Butch Huskey

Butch Huskey was born Robert Leon Huskey on 10 November 1971 in Anadarko, Oklahoma. He grew up with his grandmother there until she sent him, at around age 10 or 11, to live with his father, a police officer in Lawton, Oklahoma, where he lived alongside five brothers and three sisters. Living not far from the Oklahoma City 89ers, he grew up a Texas Rangers fan.

At Eisenhower High School in Lawton he played football as well as baseball and was an All-State tight end. He was offered a scholarship to play college football for the Oklahoma Sooners, but his parents encouraged him to pursue baseball, and he took that path.

The New York Mets selected Huskey in the seventh round of the 1989 draft as a third baseman. He won the club's Doubleday Award as a minor league standout four times, with the Gulf Coast Mets in 1989, the Columbia Mets in 1991, the Binghamton Mets in 1993 and the Norfolk Tides in 1995, and he was named MVP of the International League.

He made his Major League debut on 8 September 1993 against the Houston Astros, the night Darryl Kile no-hit the Mets. After a full season at Norfolk in 1994 and a September call-up in 1995, he moved from third base to right field in 1996 and ended that season as the Mets' regular first baseman, hitting .278 with 15 home runs.

The 1997 season was his best. He opened as the Mets' third baseman, later shifted back to the outfield, and finished with a .287 average, 24 home runs, 81 runs batted in and a 20-game hitting streak. On 15 September 1997 he hit a home run off Matt Beech that landed in section 638 of Veterans Stadium, becoming only the third player to reach the stadium's 600 level.

After a quieter 1998 he was traded to the Seattle Mariners, where he hit 15 home runs in 262 at-bats before a July 1999 trade to the Boston Red Sox, who reached the postseason as a wild card. He was the Minnesota Twins' designated hitter in 2000 before a midseason trade to the Colorado Rockies. He signed with the Cleveland Indians in 2001 but was released in spring training, and spent that season with the Rockies' Triple-A club in Colorado Springs, hitting .323 with 19 home runs.

Across 642 Major League games he batted .267 with 86 home runs and 336 runs batted in.

Huskey wore No. 10 as a rookie and then No. 42 for the Mets from 1995. When Major League Baseball retired the number across the sport on 15 April 1997, at a Mets game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Shea Stadium, a grandfather clause allowed players already wearing it to continue. Huskey kept it with the Mets and wore it again with the Twins, and he was the last Seattle Mariner to wear it. He spoke with pride over the years about honouring Jackie Robinson.

He returned to live in Lawton after his playing days. He was married to Kristy, and they had a son, Bryce, and daughters Kennedy and Kyrbi. He is name-checked in the Yo La Tengo song "Moby Octopad" from the 1997 album I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One.

Butch Huskey died on 14 August 2026 in Lawton, Oklahoma, aged 54. Emergency services were called to his home that morning after a report of chest pain, and he was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died. Jay Horwitz, the Mets' vice president for alumni relations, said the cause was a blood clot in his lung, and later reports described it as a pulmonary embolism.

The Mets announced his death the same day, saying they were saddened to learn of the passing of former Met Butch Huskey. Interim manager Andy Green acknowledged "a solemn day" and sent prayers to his family. He was survived by his wife, Kristy, his son, Bryce, and his daughters, Kennedy and Kyrbi.

Huskey is remembered by Mets fans as a big, likeable slugger of the late 1990s whose 1997 season was one of the bright spots of the club's revival. In baseball history he holds a particular place as one of the last players to wear No. 42 after its retirement in honour of Jackie Robinson; only Mo Vaughn wore it for the Mets after him.

In his home state he was celebrated as a Lawton and Anadarko product who reached the majors, and local and national outlets marked his death with tributes to both his career and his pride in Robinson's legacy.