Robert Frank John Butler (born April 10, 1970) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

, who played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB) for the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Since 1989, the team has p ...

and the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

. He is also a former player with the

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. The Maple Leafs compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the A ...

of the Intercounty Baseball League and currently serves as the team's manager.

Major League career

Butler first signed with the Blue Jays as an amateur free agent on September 24, 1990, and made his major league debut with them on June 12, 1993. He played in 17 regular season games and was sidelined by a hand injury he suffered when attempting to steal a base. In his 17-game stint in 1993, he had a .271

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

with four doubles, two RBIs and 12

strikeouts In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It means the batter is out, unless the third strike is not caught by the catcher and the batter reaches first base safe ...

. He also drew seven walks and went 2-for-4 stealing bases. In the 1993

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

, won by Toronto, Butler went 1-for-2 with a

pinch hit In baseball, a pinch hitter (PH) is a substitute batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute. Unlike basketball, Am ...

single off

Curt Schilling Curtis Montague Schilling (born November 14, 1966) is an American former Major League Baseball right handed pitcher and commentator for media outlet BlazeTV. He helped lead the Philadelphia Phillies to a World Series appearance in 1993 World Seri ...

of the

, and became 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 this season was split between the Blue Jays and their Triple-A affiliate, the

Syracuse Chiefs Syracuse most commonly refers to: * Syracuse, Sicily, Italy; in the province of Syracuse * Syracuse, New York, USA; in the Syracuse metropolitan area Syracuse may also refer to: Places * Syracuse railway station (disambiguation) Italy * Provi ...

. On December 5, 1994 he was traded to the Phillies. With the Phillies organization, Butler spent much of it in their minor league system, but was called up in 1997, and he played in 43 games, batting .292 with nine doubles, one triple, and 13 RBIs. On December 22, 1997, Butler signed with the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...

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 eight games with the Jays during the 1999 season, playing his last Major League Baseball game on July 10, 1999.

Semi-pro baseball

In 2001, Butler joined the semi-pro

of the Intercounty Baseball League as an outfielder. He was also joined by his brother Rich Butler, and later by former Blue Jays

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

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. In 2023, the Toronto Maple Leafs signed Butler as team manager.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Rob 1970 births Living people Baseball players from Toronto Baseball players at the 1999 Pan American Games Canadian expatriate baseball players in the United States Olympic baseball players for Canada Canadian people of British descent Cardenales de Lara players Canadian expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Dunedin Blue Jays players Knoxville Smokies players Major League Baseball outfielders Major League Baseball players from Canada New Orleans Zephyrs players People from East York, Toronto Pan American Games bronze medalists for Canada Pan American Games bronze medalists in baseball Philadelphia Phillies players Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons players St. Catharines Blue Jays players Syracuse Chiefs players Toronto Blue Jays players Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games Baseball players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Baseball players at the 1990 Goodwill Games 2003 Baseball World Cup players