NASHUA – It was the fall of 1999, and two entities in need of a rejuvenation were about to be on a collision course to join forces.

There was the Nashua Pride, the independent Atlantic League franchise that had a good first year under manager Mike Easler in 1998 but a disastrous one on the field under a manager that wasn’t a good fit, Bobby Tolan.

A few hours north, there was Butch Hobson, living in Vermont with his family – near former Red Sox teammate Bill Lee – and debating whether or not to stay in the Red Sox system, his second tenure with the organization that once had him as its Major League manager. Hobson was managing the Red Sox A team in the Florida State League.

“They were talking about me going up to Double A,” Hobson said. “My family, I had a chance to get involved in independent baseball where you try to help guys get back to an organization, or get back to the big leagues if that’s what their goal or their dream is.”

That chance occurred, Hobson said, because his good friend, former Yankee relief pitcher Sparky Lyle was managing the Somerset Patriots in the independent Atlantic League.

“I called Sparky and talked to him about what he thought of the Atlantic League and independent ball,” Hobson said.

That, he said, led to a phone call to original Pride general manager Billy Johnson. Hobson believes he made the first contact, not the other way around, because he knew from Lyle that the Nashua job was open.

“He talked to Chris English, they brought me down and they offered me the job,” Hobson said. “I believe I contacted them first. I just saw this was a way to be close to my family and work hard to get players to the next level, back to an organization.

“It was just something that intrigued me and I said, ‘Let’s go for it.'”

And the rest is history. The Pride built a whole campaign around Hobson, with the slogan “Butch is Back.” There was even a billboard on Route 3 heading north just when one crossed into Nashua with Hobson’s image and that slogan. Pride officials said it paid for itself that year as the team averaged roughly 2,000 a game. As Johnson said, “People just love Butch Hobson.”

And, on Friday night, the Nashua Silver Knights are slated to honor that franchise and it’s beloved manager.

“I loved that ballpark,” Hobson, now 73 years young, said. “It was a chance to have my family in Nashua, the kids were starting school, it’s a wonderful city, a wondrful area, the people are wonderful. I made a lot of family friends, it’s going to be a very special time for me.

“I’m really, really excited about it, looking forward to seeing the fans and sitting in that dugout in Historic Holman Stadium again.”

In that dugout looking out at the foul pole he climbed one night to show the umpire he blew a fair-foul call, robbing the Pride of a home run.

“Monkey Boy was talking about us doing something just to bring back memories,” Hobson said. “I said ‘If I were in better shape, I’d go back out there and climb that foul pole again.”

Twenty-five years ago the Pride captured the Atlantic League championship in Hobson’s first year as Pride manager.

“It was my first year in Nashua, and first year in independent ball,” he said. “That 2000 team was pretty special. We were pretty damn good.”

They definitely were. The team was in the playoffs just about every year under Hobson except for 2002 and 2006. “I loved the Atlantic League,” Hobson said. “That 2000 team was one of the best teams I’ve been a part of in all my years in Independent ball.”

And those were a lot of years. Since leaving the Pride, Hobson has managed elsewhere in the Atlantic League -three seasons as the skipper of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, and six as manager of the Lancaster (Pa.) Barnstormers. He also spent a season managing the Kane County Cougars in the Class A Midwest league and then returned to indy ball to manage the Chicago Dogs of the American Association from 2018-2023.

Hobson wrapped up a career managing 24 seasons in independent baseball and became the first modern indy ball manager to win 1,500 games (1538-1325, .537).

But that 2000 team. …

“We had a lot of talent but a lot of unselfish players,” Hobson said. “Players who loved each other; it was a close-knit group. We were a family that every day they went on the field they gave everything that they had, and they did it in a class way.”

Glenn Murray, D.J. Boston as leaders along with Pork Chop Pough, Milt Cuyler, James Lofton, Tony Rodriguez, etc. “It was a tight group and very talented,” Hobson said.

What appealed to Hobson so much about independent ball?

“It was a chance for me, No. 1, to be close to my family,” he said. “I moved my family to Nashua and it was a chance to be close to them. It was a chance to work with players who had been released or maybe coming back from injuries, to do what I could do with my knowledge of the game to help them to try to have an opportunity to sign back with an organization.”

There’s more. “It was an opportunity to put my own team together,” Hobson said. “That’s a pretty special thing to do that. It takes a lot of homework. I enjoyed that part of it, and the players that we brought in, you know, go out and play the game because they love it. Not because they were making a lot of money, because you don’t make any money in the Atlantic League. They played the game because they love it. That’s what I liked about independent ball.”

HOBSON LEAVES

When Hobson left Nashua after winning the Can-Am title, he knew the Pride were on their last legs as a franchise, although owner John Stabile squeezed one more year out of it.

