Realism Is Tough for Butler

Dodger center fielder Brett Butler told his teammates Wednesday night that he might have played his final baseball game.

Butler, arriving with a soft cast on his broken left hand, will be out four to six weeks. Butler won’t give up hope of returning, but he knows the odds are stacked against him.

“Miracles have happened,” Butler said, remembering his return from cancer.

Butler, who broke his hand trying to bunt Tuesday night, told the Dodgers not to feel sorry for him. He reminded them that they were winning without him before his dramatic return.

“I told them this very likely could be the end,” Butler, 39, said, “and I want it to end with a world championship. I let them know it can happen because this is the best ballclub I’ve been on in 16 years. . . .

“I’ve always wanted to go out of baseball on my own terms. Right now, I’m not able to do that. It’s not an absolute I’m going to retire, I’ll tell you right now.”

Butler, whose left hand must be in a cast for at least three weeks, with two more weeks of rehabilitation, still has aspirations of returning to the team during the playoffs. The Dodgers would have to take a player off the playoff roster to make room for Butler, who has played only four games since May 1.

“From a practical standpoint,” said Fred Claire, executive vice president, “he won’t be ready to play in the National League playoffs. They’re telling us four to six weeks, and I think six weeks is more realistic. That takes us to the World Series.

“But what Brett has accomplished is truly remarkable. No one can ever take anything away from what he’s done. And what he has done as a leadoff hitter puts him among the top of his class in the history of the game.”

Butler believes things happen for a reason.

“I’m not sure what it is,” he said, “but maybe this is God’s way of preventing me from getting sick again.”

Butler, who presented the lineup card at home plate Wednesday night, said perhaps there can be a parallel drawn to former teammate Dave Dravecky of the San Francisco Giants. Dravecky underwent surgery to remove a malignant tumor in his pitching arm Oct. 7, 1988, which required removal of half of his deltoid muscle. Doctors told him that he would never pitch again.

Dravecky returned Aug. 10, 1989, and pitched seven shutout innings against the Cincinnati Reds. Five days later, his arm snapped on the mound. He never pitched again, and his arm eventually was amputated.

“There’s a parallel there,” said Butler, who was Dravecky’s teammate with the Giants. “He had cancer. I had cancer. He came back five days later and broke his arm. Five days later, I broke my hand.

“We went to the World Series that year.

“Hopefully, this time we can win it.”

While his teammates cursed aloud and were in a rotten mood upon hearing the news of Butler’s broken hand, it was Butler who tried to encourage them.

What his teammates never saw were the tears shed by Butler and his wife, Eveline, when X-rays revealed the broken hand.

“I was crying because this doesn’t make sense,” said Eveline, who was at Butler’s side throughout his four-month recovery from cancer of the tonsils. “I feel so bad for him. He worked so long and hard to come back. I was just more frustrated for him than anything.

“And this was upsetting to the kids. I think that they think Dad has been through enough.”