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Butch Huskey

Butch Huskey
Ultimate Mets Database popularity ranking: 60 of 1218 players
Huskey
Robert Leon Huskey
Born: November 10, 1971 at Anadarko, Okla.
Throws: Right Bats: Right
Height: 6.03 Weight: 244

Butch Huskey was the most popular Ultimate Mets Database daily lookup on June 14, 2008, September 22, 2013, December 8, 2013, May 29, 2014, October 26, 2016, August 16, 2017, July 27, 2019, August 13, 2021, and May 10, 2022.

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First Mets game: September 8, 1993
Last Mets game: September 26, 1998

Share your memories of Butch Huskey

HERE IS WHAT OTHER METS FANS HAVE TO SAY:

Brendan
I was so happy with Butch's season in '97 that I was convinced that he would shoulder the offensive burden while Hundley recuperated in '98. I was positive we were going to get 30 homers and 100 RBI's out of this guy. He was a big disappointment.

Mike
Huskey hit the most useless 24 homers and drove in the most invisible 81 along with the softest .287 in NY since Bobby Bonds over-rated stats in '75 for the Yanks.

Given how over-matched he was when he first came up, he handled major-league pitching better than I thought.

Chris
March 16, 2001
He might have one of the greatest baseball names ever.

Jon
November 20, 2001
Anyone remember the war of words he waged with Denny Neagle in 1997? Neagle, pitching for the Braves, was victimized by a Huskey homer and afterwards commented that Huskey could never hit him when he was on. That resulted in a brushback or HBP at some point. I liked Butch, but the sad thing was, Neagle was probably right.

Mr. Sparkle
January 14, 2002
How does a pulled hamstring ruin the career of a "great hitter"? It doesn't. Mr. Freckles sucked plain and simple. He could poke a homer every now and then but other than that he had zero talent. He's bounced around because he has "potential" but no real talent. I remember when the man from Oklahoma was a september call up and struck out 3 or 4 times in if not his first, one of his first games. He was a typical over hyped prospect.

peves
May 18, 2002
Mr. April. Always tore it up in Spring Training (against Maddux too) but did squat during the regular season.

Larry Burns
May 22, 2002
Not an ounce of talent in his body, which is amazing considering his extremely large girth. I agree with most that calling him "Mr. April" is an insult to Dave Winfield. He was a slightly more athletic Rusty Staub. But not nearly as dangerous with the bat. He seemed stuffed into his own body.

Shari
May 23, 2002
You would think a guy that big could clock a few balls over the fence. what an enourmous ZERO.

Nick Birns
June 23, 2002
I thought of Butch after hearing about the Darryl Kile tragedy, as Butch played in the no-hitter Kile threw against us. Butch always tried hard and was a fan favorite at Shea.

Gregory Gewirtz
August 2, 2002
His battle with Denny Neagle, after he hit a three-run and a two-run homer against him after the Braves took an early 6-0 lead (a game the Mets won on Ochoa's homer in the tenth) was mild. Neagle said to the media after the game that Huskey can't hit a good fastball, and Huskey responded that Neagle never showed him a good fastball, as he hit a slider and a changeup, I think for the homers.

Huskey could play 3B, 1B, and corner OF adequately enough to hold a major league role of some sort, though he was very streaky at the plate. When he was cold, he was very cold, but when he was hot, he'd get a long homer a day.

Ken D.
October 11, 2002
Maybe not the best ballplayer in the world, but he seemed like a nice guy to me, from my encounter with him. Kinda the guy you'd want to root for, even if he was a little slow and overweight...

It was a mid-1990's Mets-Braves game at old Fulton County Stadium. Butch was on the field before the game doing whatever it is he used to do before games. My friend and I seemed to be the only Mets fans in a sea of, well, Braves "fans." I called down (from our elevated outfield seats) to Butch to alert him to the presence of Mets fans. Zip, up came a ball right to me. I gave the ball to my friend; she thought Butch was the coolest guy in the majors.

He'll never reach the Hall, but maybe he can find a moment of glory somewhere.

Phil Thiegou
August 12, 2003
ln March of '93 I had just moved to my new place and finished unpacking and after I got the TV hooked up l put on a Yankees-Mets exhibition game and Butch won the game with a homer in the bottom of the 9th. I loved that name and thought he was destined to become a Met legend. I was upset that he didn't make the team that spring and tried to follow him at Norfolk.

Finally he came up when the Mets increased the roster in September and lo and behold in his major league debut, the late Darryl Kile no-hits them. Then a few days later Butch separated his shoulder on a bad slide. I thought that might be it for him because he sat out most of l994. But his determination finally got him as a full time Met in '95.

Unfortunately he did not live up to his hype. He did hit a game winning home run against Hideo Nomo in '95 when he was unhittable. While up in Toronto in '98 I was trying to get autographs and I got Bill Pulsipher and someone yelled out, "Hey Butch!" He was right in front of me and while signing my baseball, I said, "Robert Leon Huskey, the bad man from Anadarko, 0klahoma." and he actually cracked a smile. It's too bad he's practically fell off the face of the earth.

