Butler humbled, thankful for Hutch Award
By Doug Miller / MLB.com | 02/01/12 6:59 PM EST
SEATTLE -- Billy Butler was the first to admit that he isn't very experienced as a public speaker, so when the Kansas City Royals slugger strode to the podium at Safeco Field on Wednesday to accept the 47th annual Hutch Award for outstanding community service, he helped himself out with a prop.
It was a typical Del Monte can of corn, and it served as a reminder to Butler and his wife, Katie, that their life's work stretches far, far beyond the baseball field.
"I have learned from my charity back in Kansas City that there are many people who cannot afford to buy even a can of corn," Butler said. "My family has been very blessed, and Katie and I feel very strongly that we teach our daughter to give back."
Butler's strength of spirit and his family's work with the needy families of Kansas City has placed him in rarified air. The Hutch Award, a national honor presented yearly by the Seattle-based Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has been given annually since 1965 in honor of Major League player and manager Fred Hutchinson, who died of cancer a year earlier at the age of 45, and its list of honorees reads like a Hall of Fame roster.
Winners have included Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax, Carl Yastrzemski, Pete Rose, Joe Torre, Willie McCovey, Willie Stargell, Lou Brock, George Brett and Johnny Bench.
The Butlers' path to the Hutch Award has been an admirable one. In 2008, Billy and Katie started the Hit-It-A-Ton campaign to help feed the hungry in the Kansas City area through the Bishop Sullivan Center. Through the program, $250 (the cost to purchase a ton of food) has been donated for each home run Butler hits as well as $125 for each double. Through its first three years, the Hit-It-A-Ton campaign, with help from corporate sponsors, has raised more than $215,000 and provided more than 960 tons of food for those in need.
In 2011, the Butlers expanded their efforts with Billy's Doubles Club for Kids, which is helping children understand how powerful charity can be in strengthening communities.
"This whole thing is very humbling," Billy said. "The ability to change peoples' lives is why we feel so good about the program. It's grown every year, and we're very happy about that."
In addition to Butler and local guests such as former big leaguer John Olerud and current Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik and manager Eric Wedge, Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., was on hand Wednesday to serve as the keynote speaker for the event known as the "Hutch Lunch," and he did not disappoint.
Ripken, whose late father, Cal Sr., died from lung cancer, spoke for more than 20 minutes about the attributes that led him to set one of baseball's most famous records: 2,632 consecutive games played.
Ripken spoke of consistency, working to forge your will to try to control situations that you might think are out of your control, and knowing the difference between being, in his words, "good stubborn, bad stubborn and stupid stubborn."
Ripken and Butler had spent most of Wednesday morning touring the Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Hutch School, a downtown Seattle K-12 facility that provides classes for children fighting cancer and their siblings while they're undergoing the long months of treatment at the facility. The workers at the hospital asked Ripken to pitch in, and he was happy to oblige.
"I was blown away with the passion," Ripken said. "They're doing some wonderful work. ... You don't really start to think about cancer a lot until someone really, really close to you is affected and then the whole family is affected."
Butler cited former Royals teammate and 2008 Hutch Award winner Mike Sweeney as being a huge role model in his efforts to take his status as a professional athlete and use it for the greater good.
"Mike Sweeney was the portrait of what you want to be as a man," Butler said. "He does everything right, so to win this award after he's won it means a lot to me. ... One of the joys of playing baseball is to be able to give back as much as possible. It's almost the least you do, because without fans, baseball isn't anything."
Butler also quoted late Royals legend Dan Quisenberry, the famous mustachioed closer as famous for his acts of goodwill in helping the hungry in the Kansas City area as he was for his red hair and submarine delivery.
"He said, 'I may not be able to save the world, but I can always feed my neighbors,'" Butler said. "Even the smallest gestures can make a huge difference."
More information on the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Hutch Award can be found at
www.fhcrc.org.
Doug Miller is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @DougMillerMLB and read his MLBlog, Youneverknow. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.