Robert Frank John Butler (born April 10, 1970 in East York, Ontario) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Philadelphia Phillies. He is also a former baseball player with the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball club of the Intercounty Baseball League.
Butler first signed with the Blue Jays as an amateur free agent on September 24, 1990. On June 12, 1993, Butler made his major league debut with the Blue Jays, but he only played in 17 regular season games due to a hand injury he suffered when attempting to steal a base. In that short time, he had a .271 batting average with four doubles, two RBIs and 12 strikeouts. He also drew seven walks and went 2-for-4 stealing bases. When the Blue Jays reached the World Series, he went 1-for-2 with a pinch hit single off Curt Schilling. He went on to win the World Series championship with his hometown team making him the only Canadian player to have won a World Series with the Blue Jays.
In 1994, Butler played in 41 games for the Blue Jays, batting .176 with one triple and five RBIs. Much of his time was split between the Blue Jays and their AAA affiliate, the Syracuse Chiefs. On December 5, 1994 he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies.
With the Phillies organization, Butler spent much of it in their minor league system, but was called up in 1997, and played in only 43 games, batting .292 with nine doubles, one triple, and 13 RBIs.
On December 22, 1997, Butler signed with the Houston Astros and spent 1998 in their minor league system.
On December 23, 1998, he returned to the Blue Jays as a free agent and appeared in only eight games with the Jays during the 1999 season. On July 10, 1999, Butler played his last game as a Major League Baseball player.
In 2001, Butler joined the Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club as an outfielder. He was also joined by his brother Rich Butler, and later by former Blue Jays pitcher Paul Spoljaric. For much of those years, Rob finished the season as the team's batting leader, and in 2002, he won the League championship with them. In 2005, Butler played his last game with the Leafs, announcing his retirement from the game.
As of April 2009, Butler is a coach with the Canadian National Junior Team.
Famous quotes containing the words rob and/or butler:
“... actresses require protection in their art from blind abuse, from savage criticism. Their work is their religion, if they are seeking the best in their art, and to abuse that faith is to rob them, to dishonor them.”
—Nance O’Neil (1874–1965)
“These are the clouds about the fallen sun,
The majesty that shuts his burning eye:
The weak lay hand on what the strong has done,
Till that be tumbled that was lifted high
And discord follow upon unison....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)