New details have emerged around the death of former New York Mets fan favorite Butch Huskey.
Medical personnel responded to Huskey’s Oklahoma home on Friday, August 14, after receiving reports of a man suffering from “chest pain,” the California Post reported. The former utility player was still alive when he was transported to a local hospital, where he later died. He was 54.
Huskey, who played seven seasons in the Majors from 1993 to 2000, died due to a blood clot in his lungs, according to Mets vice president for alumni relations Jay Horwitz.
Though Huskey also suited up for four other teams, he is best known for the time he spent with the Mets in the mid-1990s. New York’s interim manager Andy Green addressed Huskey’s death while meeting with reporters on Friday.
“I just want to acknowledge this solemn day with the passing of Butch Huskey this morning,” he said. “Just want to send prayers and thoughts to his family. I know all of our Mets family is thinking of him and the people who love him today.”
Horwitz, 81, paid tribute to Huskey in a post via Medium the same day.
“I never like to say that life is unfair, but in this case it is,” he wrote. “This morning without warning Butch Huskey, who was only 54, passed away suddenly in his hometown of Lawton, OK because of a blood clot in his lungs.”
Horwitz continued, “Butch loved the history of the game. He wrote an essay while a high school junior talking about Jackie Robinson. He was proud to continue Jackie’s legacy by wearing his No. 42. He was at Shea Stadium in April 1997 when baseball officially retired the number.”
Robinson’s No. 42 was retired throughout all of Major League Baseball in 1997 with the stipulation that everyone wearing the number at the time could continue to do so. Huskey said at the time that being able to wear Robinson’s number “meant the world to me.”
“It was the ultimate [honor],” he told MLB.com in 2024. “One, being in the big leagues, but two, to wear that number because of everything that he had gone through to make it possible for people of color, to have an opportunity to play at that level.”
After his time with the Mets, Huskey played for the Seattle Mariners, where he became the last player in franchise history to wear No. 42.
Huskey is survived by his wife Kristy, daughters Kennedy and Kyrbi, and son Bryce.
