Former Met Butch Huskey, one of MLB’s last players to wear 42, passes at 54

Butch Huskey, who spent nearly a decade with the Mets as a minor leaguer and major leaguer playing four different positions, passed away at the age of 54 on Friday, the team announced. A source confirmed the cause of death to the Daily News as a blood clot in his lung. Huskey was known as one of the last players to wear No. 42. The league retired the number for Jackie Robinson in 1997, but a grandfather clause allowed players who had already been using it to continue wearing it for the rest of their careers. Huskey was the last member of the Mariners to wear 42, changing it to 44 with the Boston Red Sox in 1999, then back to 42 with the Minnesota Twins. He ended his career with the Colorado Rockies wearing No. 35. Mo Vaughn was the final player to don the number for the Mets, from 2002-2003. A seventh-round draft pick in 1989 by the Mets, Robert Leon “Butch” Huskey spent parts of five seasons in Queens, hitting .264 with a .740 OPS, playing first base, third base and at the corner outfield spots. His best season with the Mets came in 1997 when he clubbed 24 homers and posted an .822 OPS in 142 games, playing mostly in right field. Huskey grew up in Oklahoma, spending his early life with his grandmother, then moved in with his father and eight siblings. A two-sport athlete in high school, he ultimately chose baseball, forgoing a football scholarship at the University of Oklahoma. A top prospect for the Mets throughout his time in their minor league system, Huskey won the club’s organizational award for player of the year in 1989 after spending the season with the rookie-level Gulf Coast Mets. Two years later, Huskey won the Doubleday Award for a second time, and for a third time two years after that in 1993. A stellar season in Double-A Binghamton and an injury to Bobby Bonilla prompted the club to call him up to the big leagues in September 1993. Huskey made his debut in Darryl Kile’s no-hitter against the Mets. The team traded him to the Seattle Mariners ahead of the 1999 season, and the Mariners traded him to the Boston Red Sox at the deadline that season. Huskey hit seven home runs for the Red Sox to help them reach the postseason as a Wild Card team. In Boston, Huskey made his first-ever playoff appearance, hitting .200 with a double and a walk in six games between the ALDS and the ALCS. The Mets announced Huskey’s death prior to their game against the Washington Nationals. Interim manager Andy Green, who watched him play before being drafted himself, acknowledged him at the start of his press conference. “I want to send prayers and thoughts to his family,” Green said. “I know all of our Mets family is thinking of him and the people who love him today.”