He was shipped around in the minors, first going to the A.L. New York club with three other minor leaguers for former Met Lee Mazzilli in 1982. Burke got married the same year & was then traded to the Montreal Expos organization, where he played for his future MLB manager Buck Rodgers. He went 11-8 with a 3.49 ERA & three saves at AAA Indianapolis in 1984.
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When Jeff Reardon went to Minnesota in 1987, Burke took over and became one of the leagues better closers in the late 1980’s. In 1987 he was 7-0 with 18 saves, posting a fantastic 1.19 ERA in 55 appearances. He saved 18 more games the following season, going 3-5 & leading all NL pitchers in fielding%.
During those years he was amongst the league’s top ten in saves four times, but by 1991 Barry Jones took over the closing role. Midway through 1991 he was 3-4 with five saves when he was traded to the New York Mets for Ron Darling. Darling had been struggling & the Mets felt it was time to move on as the final pieces of their 1986 Championship season were going fast.
Burke came to the New York bull pen mostly being used as John Franco’s set up man, and to work as a middle reliever. He debuted at Shea Stadium on July 18th against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In September he won two more games, & was credited with three hold but also blew two save opportunities well. Overall In 35 games he went 3-3 with a save, four holds and a 2.75 ERA.
In 1992 after 15 games his ERA was up near six & he was traded to the A.L. New York team for Lee Gutterman. After going 2-2 there in 23 appearances he chose to retire from baseball at age 32.
In an eight year career he was 49-33 with 102 saves & a 2.72 ERA. He has 444 strike outs & 219 walks in 699 innings of work in 498 appearances.
Retirement: Burke is a born again Christian & wanted to get away from a life on the road. He chose to leave the game in order to have a more settled down style of life with his wife & form a family.

He wrote a book in 1994 about his career ending decisions, called Major League Dad: The Moving Story of an All-Star Pitcher Who Gave up Baseball for His Family.
He also enjoys riding his motorcycle.
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