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A New Jersey native, Burke underwent Tommy John surgery while a sophomore in college and never quite returned to his old form until his fifth year of school.

"I'd had a couple of looks in the Drafts -- in fact, the Padres were one of the teams looking at me -- but I didn't get picked, which was a little disheartening," he said. "But I also knew at that point that I was pitching the best I'd ever pitched."

After signing with an independent team 15 minutes from his home of Bellmawr, N.J., he received a midsummer letter from the Padres asking him to come to their next tryout camp.

Category Gloucester Catholic