A former major league baseball player with family ties to Newfoundland and Labrador soon hopes to elevate the talent of players coming from this province.
Rich Butler, a Canadian outfielder who split 86 career games between his hometown Toronto Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the late 1990s, is moving with his family to Upper Island Cove with the aim to establish a baseball academy here. The 46-year-old former pro is the younger brother of fellow former Blue Jay and World Series champion Rob Butler.
The Butler boys' connection to Newfoundland and Labrador became well-known in the province after Rob was part of the Blue Jays team that won Toronto‘s second Word Series in 1993. They're the sons of Frank Butler, who was from Butlerville area of Bay Roberts. For Rich, those family ties extend to his wife Jackie, who is from Upper Island Cove. The Butler family will move to a house in the latter community next month.
"I'm really excited about this move to Newfoundland," Rich said. "I think it's a good opportunity. I'm just going to start out small and work my way up and grow the game. I just want to train the kids."
The concept for 709 Baseball is to teach the fundamentals of the sport to players of all ages. Rich expects to focus on youth ages 6-14 for some camps toward the end of August, given he has limited time before youngsters head back to school. But beyond the summer, Rich intends to put in the work to find indoor facilities he can use for training young baseball players in Bay Roberts and the surrounding area. With enough interest, he hopes to offer a program that will service the entire province.
"That's why I called it 709 Baseball — to encompass all of Newfoundland," he said. "Not just Rich Butler Baseball or something like that. I want to make it more personal to all of Newfoundland."
He's been back to the Conception Bay North area before to work with young athletes, but with a full family move, Rich expects to make this venture something more substantial to benefit the sport in the province.
"That's why I called it 709 Baseball — to encompass all of Newfoundland. Not just Rich Butler Baseball or something like that. I want to make it more personal to all of Newfoundland."
Rich Butler
Memories of the baseball explosion that rocked Canada following the Blue Jays' back-to-back World Series wins in 1992 and 1993 were recently resurrected when the Toronto Raptors became the first Canadian team to win an NBA championship. Expectations are the Raptors win will help basketball grow across Canada. Rich has witnessed what a professional team's success can do for a sport in Canada that is not hockey.
"Baseball really exploded after the Blue Jays won the World Series," said Rich, who played in the Blue Jays farm system during that time before making his major league debut with the team in 1997. "Interest in baseball across Canada and (enrolment in minor baseball) went up. Numbers were really high, and it really inspired a lot of young kids to become baseball players for sure."
There was also a noticeable surge in interest at a youth level a few years ago when Blue Jays teams, led by the likes of Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson, made noise in the playoffs, taking Toronto to the American League Championships Series in 2015 and 2016. That team is now in rebuild mode, hoping young players like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Cavan Biggio develop into stars that can lead the team to future glories.
Since the end of his playing days, Rich has been heavily involved in baseball as a coach and instructor. In Ontario, he's regularly worked alongside his brother Rob, who owns the Butler Baseball Academy in Ajax.
"I've been coaching, instructing primarily baseball and softball – girls softball, boys baseball – for almost the last 20 years. That's pretty much been all my work. Just running camps, running lessons with small groups and large groups, travel teams, pretty much everything."
He's cognizant of the fact most kids he works with these days are not aware of his playing career, but feels he's built a solid reputation through his many years on the field helping youth excel at a sport he still loves.
"Well, I'm a baseballer for life," he said. "My playing days are so far gone, most kids today really don't make a connection to me and my professional career. But my reputation and my hard work keeps me connected with the game and allows me to have my camps.
“After they come to the camp, they realize who I am."
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Butler played for the Jays and Rays
Rich Butler played 86 games in the major leagues over three seasons, beginning in 1997 with his hometown Toronto Blue Jays. However, most of his big-league action was with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who selected him from the Jays in the 1998 expansion draft.
In total, he appeared in 79 games and 259 at-bats with the Devils Rays in 1998 and 1999.
Born in Toronto, raised in East York, Ont., Butler was signed by the Blue Jays as a 17-year-old undrafted free agent in 1990. He worked his way up through the organization’s minor system and had what was arguably his best-ever season as a professional in 1997, when he led the International League’s Syracuse SkyChiefs with 24 home runs, 93 runs, 87 RBIs and 20 stolen bases while fashioning a .300 batting average.
Among Butler’s teammates in Syracuse that year was the late Roy Halladay. Butler had also been a teammate of Halladay, who was inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame over the weekend, for a short time with Dunedin of the Florida State League.
In all, Butler has seven homers, 30 runs, 23 runs batted in and a .223 average in 86 MLB games.
He later played for Canada on two World Cup teams.
The Compass
With Files from The Telegram
