Butch On Baseball: The Story Of A West Alabama Big Leaguer

NEW BRITAIN, CT — New Britain Red Sox manager Butch Hobson was throwing batting practice to a red-hot AA prospect when his name was called over the stadium's public address system.

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Instead of going to answer the call himself, Hobson sent someone else to see what was needed as he continued to watch in awe as the ball popped off the bat of the team's star player.

But when the man returned, he delivered grim news that would change the course of professional baseball for the next decade.

Jeff Bagwell — the sturdy fourth-round prospect from the University of Hartford who Hobson was tossing batting practice to — had been traded to the Houston Astros for right-handed pitcher Larry Anderson.

"I just stood there and cried," Hobson said in an interview with Patch. "Larry Anderson helped the Red Sox win, but I knew Bagwell was going to be a Hall of Famer."

Indeed, Anderson did help the Red Sox in his lone season in Boston in 1990, appearing in relief in 15 games and posting a 1.23 ERA. But his stats pale in comparison to the 2,150 games where Bagwell wore an Astros jersey on his way to 449 home runs and hitting a career .297.

The instance represents one that Hobson reflected on when asked about things he might have done differently as a manager.

"I probably should have been more involved in player acquisition and have more of a say on who I was working with," he said.

This is just one of numerous stories Hobson shared about his time in the big leagues.

He was the designated hitter for the Red Sox in the 1978 American League East tie-breaker game that made Bucky Dent a icon for the New York Yankees. And he was on the lineup card as the starting third baseman on Sept. 12, 1979 when his friend Carl Yastrzemski singled off Jim Beattie of the New York Yankees to record his 3,000th career hit — his favorite moment of history witnessed during his playing days.

"I mean, how many people can say that?" Hobson asked this reporter after describing the feat. "That's just so historic."

Butch is the genuine article, right?

So, as his alma mater at the University of Alabama gears up to appear in the NCAA Baseball Super Regionals this weekend, Patch caught up with the west Alabama baseball legend to talk shop, his baseball past and plans for the future.

The Manager

Hobson's house on a quiet street in Demopolis is a kind of unintentional baseball museum, with trophies, pictures and other memorabilia on the walls and displayed on shelves — artifacts and memories from a career at the highest level.

In his kitchen hangs a sports page from the Boston Globe that shows him during his playing days with the Red Sox. He had shaggy hair and steel in his eyes.

He's particularly proud of a picture signed by Major League Baseball's all-time hit leader Pete Rose, which shows the two men leaning on a roll-out cage watching someone hit. On another wall hangs a "Back to the Future"-themed poster from when he was hired as the manager of the Boston Red Sox, which also features an illustrated version of Hobson, along with his newly hired pitching coach and his former manager in Boston, the legendary Don Zimmer.

Unfortunately at present, a planned knee replacement has sidelined the 71-year-old Hobson as manager of the Chicago Dogs — the independent league team he manages. He said, apart from two years in the late 1990s when he worked as a scout, this year marks the first summer of his career that he's not been on a baseball field or in a dugout

For the time being, he is mostly home-bound and has to use a walker to get around. Obviously, for someone used to being in the sunshine at a ballpark and who hit three career home runs off the great Jim Palmer, things can get frustrating.

Still, he keeps up with his players, communicates with them every day through a group text or other means and watches all the games. The Dogs currently sit atop the six-team Eastern Division of the American Association with a 14-9 record.

“In so many ways, Butch defines what a manager of men should look like," Chicago Dogs play-by-play broadcaster Sam Brief told Patch. "He’s a role model to his players, his colleagues and to people like me. As a 22-year-old who had just taken his first pro job in broadcasting, I was admittedly intimidated at having a legend like Butch as my first manager. But he welcomed me in with grace and kindness and has since become a great friend to both me and my family. He has time for everyone. He truly loves his players, and he shows that with his words and his actions. Not every manager treats the team broadcaster well. Some do. In Butch, I have found a lifelong friend, and that says a lot about the man he is.”

With the University of Alabama in the midst of sussing out who its next baseball coach will be following the firing of Brad Bohannon, Patch asked Hobson about what makes an effective baseball coach — a question I asked him less than a month ago when writing a profile story on his former Red Sox teammate and longtime Shelton State baseball coach Bobby Sprowl.

And as chance would have it, Hobson's son Noah even played for Sprowl at Shelton State and the celebrated JUCO coach provided a keen response to the same question I had asked Hobson about what made Sprowl a great coach before the Bucs travelled to Grand Junction, Colorado for the 2023 NJCAA World Series.

