Hobson's Choice
Nashua Pride skipper and former Boston Red Sox great Butch Hobson loves coaching, independent baseball, and his adopted town of Nashua, New Hampshire enough that only one man was right to replace the retiring manager.

DAN HICKLING
MLNSportsZone.com
 

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- There's no mistaking the face. Leathery, angular, topped with a big thatch of hair, snowy white. Every line in it tells a tale. Depicted on many a baseball  card.

Even if Butch Hobson was a complete stranger to you, you would have picked his face out from the hundreds attending the 2004 Independent Winter Meetings.

His is a baseball face.

For the last five years, it has been parked in the dugout of the Nashua Pride, where he is the most successful manager the franchise has ever known.

To the community of Nashua, N.H., the former Boston Red Sox player and manager is the face of the franchise. So much so that when Hobson decided to step down following the 2003 season, citing health reasons, the heartbeat of the franchise slowed to Code Blue stage.   

Hobson, a native of Alabama, and Nashua were meant for each other, and even a brush with a coronary couldn't keep seperate them.   So, when Hobson's successor was named prior to Spring Training 2004, it was none other than (drum roll, please...) Butch Hobson.   

"It was one of those decisions that you make, when you want to spend more time with your family," said Hobson, who has four children at home. "But then your my (Krys) said 'you belong on the field'. And when they're playing at home, I was going to be at the ball park anyway, so I might as well be managing them."   

Hobson's run with the 2004 Pride was only slightly less successful than the previous year, when Nashua took Somerset to the brink before falling in the championship series.   

Nashua made the playoffs again under Hobson, but lost in the first series to eventual champions Long Island.    

If anything, it was a slightly calmer, dare we say gentler, Hobson who led the Pride.    

"I think I worked just as hard," he said. "But game to game, I didn't get into a lot of heated arguments with umpires. Maybe I'm just mellowing out with age. If the umpire is having a bad day, or there's a bad call, and it puts in a position where you lose your class, then it's best to take a deep breath and approach it another way. I think that comes with age and experience."

Not to mention a few chest pains and some shortness of breath, such as struck him in the dugout during that 2003 series with Somerset.   Hobson said that those scares are behind him, and that he'd love to lead the Pride for as long as possible.

That sentiment is shared by the team's new owners, a group headed by businessman John Danos and Atlantic League president Frank Boulton.   Details for a new contract have yet to be ironed out, but Hobson doesn't forsee any reason why he won't remain in Nashua.

"I really like independent baseball," said Hobson. "I really believe in it. And Nashua is a really good city to raise your family. There are really kind people. I live there full time. I must think a lot of it to bring my family there."