Jon L.
April 13, 2004
What was amazing about Butch Huskey, and probably foretold his failure as a major leaguer, was the way he hit his home runs. Almost every home run in the bigs retains some element of the original pitch direction--outside pitches get driven to opposite field, inside pitches down the line. Even the great ones hit them with some sort of symmetry--McGwire would golf low pitches high into the air, and Bonds, well, with Bonds it looks like everything in the strike zone freezes in mid-air, waiting for him to hammer it. But Huskey would take an outside pitch, maybe a cut fastball breaking away from him, and jerk the thing around like a whip, send it searing over the leftfield wall. It was spectacular when it happened, but he minimized his window of opportunity making contact like that--he was the diametric opposite of Tony Gwynn--and turned every homer into a flash in the pan. That just wasn't going to cut it for a man as large as Mr. Huskey.

Mitch45
June 23, 2004
Loads of potential, never realized. I don't know whether it was a lack of baseball smarts or poor minor league training. He always looked like he was going to hit the ball 10 miles but seldom did.

VIBaseball
October 20, 2004
My favorite Butch moment: he drove a *long* homer, the kind that tantalized us into thinking that he might actually live up to his billing. The camera cut to his teammates congratulating him in the dugout, and you could hear someone (my guess was Bernard Gilkey) say, "A GROWN man hit that one!"

Mr. Sparkle
January 25, 2005
Just saw his picture on a fantasy camp web site http://metcamp.blogspot.com/.

He looks absolutely huge. I guess he's been eating a lot since his playing days ended. I'll never forget the spring training he had 8 or 9 homers and everyone thought he was gonig to have a huge year. What a disappointment.

Bobby
August 18, 2005
The first Mets game that I remember being at was the same one previosly mentioned, in which Butch hit a home run earlier in the game and pulled his hammy later.

Edgy DC
November 6, 2005
There's a lot of jive written about Butch Huskey above. I'll stick to the record.

In April: .241 BA, .285 OBP, .371 SLG, .656 OPS Overall: .267 BA, .318 OBP, .442 SLG, .760 OPS

He was not "Mr. April." Please try again.

Shorty Larson
December 9, 2005
24 home runs. Scouts refer to 20-homer potential as possible power. Jose Reyes has had this number and phrase billed upon him. Butch actualy eclipsed the 20-homer mark twice in his career. He had the talent. He could hit. Butch was a righthanded Mo Vaughn, only he did not have a short right field porch to hit home runs over, or a green monster to slap doubles off of. With the proper conditioning, Huskey could have easily become Greg Vaughn, Mo's cousin, if not something more.

Debi
June 2, 2006
I remember going to watch Butch play at Capitol City Stadium in Columbia, SC when he was with the now-defunct Columbia Mets. He played third base and was always a wonder to watch. I always made my husband sit on the third base line because, besides being an excellent ball player, Butch had a nice butt.

Dan Gurney
November 8, 2007
I always respected Huskey for wearing "42" in honor of Jackie Robinson. He stands far above Vince Coleman for that.

Gary Ramsey
November 18, 2009
Why did they ever get rid of this guy? His stats were good, and could have gotten better.

William Bracero
July 6, 2012
Weekday afternoon doubleheader against the Phillies at the Vet. Bucth came up to bat and I was in the 500 section (free tickets via Military) of left field when he hit the ball and to my surprise, I watch it come in from the shadows into the sunlight and land in the 600 section behind me. I was so amazed, I forgot to get the ball.

Shale
August 29, 2012
Is it me or does Lucas Duda remind anyone of a left-handed hitting version of this guy? Both were/are converted infielders that ended up becoming everyday right fielders. Both were/are on the husky side (pun intended), both can hit the ball a mile, but both were/are prone to strikeouts and streakiness at the plate. Hopefully, Duda's time with the Mets will be more productive than Huskey's surprising greatness in 1997, followed by his disappointing 1998 season.

Although 1998 was the first year I followed baseball and the Mets (I was just 8 years old at the time) , Butch Huskey was one of my favorite players that year. Maybe it's because his name is awesome. Maybe it's because he had a solid home run swing from what I remember. I forget exactly, but I wish I had seen him during his good year in 97. While Gilkey and Lance Johnson were both underachieving that year, Huskey picked up the slack and helped Hundley and Olerud turn the Mets' lineup that year into one that other teams certainly underestimated.

He also retired at just 29 years old. Besides appearing at the Mets fantasy camp in 2006, I wonder what else he's been doing since he retired.

Kent
December 27, 2012
Big power hitter. Thought he was going to hit 20 HRs during the late Nineties. Never panned out for the Mets. Or for anyone else, for that matter.








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