Born in Caroleen, North Carolina, Burgess was signed as an amateur free agent by the Chicago Cubs in 1944. In 1947, he led the Tri-State League with a .387 batting average. Burgess followed that by leading (minimum 100 games played) the Southern Association with a .386 average, in 1948. He made his major league debut at the age of 22 with the Chicago Cubs on April 19, 1949. In October 1951, Burgess was traded to the Cincinnati Reds, who promptly traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies for catcher Andy Seminick before the start of the 1952 season. With the Phillies, he platooned alongside the right-handed-hitting Stan Lopata. Burgess had his best season in 1954, when he had a .368 batting average in 108 games for the Phillies, earning his first All-Star Game selection.\n', '

At the beginning of the 1955 season, Burgess was once again traded for Andy Seminick and returned to Cincinnati, where he finally got the chance to play every day. He rose to the occasion, hitting for a .306 batting average for the rest of the season along with 20 home runs and 77 runs batted in, gaining his second consecutive berth on the National League All-Star team. On July 29, 1955, Burgess hit three home runs and had nine runs batted in during a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He began the 1956 season as the Reds\' starting catcher, but when the team faltered early in the season, Reds manager Birdie Tebbetts decided to shake things up, and replaced Burgess with a younger man, Ed Bailey.\n', '

In 1959, Burgess was traded along with Harvey Haddix and Don Hoak to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Whammy Douglas, Jim Pendleton and John Powers. He was the Pirates catcher on May 26, 1959 when Haddix took a perfect game into the 13th inning against the Milwaukee Braves, before losing the game. Burgess also won a World Series with the Pirates in 1960, batting .333 in the seven-game series.\n', '

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