He got an offer to be the manager in Southern Maryland, and knew he was going to have to make a move at some point.

“It was difficult to leave,” he said. “I had a home there. …”

More than that, Hobson was part of the community. Had he ever been part of a community where he managed before?

“No,” he said, “because I didn’t live there.”

His sons K.C., Hank and Noah were going to school – K.C. Quarterbacked Nashua North as a freshman. His daughter Olivia was born here.

“It was a special time in my life,” he said. “A lot of special friends in Nashua.”

Managing in Chicago – Rosemont, was special, Hobson said. The team, playing in the highly competitive independent American Association, did well. But in 2023 Hobson had knee replacement surgery, and had complications that included a staff infection. After fourteen weeks, in the middle of July, he was cleared to go back to manage and took the team to the finals where they fell in Game 4. After that he and the team parted ways, Hobson spent most of the last year recuperating, often walks with a cane, but works out, still goes to physical therapy “and I do the things I need to do.”

K.C. Hobson, who now lives in Texas, was in the Toronto Blue Jays organization and played for a bit with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. He was briefly with the White Sox organization but joined his father in Chicago and played for Hobson in 2021 and 2022.

“It was awesome,” Hobson said, noting that in 2016 when he played for Hobson in Lancaster, and they were in Bridgeport playing the Bluefish (also no longer). “Neither team was in the playoffs, and Friday night’s game, K.C.was getting ready to hit,” Hobson recalled. “I said,’Son, on Sunday I’m going to do something and I want to make sure you’re OK with it.'”

What did Hobson want to do?

“I said I’m going to activate myself on Sunday,” Hobson said. “I’m going to play third, you play first. You hit third, and we’re going to do it for one inning. What do you think? He said, ‘Go for it , Dad.'”

“I had to do it,” Hobson said. “My most favorite memory of my managing baseball. I had to do it.”

MORE MEMORIES

One thing Hobson loved the most while with the Pride was Chris Ames and Monkey Boy. “One of the best mascots I’ve been around, he was tremendous,” Hobson said.

“And the stadium just has an atmosphere of history to it, a fun ballpark to play in, they added the skyboxes up top, and watching it grow like that. The times spending in the Atlantic League – back then we played 140 games.”

But there was a difference.

“Being able,” Hobson said, “to go home at night to my family. That was a pretty special thing.”

In 2000, the Pride beat Somerset in Game 1 of the title series on a Saturday night and won Game 2 on a warm Sunday afternoon, Oct. 1. That was the last game of the season at Holman Stadium as the team would have three chances at Somerset to wrap things up. But Hobson did something he’d never done before. After Game 2, he addressed the crowd – there were about 1,500 fans there – and told them he’d be returning for the 2001 season.

“Never had I really done that before,” Hobson said. “It was my first year in independent ball, and I’ve always been somebody who associates myself with the crowds. Even in 2022, when I couldn’t coach third because of my knee but I’d go out in the first inning and say hi to everybody before my hitting coach would take over.”

Another Hobson moment: When Garces recorded the final out in North Shore, Hobson stayed in the dugout alone while the players celebrated, reflecting – and may have shed a tear. He knew that was going to be his final game in a Pride uniform and that the franchise itself might not return.

“It was a special moment,” Hobson said. “That team was a pretty special team also, we had three Japanese pitchers, it was a special time for Mr. Stabile, for John and his family. I knew I was going to be leaving.”

Hobson will be returning to find a franchise that has undoubtedly been the most successful of all the teams at Holman – including the Pride – because the summer collegiate model promotes staying power if managed correctly.

Is Hobson surprised?

“Well,” he said, pausing, “the Cape Cod League has been around for a long time. And I think with today, just like independent ball, in today’s world, having these college players have a chance to play so scouts can see them, that’s what the Cape Cod League is. I’m not surprised it’s a success. It’s baseball.”

Hobson knows that his former GM with the Pride under the Stabile ownership, Chris Hall, was instrumental in creating the Futures League and is its former Commissioner. Hobson is looking forward to seeing him, and knows that Hall’s baseball acumen is sharp. And so is the owner who brought Hobson to Nashua in Chris English, who owns one of the league’s top franchises, the Vermont Lake Monsters.

Hobson hasn’t talked to too many other people in Nashua; he spoke with Murray several months ago when Murray told him of former Pride slugger Jimmy Hurst’s passing. Hobson went to his funeral in Alabama.

The bottom line is that Hobson presence helped keep the Nashua Pride alive likely much longer than it probably would have otherwise. The funny thing is the franchise is probably more popular now in non existence than it ever was when it was here.

And as a result, Butch is back. If only for a couple of days and what is hoped to be a special night of honoring Nashua baseball history.