint of mischief always lurking. He was someone whose company was compelling.
‘Hollywood had the three Ps – pazazz, personality and performance. Many could talk the talk, but “Hollywood” walked the walk.
‘He was destined for baseball’s biggest stage from the time he called Napier Park and Waverley Baseball Club home as a junior in the mid 1980s.’
Australian baseball great Adam ‘Hollywood’ Burton has died
Blackburn, another of Burton’s clubs, said he was a ‘baseball genius and gifted teacher of the game’.
‘His demeanour in the dugout and around the club was stuff of legend, frequently borrowing a cap, belt or socks off a seconds player before nonchalantly taking the field,’ the club wrote.
Scott Kerr wrote on the Waverley Baseball Club Facebook page: ‘I’m sorry to hear the news. He always had time to stop and have a catch up when I would see him. Many fond memories from our junior days at Waverley Baseball Club. Condolences to the his many mates and the Burton Family.’
