Frank Andrew Burrell was born on December 22, 1866 in Weymouth, Massachusetts. The first child of Andrew Burrell, a shoe maker and mechanic, and his second wife Eliza Hayden. Frank grew up with an older sister Alice, from Andrew’s first marriage, and two younger brothers, Albert and Fred. Somewhere along the way Frank acquired the nickname “Buster” and it stuck with him throughout his life. Growing up in the suburbs of baseball mad Boston, it was easy for the athletic Burrell to gravitate towards the game. By the time he was twenty one he was playing semi-professionally for teams in East Weymouth, Holbrook-Randolph, and Medford. By 1889, the catcher and first baseman had shown enough progress to be picked up by the Lovells, a talented club formed by the Lovell Arms Company of Boston. Buster played another year of semi-professional ball with the Atlantics in 1890.
Buster began his professional career in 1891 with Salem (MA) of the New England League. Midway through the season, on July 18, due to bad management and poor attendance, the team disbanded. What appeared to be a setback was merely a bump in the road for Burrell. The New York Giants of the National League, were in need of a replacement catcher for the oft-injured starter Dick Buckley. On July 29, the Giants signed the Salem cast-off to play for the legendary Jim Mutrie.
Frank “Buster” Burrell played his first game for the Giants on August 1, 1891 against Tom Lovett and the Brooklyn Grooms. Catching starter, John Ewing, brother of Giants star Buck Ewing, Buster committed two passed balls and had two throwing errors in a 9-6 loss. He did however get his first big league base hit and scored a run off Lovett in the seventh inning. In his next start on August 7, against the Pittsburgh Pirates, he again caught Ewing. He had a better day catching, but in the second inning he was tagged out by Pirates catcher, Connie Mack, on an unassisted double-play. He also struck out with the bases loaded in the sixth inning. The Giants lost 2-0.

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