Max Scherzer’s sixth-grade teacher? Fellow major leaguer Jake Burger’s mom

For once, Max Scherzer had little to say.

“It’s cool,” the Toronto Blue Jays’ right-hander acknowledged. “And I feel old.”

Scherzer wasn’t talking about entering his 18th major-league season, or turning 41 in July. No, he was referring to a far more jarring reminder of his baseball mortality: His sixth-grade social studies teacher, Shannon Burger, is the mother of a fellow major leaguer, Texas Rangers first baseman Jake Burger.

Yep, Shannon taught Scherzer world cultures and geography and one rotation of English at Parkway Middle School in Chesterfield, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. Jake, the oldest of Shannon’s two children, was born on April 10, 1996, shortly before Scherzer became her student during the 1996-97 school year.

“How fun is that?” Shannon said.

Baseball fans know Scherzer as a three-time Cy Young Award winner, eight-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion. They also know him as one of the game’s most outspoken players, opining on sticky-stuff enforcement, the automatic ball-strike system and other topics that stir his emotions.

As a 12-year-old, though?

Like any boy, Scherzer had his opinions, Shannon said. But it wasn’t as if he was constantly getting into arguments and winding up in the principal’s office, as some fans might expect of a young Mad Max.

“People loved Max and obviously his eyes made him stand out immediately, his two different-colored eyes,” Shannon Burger said, referring to a condition, heterochromia, that made Scherzer’s left eye dark brown and his right one light blue.

“He was a very smart kid. And obviously, he was athletic. I don’t recall him being gone a lot for baseball, traveling for baseball. But I do remember him being able to throw a softball or dodgeball-type ball really far.

“He was just a good kid. People liked being around him.”

Jake Burger said he probably was in high school the first time his mom told him about being Scherzer’s teacher. By then Scherzer was an established major leaguer. Shannon didn’t make a big deal out of knowing the star pitcher. She just mentioned Scherzer had been in her class, and was one of the students she chaperoned to a four-day residential outdoor camp for sixth graders about 90 minutes from school in Potosi, Mo.

Jake, who turns 29 next month, had little other personal connection with Scherzer, who was nearly 12 years older and a pitcher, not a hitter. But shortly after getting traded to the Miami Marlins at the 2023 trade deadline, Burger went out to dinner with Rangers pitcher Dane Dunning, whose team had just acquired Scherzer. Burger and Dunning had been roommates in Arizona with the Chicago White Sox organization in 2018 and ’19, while Burger was rehabilitating from two operations on his left Achilles tendon and Dunning was recovering from Tommy John surgery.

“He was asking me about Scherzer: ‘How’s Scherzer? What’s he like as a teammate?’” Dunning recalled. “We just kind of got on that topic. And he goes, ‘You need to go up to him and ask him who his sixth-grade teacher was.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ And he said, ‘I’m pretty sure my mom taught him.’

“The next day when I got to the field, I went right up to Scherzer. I was like, ‘Hey, did you have a Mrs. Burger as a teacher?’ He was trying to remember. He was like, ‘I think so? Maybe elementary school? Sixth grade?’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s Jake Burger’s mom.’ And he was like, ‘No way. I didn’t know Mrs. Burger was his mom.’”

Dunning got the ball rolling. And last season, when the Rangers visited Miami, Burger finally got the chance to meet his mom’s former pupil. His then-Marlins teammate, Josh Bell, knew Scherzer, and brought the two together on the field for a pre-game chat.

“You remember Mrs. Burger, right?” Jake recalled asking.

“That’s your Mom, isn’t it?” Scherzer replied.

Scherzer then made a proud son’s day.

“He said he loved her as a teacher,” Jake Burger said.

Shannon worked at Parkway for 34 years as a teacher and librarian and retired briefly last May, only to take a job one month later as the dean of students at the lower school of Villa Duchesne, a private Roman Catholic school in Frontenac, Mo. Her husband, Mike, has been a State Farm insurance agent for 30 years. Their younger child, Ellie, 26, is the head women’s tennis coach at Belmont University.

Shannon still has old yearbooks with photos of Scherzer, as well as photos of him and other students at the outdoor camp. She captured some of the images on her phone to show Dunning, joking, “Dane was dying to see Max as a little kid.” Dunning, when informed Scherzer was reluctant to talk about Mrs. Burger, said, “I don’t know why he’s trying to be like, ‘Oh, it makes me look old.’ He literally calls himself ‘Grandpa’ in the locker room.”

As Shannon points out, the career paths of her son and former student bear similarities. Neither was a major prospect coming out of high school — Scherzer was the Cardinals’ 43rd round pick in 2003, Burger went undrafted. Both then attended in-state universities — Scherzer went to Missouri, Burger to Missouri State — and developed into first rounders. The Arizona Diamondbacks selected Scherzer 11th overall in 2006. The White Sox took Burger 11th overall in 2017.

“It’s crazy, the small world,” Burger said. “Especially St. Louis. It’s not like a lot of kids are coming out of there playing baseball. It’s cool to have that connection to St. Louis, growing up in the same area.”

Burger has 1,344 plate appearances in the majors, but none against Scherzer. That could change in late May, when their teams face one another in Texas. Shannon and Mike are not planning to attend that series but might travel to Toronto to see the Blue Jays host the Rangers in mid-August, if Shannon’s school schedule permits.

“We’ve never been at a ballpark where Jake has played Max,” Shannon said. “I haven’t seen Max in person since he was 12. I’m looking forward to that reunion.”

It’s cool, Max. Even if it will mark a passage of sorts. Even if your sixth-grade teacher will be rooting for her son to beat your team.

(Top image of Max Scherzer, Shannon Burger and Jake Burger: Mike Carlson / MLB Photos via Getty Images, 1997 Parkway Middle School yearbook, Chris Coduto / MLB Photos via Getty Images)

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