As Baseball Canada’s national senior team participates in a qualification tournament for the 2005 Senior World Cup in Holland Sept. 2-17, former Major League Baseball player Rob Butler again dons the Canadian national team uniform. Recently, Baseball Canada.ca sat down with Butler for a conversation. To learn more about Butler, continue below.
BC: How does it feel putting on the national team uniform again this spring?
Butler: It feels good. I didn’t think I was ever going to play at this level again. When Greg (Hamilton, director of national teams) called, I was rearranging my schedule as fast as I could to be able to play.
BC: What value do you put into your amount of experience that you can share with the others on this team?
Butler: From the veterans I learned from, it was all about how you handle things on the field. I’m not a rah-rah type of guy so it’s more through how I play the game that I try to lead.
BC: What is your favorite part about baseball?
Butler: Mostly hanging with the guys, trying to accomplish something as a team. The conversations you have as the game goes on, the fun you have with the guys – that’s what I enjoy.
BC: Whom are you picking to win the World Series?
Butler: If I followed baseball, I’d be able to answer that. (laughs) It’s tough to say… I’m a bit of a Yankees fan since I watched them growing up. So, I suppose I’m cheering for them.
BC: Having lived the life you’ve had so far, playing in the major leagues and enjoying the benefits of a professional athlete, would you hope any of your children become a pro athlete?
Butler: No. Definitely not. I’m hoping they would experience my life athletically, but that’s it. I really punched myself mentally and physically to get there. I wouldn’t want my son or daughter to throw a ball against a wall for five hours a day to get where I got.
Prior to this spring, Rob Butler also played for a Baseball Canada national team in 1988 and 2003. He currently operates Home Run Baseball Academy (www.homerunbaseball.ca) in Ajax, Ont., with two fellow former big leaguers, his brother Rich and Nigel Wilson.
