St. Cloud Cathedral Grad Tom Burgmeier Featured On Baseball Video Game

Cathedral High School graduate (1961) Tom Burgmeier is featured on the fairly new video game Super Mega Baseball 4 as a "MLB Legend," along with 199 other former pro ballplayers such as Nolan Ryan, Willie Mays and Babe Ruth.

The game, which is a cartoonish, arcade-style baseball game that does not take itself too seriously, was released in 2023. The previous editions of the game used fictional players like Hammer Longballo, Slapper Glutes and Immaculo Spectaculo.

Burgmeier spent 17 seasons in Major League Baseball after initially signing with the expansion Houston Colt .45's in September of 1961. He spent the 1962 and 1963 seasons in the minors before being released by Houston. Fortunately, he was quickly scooped up by the California Angels organization, for whom he made his MLB debut in 1968.

He went on to play for the Royals, Twins, Red Sox and A's before retiring in 1984 at age 40. His 745 career relief appearances are the 80th most all time of over 20,000 MLB players. He made his lone All Star team with Boston in 1980 when he recorded 24 saves, which was a Red Sox record at the time, and posted an earned run average of just 2.00.

Burgmeier also spent time as a coach in the Kansas City Royals organization from 1991-2000 before minor league stints elsewhere.

As far as Super Mega Baseball 4, Burgmeier is a relief pitcher with a grade of B+, which is pretty good relative to the other players in the game. His velocity is rated 56/100, 'junk' 47/100, accuracy 81/100. His biggest strength is with the glove, where he is rated a 96/100.