Page 171 - 1975 BoSox

BEFORE CURT SCHILLING AND the bloody sock in 2004, one player who personi ed toughness in a Boston
Red Sox uniform was Butch Hobson. Hobson’s legacy is that of a power-hitting third baseman who brought a football mentality to the diamond in the way he played through pain and gave every ounce of e ort on the eld that his body could muster.
Clell Lavern Hobson, Jr. was born on August 17, 1951, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. An American Legion and Bessemer (Alabama) High School Most Valuable Player, he followed in his father’s footsteps to play football and baseball at the University of Alabama. His father, a three-year letterman at quarterback for Alabama, was Hobson’s football coach at Bessemer High. Butch was named to the All-Je erson County team as a quarterback. He was a safety and backup quarterback at Alabama under legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. In the 1972 Orange Bowl national championship game, won by Nebraska over Alabama by 38-6, Hobson ran the wishbone o ense for the Crimson Tide after starting quarterback Terry Davis was injured in the fourth quarter. Alabama’s most successful o ensive options in that game were the option running and draw plays executed by their quarterback tandem. According to Herb Crehan in Red Sox Heroes of Yesteryear, Hobson carried the ball 15 times, rushing for 59 yards in the Orange Bowl.
Entering his senior year at Alabama, Hobson decided to concentrate solely on baseball. In 2004
he said, As reported to Kevin Glew in
Baseball Digest, “I told Coach Bryant my
decision and he told me, ‘Well, Butch, from what I’ve seen of you on the baseball eld, you’ll be playing football for me next year.’ “1 Hobson’s choice proved to be a wise one. In 1973 he was the team leader in hits (38), home runs (13), and
RBIs (37), and tied for the team lead in runs (20). e 13 home runs were a Southeastern Conference record. He was named to the ABCA All-South Region Team and was a First Team All-SEC selection. Hobson lettered in baseball at Alabama in 1970, 1972, and 1973, playing for coaches Joe Sewell and Hayden Riley. He hit .250 for his collegiate career (80-for-320) with 18 homers and 54 RBIs. In 1993 Hobson was named to Alabama’s All-Century baseball team in commemora- tion of the school’s 100th anniversary of baseball.
Hobson was selected by the Red Sox in the eighth round of the 1973 amateur draft and was signed to a contract by Red Sox scout Milt Bolling on August 1, 1973. He was assigned to Winston-Salem where he hit a mere .179 in 17 games. His numbers improved over a full season at Winston-Salem as he hit .284 with 14 homers and 74 RBIs in 1974 and they earned him a promotion to Bristol of the Eastern League. His 15 homers, 73 RBIs, and .265 batting average at Bristol in 1975 helped secure him a call-up to Boston in September.
Hobson made his major-league debut on September 7, 1975, in the second game of a doubleheader against the Brewers at Milwaukee’s County Stadium, pinch- running for Cecil Cooper in the fth inning. In his only other 1975 appearance in the Red Sox lineup, he started at third base at Fenway Park on September 28 in an 11-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians. Hitting eighth in the order, he struck out twice and ied out to center
eld before getting his rst major-league hit, a single o left-hander Jim Strickland in the eighth inning.
After beginning the 1976 season at Triple-A Pawtucket (in an attempt to appeal to a broader audience, the club was brie y named the Rhode Island Red Sox, but changed back to the Pawtucket Red Sox in 1977), Hobson made his 1976
Butch Hobson
by Andrew Blume
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