Bill Beacon, THE CANADIAN PRESS

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Canadian baseball Hall of Famer Tom Burgess, whose brief major league career was followed by long service as a coach and manager, has died He was 82.

Burgess died this week at his home in Lambeth, Ont., after a battle with cancer.

Burgess, an outfielder and first baseman, spent most of his playing career in the minor leagues but had two short stints in the majors.

In 1954, he batted .048 in only 21 at-bats for the St. Louis Cardinals and in 1962, he hit. .196 with two home runs in 87 games with the Los Angeles Angels.

He then managed at many levels in the St. Louis, Atlanta, the New York Mets, Texas and Detroit organizations. He was third base coach for the Mets under Joe Frazier and Joe Torre in 1977 and for Atlanta under Bobby Cox in 1978.

Burgess also coached and managed for Baseball Canada and Baseball Ontario.

"Tom could not give enough back to baseball," Tom Valcke, president of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, said in a phone interview Thursday. "He would teach anyone, anytime, everything he knew, as long as they wanted to learn and to work."

Valcke recalled a banquet a few years ago at which Burgess was a speaker. He was asked about hitting in different situations by a young Joey Votto, a first baseman from Toronto who would go on to make the Cincinnati Reds lineup this season.

By the time Burgess finished talking to the young player, the banquet was over, the tables put away and the staff gone home.

"It was unbelievable how long he could talk about baseball," said Valcke. "That defined Tom Burgess - he couldn't give enough."

Votto set a Reds record with 84 RBIs by a rookie this season and was second to the Chicago Cubs Geovany Soto in National League rookie of the year voting.

As well as the Canadian Hall of Fame, Burgess is also a member of the London, Ont., sports hall of fame and the Rochester Red Wings hall of fame.