SPORTS UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, November 8,1994
3B
GLENN BURKE: A BALLPLAYER'S STORY
Scared of death but resigned to it
Baseball player says he knew he would get AIDS
Editor's note: This is the last part of a three-part story about Glenn Burke, a former major league baseball player dying from complications of AIDS. In part two, Burke talked about his life after a cocaine addiction ended his baseball career.
By Steve Wilstein The Associated Press
His dependency on cocaine intensified after the accident, going beyond snorting to smoking the more potent crack cocaine from time to time. He never used heroin, he said, never injected drugs with needles, but still he thinks he might have gotten AIDS from the drugs.
OAKLAND, Calif. — Glen Burke was crossing a street in 1987 when a speeding car hit him, breaking his right leg in four places and effectively ending the remnants of the athletic career he cherished. An iron rod and pins were inserted into the leg, and he spent months recovering. Years later, it would be in that most vulnerable part of his body that the symptoms of AIDS would first take hold.
"I could have got it from somebody smoking on the pipe. Some people wouldn't be clean, they might have blood in their mouth or something," he said. "I don't know. It could have been from sex. I just don't know for sure."
Three years ago, records show, Burke pleaded guilty to grand theft and possession of a controlled substance in San Francisco. Sentenced to 16 months at San Quentin, he was paroled after six months, then spent another month in the prison the following year for violating terms of his parole.
Burke had skidded to the bottom, unwelcome even in the Castro. He would hang around the clubs asking for money, intimidating people, belligerent one moment, friendly the
next, the hero turned nuisance. The gay community didn't so much give up on him as it watched him give up on himself, scared of death but resigned to it.
"I didn't know I had AIDS until last January," he said, "but I knew something was wrong with me. No way of telling when I got the (HIV) virus. Maybe a year or two ago, maybe more. I didn't know it was gonna be this tough on me. But I was prepared for it if I had it.
"I knew 100 guys, at least, who died of AIDS. I kind of figured somewhere along the line I would get it. It's a plague."
He lies in bed now waiting to die, calling out to his sister, Lutha, for food or help. She's there for him every day when she's not working.
"We've had long talks about death," she said. "It was tough for a while. We'll sit up at night, listening to music, and I'll rub his feet, they hurt so much. He might cry a little bit. I say it's going to be OK. We'll talk about when we were younger, things that make us laugh."
The Oakland A's, the team that once cast Burke aside, also have been trying to help since general manager Sandy Alderson found out about his condition a few months ago. Pam Pitts, the A's director of baseball administration, calls almost daily, channeling support to him from the Association of Professional Baseball Players of America and the Baseball Assistance Team, two groups financed by past and current major leaguers.
Burke takes whatever help he can get, showing little bitterness for the hard times he's been through or the pain he's suffering now.
"I don't really feel bad about my life," he said. "I'm just basic people. Sometimes people put you on a pedestal. Here I am, a celebrity, getting interviewed and photographed, and I don't even feel like a celebrity. I'm no better than nobody and never wanted to be."
For all of Burke's lost opportunities,
perhaps nothing has changed to this
"I knew 100 guys, at least, who died of AIDS.I kind offigured somewhere along the line I would get it.It's a plague."
Glenn Burke
Former L.A. Dodgers outfielder
Even Dusty Baker, who liked Burke so much and admired him as a teammate on the Dodgers, said he didn't know how he would deal with a gay player to day. Nor does Baker know if baseball is ready to accept one.
day about the game's attitude toward gay players.
"I really don't know," Baker said. "I can't say that I agree with it. I also can't say that I understand, either."
In San Francisco, Baker is certainly sensitive to the gay community. He's helped raise funds for AIDS through Project Open Hand and "Until There's A Cure Day" at Candlestick Park, making the point that "AIDS is not a gay disease."
If a gay ballplayer came along, would Baker give him a chance?
"I guess it depends on how good a player he is," Baker responded cautiously.
What if he were as good as Willie Mays or Hank Aaron? Would anyone stop him from playing?
"Probably not," Baker said. "But you know, in Glenn's case, maybe one of the reasons he never got to that level is because he was denied the opportunity before he got there. We'll never know how good he could have been."
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