Butch Hobson

Clell Lavern "Butch" Hobson, Jr. (born August 17, 1951) is a former third baseman and manager in Major League Baseball and current manager of the independent league Chicago Dogs.

Hobson played for the Boston Red Sox (1975–80), California Angels (1981) and New York Yankees (1982), batted and threw right-handed.

After retiring, he managed the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Boston Red Sox. He managed the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball in 2008. He won the International League Manager of the Year award in 1991, and led the Nashua Pride to the Atlantic League Championship in 2000 and the Can-Am League Championship in 2007. He previously served as manager of the Lancaster Barnstormers and the Kane County Cougars.

Athlete
Hobson was a backup quarterback for the University of Alabama team under Bear Bryant as well as a baseball standout. Selected by the Red Sox in the 1973 amateur draft, he made his debut in 1975.

His most productive season came in 1977, when he set team season records for a third baseman with 30 home runs and 112 RBIs. In 1978, Hobson hit 17 home runs with 80 RBI. However, he posted 43 errors, the most for any American League fielder in that season, and his .899 fielding average also was the first below .900 by a regular player in 60 years. Hobson hit 28 home runs with 93 RBI in 1979, but a year later, an ensuing injury to his right elbow landed him on the disabled list for major parts of that season and the next.

Before the 1981 season, Hobson was sent to the Angels along with Rick Burleson in the same trade that brought Carney Lansford and Mark Clear to Boston. Hobson finished his major league career with the Yankees in 1982.

In an eight-year career, Hobson had a .248 batting average with 98 home runs and 397 RBI in 738 games.

Hobson holds the MLB record for fewest career home runs with a 30 home run season.

Manager
Hobson managed Pawtucket for one season and posted a 79-64 record to lead his team to a first-place finish in the International League. After losing the Governors' Cup to Columbus, he was hired to manage the Red Sox parent club and posted a 207-232 record for Boston from 1992 to 1994. In 1996, while managing the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, then a Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, he was arrested for possession of cocaine and immediately fired.

He managed the Nashua Pride for the 2000 through 2007 seasons with a record of 508-456. On rare occasions when an umpire ejected Hobson from a game for arguing a baserunning decision, Hobson would remove one of the bases and deliver it to a young fan before leaving the stadium. This signature move was one of the meanings of Stolen Bases, a movie the Pride commissioned in 2000. For example, Hobson "stole" first base on July 27, 2007 when a baserunner for the North Shore Spirit was called out at first base, then ruled safe after a protest by the opposing manager. The base was always retrieved, allowing the game to resume.

On November 19, 2007, Hobson was named the first-ever manager of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in the Atlantic League. He won manager of the year for the Atlantic League for the 2008 season.

On October 19, 2010, Hobson was named manager of the Lancaster Barnstormers for the 2011 season.

On January 5, 2017, Hobson was named manager of the Kane County Cougars for the 2017 season.

Personal life
Hobson's son, K. C. Hobson, played baseball for Stockdale High School where Butch helped as an assistant baseball coach from 2008 through 2009 helping the Mustangs win two CIF section championships. Afterwards K. C. was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 6th round, 190th overall in the June 2009 baseball draft and has played for the Class-A Dunedin Blue Jays and the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats of the Eastern League (baseball) and appeared with the Richmond Flying Squirrels of the Eastern League in the 2018 season, the Double-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants.

Another son, Hank Hobson, was a linebacker with the University of Arizona Wildcats football team from 2011-2014.