Plans Call for May 2 to Be Opening Day
By Megan Greenwell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Former Boston Red Sox manager Butch Hobson will lead the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in their inaugural season, the team announced recently.
Hobson, 56, played third base for the Red Sox, the California Angels and the New York Yankees between 1975 and 1982, then managed Boston from 1992 to 1994. He currently manages the Nashua Pride minor league team, which is part of the independent Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball.
Hobson's appointment is the latest in a recent spate of hiring decisions by team officials as they prepare for Opening Day on May 2. Longtime minor league baseball executive Mark Viniard was named the team's general manager earlier this fall.
"I think people are starting to realize that we're about to have a baseball team here," said Viniard, 39, as he walked around the construction site of the team's stadium on Piney Church Road in Waldorf. "After all the battles over funding and delays, it's finally becoming reality."
Hobson and recently appointed bench coach Andy Etchebarren bring the number of former major leaguers on the Blue Crabs' management team to three. Etchebarren, a two-time All-Star, played catcher for the Baltimore Orioles for 11 years in the 1960s and '70s, sharing the field with Blue Crabs partner and Orioles legend Brooks Robinson.
Team executives said the involvement of people whose names are recognizable to Maryland baseball fans has been a boon for the team.
Robinson's photo adorns several billboards in Southern Maryland and has a prominent place on the team's Web site.
"There's no coincidence about how much we've been using Brooks's name," Viniard said. "That's obviously helping to get people excited."
Viniard said Robinson has taken an active role in the team, hiring Hobson and visiting the construction site regularly. Earlier this month, he participated in the Veterans Day parade in Leonardtown, one of various events the team is involved in to build a fan base in Calvert and St. Mary's counties as well as in Charles.
Construction crews have laid steel beams to form the outer shell of the 16 corporate suites behind home plate, while also preparing to seed the playing field. Viniard said construction is ahead of schedule, which will allow flexibility if snow this winter causes delays.
Until the Blue Crabs take the field for the first time, Viniard's time will be devoted to overseeing the stadium's construction and developing marketing and outreach programs to inform people of the team's upcoming debut. He knows the role well, having served as general manager for the Kannapolis (N.C.) Intimidators before the team's first season in 1995. Like the Blue Crabs in Waldorf, the Kannapolis team is based about 25 miles from a large city.
"When this opportunity came up, I knew it would be a very fun process," Viniard said.
"There are a lot of similarities, being close to a major market but not being dependent on it for a fan base."
Viniard reiterated team officials' desire to make the stadium a year-round entertainment facility with plenty of offerings during baseball's offseason. In Lancaster, Pa., where the minor league team is owned by the same group as the Blue Crabs, the stadium hosts concerts when the team is on the road and is converted into an ice rink in the winter.
"This has so many possibilities for quality of life in Southern Maryland," Viniard said. "There's been no entertainment complex here that people can truly call their own, so the stadium will add so much."
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