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Then the seeds Hobson had planted earlier in his life -- the bad seeds -- had grown and conspired against him. They caught up with him 12 years ago.
Jerry Poe, a high school friend with whom Hobson had used cocaine, owed Hobson money. But instead of sending money, according to court documents, Poe put together a FedEx package for Hobson containing a Bustin' O-U-T magazine and a 2.6-gram bag of cocaine. On May 3, 1996, in Birmingham, Ala., a secretary handling the package accidentally spilled coffee on it. Opening the package to ensure contents were not damaged, the secretary noticed the bag of white powder, according to court documents. She contacted police.
Hobson, meanwhile, was in Pawtucket managing the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, the Philadelphia Phillies' Class AAA affiliate. Hobson stayed in the Pawtucket Comfort Inn during the road trip, according to court documents.
About 12:20 p.m. on May 4, an undercover Drug Enforcement Agency officer holding the FedEx package knocked on Hobson's door, according to court documents. Hobson, working out at Bally's Health Club, was not in the room. The agent left and returned later. At 1:12 p.m., according to court documents, Hobson met the undercover agent in the Comfort Inn lobby.
"I guess I just missed you earlier," Hobson said to the man, who he thought was a FedEx delivery person.
Hobson signed for the package, patted the man's shoulder and left the lobby. Hobson went back to Room 121 and put the cocaine in his brown vinyl shaving kit, according to court documents. About 1:30 p.m., a half-hour before Hobson was expected to be at the ballpark, he answered a knock at his door. DEA agents arrested him.
Hobson was granted a leave of absence by the Phillies, and was fired as Red Barons manager on Aug. 8, 1996.
Because he was a first-time felony offender for a nonviolent crime, Hobson completed a diversion program after the arrest and has devoted time speaking to young athletes about the dangers of substance abuse. He says he no longer uses drugs.
Hobson turned to independent baseball in New Hampshire in 2000, and the Blue Crabs hired him eight years later. This is where the game led him, even though it means living across the country from his family.
"It's a rare person that gets to do what they love their whole life long," says Krystine, who lives in Bakersfield, Calif. "You can't take that away from somebody. You can't say you should be doing something else and say you should be home by five o'clock at what he does."
Hobson has had success at the independent level, leading the Nashua Pride to the Atlantic League championship in 2000 and the Can-Am League title in 2007, and is something of a folk hero in that New Hampshire city, where the team recently retired his No. 17 jersey. But he hasn't been back to the majors.
Is it his past drug use? His struggles with the Red Sox?
