Hobson officially named manager

Acquiring players is next step for Blue Crabs

Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Michael Reid Butch Hobson played third base for eight years in the majors, six with the Boston Red Sox. He also managed the Red Sox and in the Can-Am League. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Assembled media members and sponsors were on hand to witness the introductions of everyone from Blue Crabs owner Brooks Robinson, the Hall-of-Fame third baseman who played for the Baltimore Orioles for 23 seasons, to Hobson, a third baseman who played eight years in the majors, six of them with the Boston Red Sox. Hobson also managed the Red Sox for three seasons and Nashua Pride of the Can-Am League for eight.

‘‘He’s hard-nosed, a blue-collar guy,” Robinson said of Hobson. ‘‘And he’s all we can ask for someone who’s going to lead Crustacean Nation.”

‘‘That’s what I am,” Hobson said of being a blue-collar baseball player and manager, ‘‘and that’s what I always have been.”

The Blue Crabs are an independent minor league team that is not affiliated with a major league team. They are a member of the Atlantic League, which is made up of eight teams representing cities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and now Maryland.

The team will acquire players beginning next month with an expansion draft within the Atlantic League. Fifty percent of the players in the league remain in place each year, according to league president Joe Klein. Teams also fill rosters with major league free agents and released players, through the league’s visa program and tryout camps.

The talent on the field will be close to triple-A level, according the Hobson.

Because the Blue Crabs will have no affiliations with major league teams, the pressure to play certain players who are rehabbing won’t be there. Independent league teams have no obligations to play any players who aren’t the best available to the teams at their position.

‘‘If you can’t play, we’ll find somebody who can, or find somebody who can play better,” Klein said.

Twenty-five players will make up the Blue Crabs roster when the season begins May 2. Spring training will take place in Lakeland, Fla., for 10 days beginning April 15.

The Atlantic League season goes until September.

‘‘It’s very special and very meaningful to me to be the manager of this team,” said Hobson, who also played football at the University of Alabama for the legendary Paul ‘‘Bear” Bryant. ‘‘Thank you for letting me be the first manager of the Blue Crabs.”

E-mail Jason Jay at jjay@somdnews.com.