"His knowledge of the game is so good," Sprowl told Patch. "I have other friends like Buck Showalter and my old roommate Bruce Bochy that they're really intelligent guys who really understand the game. Players will run through a brick wall for these guys and in this day and age that's a tough thing to find [in a manager]. And Butch, I hope he's got another 10 more years of coaching in him. He's that good. When he shakes your hand, you better not have a ring on or he'll bring you to your knees."

For Hobson, it all comes down to connecting with players and communication. Part baseball man and part rock star, he has numerous tattoos, including a dreamcatcher on his right arm and a dragon on his back.

He occupies a rare space among his contemporaries when it comes to his colorful personality, which immediately shows as a strength when it comes to connecting with people.

A former player who knew what it was like to wear the Red Sox uniform, Hobson said he never had much in the way of trouble managing larger-than-life personalities on his team. He knew the lingo, he knew the struggles and he knew the psychology from a player's perspective.

For instance, legendary fireballer Roger Clemens is one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball history and was the ace for the Red Sox managed by Hobson for three seasons from 1992-1994.

Hobson recalled one occasion where Clemens had thrown around 140 pitches — a staggering number difficult to believe compared to today's game — and Hobson called time out for a mound visit. It was a mistake in hindsight, but he knew to listen to his elite competitor for perspective instead of being a managerial tyrant who knows everything.

"I go out there and he tells me to get on back to the dugout and to give the bullpen a rest, so I did," he said with a laugh. "He was one of the greats."

This is an important example, though, that gives insight into Hobson's philosophy on coaching — one that is based on communication.

Indeed, the Hall of Fame sportswriter Peter Gammons wrote when Hobson was fired from the Red Sox after the 1994 season that it was "because he cared too much about his players."

It was one of the few times Hobson said he agreed with what the sporting press had to say about him. This, a man who refused to take the paper at home and who got irate when his favorite country radio station would discuss the Boston Red Sox.

Communication — that's what coaching boils down to for Hobson. And it's something he learned from his college football coach Paul W. "Bear" Bryant. In a day and age where fewer and fewer recall those bygone years, Hobson was a standout on the baseball diamond, but also a member of a historic Crimson Tide football team.

As I wrote in a 2022 profile about Hobson's father — Clell Hobson — Butch was a defensive back and backup quarterback for Bryant at Alabama and saw notable action in the 1972 Orange Bowl game. It was a 38-6 loss to Nebraska that cost Bryant the chance at claiming the fourth national title of his career.

Following an injury to quarterback Terry Davis after the game was out of reach, Hobson came in to run the Wishbone offense and carried the ball 15 times for 84 yards in the losing effort — four more yards than his teammate and legendary Tide running back Johnny Musso ... if you don't count the sacks that drove his rushing yard total down to the 50s ... it's one of this reporter's favorite pieces of Alabama football trivia.

But it's the wisdom of Bear Bryant that shaped much of the way Hobson approaches coaching and he reflected back to seeing the old man smoking a Chesterfield cigarette as he addressed the team.

"He would always say 'call your mama and know that we love you," Hobson said.

Hobson then mentioned another instance where Bryant — a good friend of longtime New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner — came to the Big Apple to watch Hobson play after he was traded to the Bronx Bombers.

"There were all these reporters standing around in the locker room like they normally do and Coach Bryant is in the dugout, so they all leave and go up to him and he says 'I'm not giving any interviews, I'm just here to watch Butch,'" he said, beaming as he described one of the proudest moments of his life.

While there are plenty of fuzzy and historic memories that underscore Hobson's love for the game as a manager, there are others that are downright hysterical and show the individuality and creativity that is so vivid in America's pastime. There's simply no other sport like it.

Hobson insisted that, as a player, he was only ejected from a game one time for slamming his helmet after getting called out at second base, but not for arguing with an umpire. He was angry with himself and paid the price by getting bounced from the game. As a player, he was tough but respectful, by all accounts.

After his major league playing career came to an end following an injury to his ribs when colliding with a catcher during spring training, he was sent to the Class AAA Columbus Clippers and was named the team's captain — a role ultimately meant to prepare him for a career in coaching.

In 1987, Hobson secured his first managerial job with the Class A Columbia Mets of the New York Mets organization. A staunch believer in standing up for his players — something he says a coach is supposed to do — Hobson was ejected more than a dozen times in one season. He said he was told it was some kind of record, but said he didn't have anything to validate the feat in a record book.

