Glen Burgess was notoriously passionate about softball, fishing and hunting. He cared even more about seeing his friends enjoy the fruits of that labor, however.

“He was an inveterate fisherman, day after day, but he didn’t even like to eat the fish,” said Fred Gage, a colleague and friend of Burgess’ for four decades. “Just this summer, he brought (wife) Carolyn and I a whole basket full of brook trout. I still have three of them sitting in my freezer right now, real beauties. I have a feeling he did that for a lot of other people.”

Burgess died Sunday in Auburn after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Friends recalled him as a private but generous man; a jokester, competitor and tireless worker rolled into one.

“I’ve never seen anybody who was into softball as much as he was,” said Toby Tiner, a longtime Auburn police officer and Burgess’ teammate with the East Auburn Lakers softball team.

Burgess was the Lakers’ player-manager into his 60s. Although no such records are kept, Tiner described Burgess as perhaps the winningest pitcher in Maine recreational softball history.

In his professional life, Burgess was an anchor in the Sun Journal newsroom for 38 years. He joined the Lewiston Evening Journal staff as the Auburn community news and police beat writer in 1969 before becoming Gage’s assistant sports editor in 1976.

Recreational sports were his calling card.

After the Journal and Daily Sun merged in June 1989, Burgess became community sports editor. It was a labor of love from which he never retired, taking phone calls and processing e-mails, faxes and photo submissions up until 10 days before his death.

“Nobody in this area exhibited the kind of commitment to community sports that Glen did over a long period of time,” Sun Journal publisher James Costello Sr. said.

“I’m in shock, even though I knew the news wasn’t good,” said Norm Davis, a local softball umpire who knew Burgess for 45 years. “I saw him a little while ago and he said, ‘If it weren’t for this place (Sun Journal), I wouldn’t even be around.’ He made that very clear.”

A true sportsman

Always proud and protective of his East Auburn roots, Burgess’ carried that loyalty into his favorite hobby. But the desire to defy Father Time and maintain his winning ways weakened that backyard resolve over the years.

Burgess eventually welcomed one-time Little League rival Tiner and even Lewiston outsiders Gerry Laroche and George O’Connell into the fold, laying the foundation of a powerhouse team.

“In February, he’d get antsy. The last Sunday in March, we were in the parking lot at East Auburn (Community Unit), chasing balls in snowbanks,” Laroche recalled.

Despite being two to three times older than much of their opposition, the Lakers celebrated an undefeated season at 22-0 in 1996.

“Most of the years we played, if we lost two games, we all went into mourning,” Tiner said.

Teammates say Burgess was usually the first to arrive and last to leave on game day. If it rained in the afternoon, he would show up two hours before the scheduled first pitch to rake the mound and basepaths.

And win or lose, particularly on Sunday afternoon, Burgess’ post-game barbecues were legendary.

“We’d have a huge following from Turner, and for the cookouts, we’d have 40 or 50 dedicated fans,” said Laroche. “The game would be over, the grill would be fired up, and Glen would have his beer and he’d stand there and say, ‘Look at all this.’ “

“His perfect day was brook fishing in the morning, softball in the evening and then a cookout at nighttime,” O’Connell said. “You see these kids playing now that say, ‘How many hits did I get?’ Glen was, ‘Look at the flag. Look at how the grass is cut. Look at the dirt on the infield.’ He smelled it. He lived it. The moment was a big, big thing with Glen.”

Shared many laughs

Co-workers and brethren on the diamond will long remember Burgess’ biting sense of humor.

Ever the contrarian, he took great care to locate each friend’s button and push it whenever possible. O’Connell, who sports a shamrock tattoo on his chest in honor of the University of Notre Dame, was a favorite target.

“He hated Dale Earnhardt Sr. He hated the Oakland Raiders. He hated Notre Dame. He hated everything that I loved,” O’Connell said.

“I’ll miss the bickering back and forth,” said Jeanne LaChance, who shared a desk adjacent to Burgess at the Sun Journal for years. “He was such a good guy.”

Gage, a lifelong Yankees fan, received an earful when Burgess’ Red Sox won their elusive World Series championship in 2004 and repeated it only two weeks ago.

“I think he kind of faded in and out with the Red Sox,” Gage said. “But he was a very devoted Sun Journal man for most of his life. He tried retiring once, but that didn’t last long.”