However, one instance truly stands out as a memory that could only come from the sport of baseball. During one particularly grueling game, the frustration with officiating became too much to bear on a hot day in Columbia.

The game dragged on and Hobson reflected on the grittiest golden age of the modern game in remembering that he had beer icing down in a tub in the clubhouse.

As Hobson stacked up ejections, it's worth noting that prior to this game, he had been told by the league commissioner that one more ejection would result in a fine and suspension.

You can probably guess how this story ends up:

The score was tied at 2 in the bottom of the 11th inning. The Columbia Mets had runners on first and third when Manny Mantrana hit a ground ball and appeared to beat out the throw, which would have ended the game in a Mets win.

Instead, the first base umpire called the runner out on the bang-bang play and the game was headed to yet another extra inning.

Hobson confronted the umpire, arguing that he should have just called him safe so the game could finally be over with the runner from third crossing the plate.

"It was just a bad call," he said. "[The umpire] told me he wasn't gonna talk about the call and I said I was gonna stay out here and talk about it. And he knew I couldn't get thrown out or I'll get fined and suspended. I went off and lit into him and I said 'you're not gonna throw me out, so I'm gonna throw you out."

And eject the umpire Hobson did, garnished with an animated gesture toward the stands for the umpire to leave the field. Yes, this is baseball gold by itself. It could have ended there and would still be funny. But no, Butch Hobson, whether he wants to admit it or not, is an artist.

Hobson was obviously ejected for mocking the umpire and, as he made his way past the dugout and up the right field line toward the clubhouse, he reached down and snatched the first base bag and walked off with it. It temporarily stopped play and he chunked the dusty white base pad on the desk in his office.

Shortly thereafter, the young coach was joined by the general manager of the Columbia Mets, who said the umpires needed the base back. Like, it wasn't a joke. They really needed the base back to finish out the extra-inning game.

Keep in mind this is Class A ball, so there was no replacement for the base to be found.

"I said 'if [the umpire] wants the base, he can come get it,'" Hobson said with a laugh. "But they were painting our clubhouse lockers orange and blue — Mets colors. So I grabbed a can of orange spray paint and painted that base orange. I had paint on my shirt and pants. But I went back out with it, I put it out there on the ground and said 'let's see if you can see that sumbitch now."

Despite the passion and flair, Hobson said his relationship with umpires is generally a good one, before saying that arguing crucial calls is what he always thought was expected of a manager.

"It might ignite your team a little bit, especially if it's dead," he said. "But, sometimes, it's more exciting for the fans."

Longtime Shelton State baseball coach Bobby Sprowl was an ace college pitcher at Alabama and went on to be a teammate of Hobson's with the Red Sox during the 1978 season. Despite Sprowl getting traded to the Astros following his lone season in Boston, the two longtime coaches remain friends to this day and Sprowl said the 71-year-old Hobson is a "young guy, mentally."

"To do what he's done over this period of time, he's just a baseball guy," Sprowl told Patch. "He's been able to adapt to anything and everything, whether it's the change in kids or whatever. You don't stick around in pro ball and not be able to do those kinds of things."

When asked about his first impressions of the older Hobson once Sprowl got to the big leagues, the blue-collar lefty from Sandusky, Ohio, said he found a kindred spirit, which made his own fast track to the big leagues a little bit easier. He was a developed ballplayer after sticking it out at Alabama and quickly found himself in a different world — much like Hobson had.

"He was one of the guys I knew," Sprowl explained. "I came up so quick [through the minor leagues] and I didn't know a lot of major league players, so I knew him and he treated me well and took care of me and I looked up to him."

Hobson's coaching resume, alone, is an impressive one that highlights the impact he has had on numerous talented ballplayers. But one job that's always eluded him has been the one at his alma mater — the University of Alabama.

Indeed, he says when he inquired with former UA Athletic Director Bill Battle about the opening at the time, Hobson was told he was a quality candidate, but lacked a college degree — never mind he had played the game at the highest level and was a bonafide big league manager for one of the most iconic franchises in all of sports.

On a shelf in his kitchen in Demopolis, his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alabama is proudly displayed among pictures of family and memories from his baseball career.

While he expressed interest at coaching in the college ranks before he finally hangs it up, he said for the time being he is focusing on simply getting back on the field this season with the Dogs.

GLORY DAYS

Hobson sat on his couch and spit Grizzly wintergreen tobacco into a styrofoam cup as he, my brother Brad (a former college pitcher) and I watched game seven of the 1985 World Series between the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals — the best game I could think of when scrolling on YouTube.

"You know, George Brett said I was his favorite third basemen," he told us when the Royal third baseman, with a huge plug of chewing tobacco in his cheek, slapped a line-drive single to right field.

And in another instance, when mustachioed mountain of a man Steve Balboni came to the plate for the Royals, Hobson said "he was a beauty, great ballplayer."

It was a rare and now-cherished memory for my brother and I — both huge baseball fans — and we sat around like wide-eyed little kids as Hobson told story after story.

In examining his career, the man is a living baseball history book. And while his time in the big leagues was short by Cooperstown standards, Hobson was far from a scrub.

Indeed, his best statistical season came in 1977, when he set Red Sox season team records for a third baseman with 30 home runs and 112 RBIs. He also finished 23rd in MVP voting that year, despite not making the All-Star team. That same year, he led the American League with 162 strikeouts at the plate.

What's more, Hobson holds the major league record for fewest career home runs by a player with a 30-home run season.

"It was a pleasure playing with him and there was no doubt how talented he was," former Alabama pitcher and retired Tuscaloosa County School System Assistant Superintendent Gary Mims told Patch — nearly three decades after being the elementary school principal for the author of this story.

Mims was far from a slouch during his time as an imposing presence on the mound for the Crimson Tide. Still, like Sprowl, he saw something special in Butch Hobson — something that would go a long way.

"I wasn't surprised when he was drafted," Mims said. "He had an excellent glove, could hit the ball as far as anybody I've ever seen and had that competitive drive. He was as good a fielder as you'd ever see. ... Even when he got with the Red Sox, we put Red Sox wall paper in our son's bedroom because of that."

But apart from the big picture and anecdotes, baseball nerds will understand that the true magic can be found in the small details — details like Hobson's first career home run.

Let's start here, though: While Butch Hobson only hit 84 career home runs over his eight-season major league tenure, here's some highlights of who those longballs were surrendered by.

• Jim Palmer (3)
• Dave Stieb (2)
• Nolan Ryan
• Catfish Hunter
• Dennis Martinez
• Vida Blue
• Tommy John
• Mike Fidrych
• Dock Ellis
• Ron Guidry
• Dennis Eckersley

Picture this: Hobson's first career home run came on June 28, 1976, in front of 27,648 fans at Fenway Park. He's wearing the white jersey and the iconic red helmet.

The round-tripper was off pitcher Rudy May in a 12-8 win over the Baltimore Orioles, but it came in a most unconventional way.

Indeed, Hobson got a hold of one, drilling it to center field before it caromed off part of the green center field wall at Fenway.

Hobson said, in his prime, he could run a 4.7-second 40-yard dash and he quickly made his way around the bases as Cecil Cooper also scored on the inside the park home run.

But just to show you how much history Hobson has seen up close, it's worth noting that Jim Palmer started on the mound for that game. And while Hobson hustled round the bases for his first career homer, Mr. October himself — Reggie Jackson — was in the outfield during his lone season in Baltimore, while Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson was on third.

"You've got to have some talent, God-given talent," Mims said when asked what he thought made Hobson an elite competitor. "Then, there's a lot of kids and people who have the talent and are lacking that drive and really that work ethic it takes to get to the top of your game and Butch had that. He was out to win. It was a pleasure playing with him and it was no secret he was going to be great."

There are so many stories like that. But, at least selfishly, perhaps the most enthralling anecdote from his playing days can be found in his lone home run off of the greatest pitcher to ever play the game — a pitcher that the author of this very article is named after: Nolan Ryan.

The date is June 2, 1978 — 31,000 fans packed Anaheim Stadium as the Ryan Express took the mound for the California Angels. After contributing with a sacrifice fly in the top of the 2nd inning, Hobson returned to the plate in the top half of the 4th to face down the hard-throwing righty.

"That first time I came up I was just swinging and could hear it," Hobson chuckled.

But in what would end up as a 6-1 Red Sox win over the Angels, it would be the kid from Alabama to give the boys from Boston a jolt that led to a win.

Hobson said after eating a few fastballs from Ryan, he keyed in on an off-speed changeup — a pitch he didn't expect to see — and crushed it. After it soared over the left field wall and Hobson rounded the bases, he tried to soak in the moment.

"Here I am, thinking this guy is suppose to be good!"

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