The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs serve as one of the true gems of eastern Maryland. In its three years of existence, the club has has never had a losing season and are on a string of back-to-back postseason appearances.
2011 will be a year of change for the Blue Crabs as they welcome in new leadership from the front office and on the field.
Taking over the reigns as General Manager is baseball veteran Keith Lupton who has spent the majority of his life in Maryland minor league baseball. He spent several years in the Baltimore Orioles organization helping run their minor league franchises, including Hagerstown, Delmarva and Frederick.
On the field, the Blue Crabs welcome in Southern Maryland great Patrick Osborn who takes over as the second manager in team history following the departure of Butch Hobson. After three seasons as a player for the Blue Crabs, Osborn left the field as Southern Maryland's all-time leader in hits (423), doubles (84), and RBI (223). In 2008 he set single-season records in all three categories with 162 hits, 39 doubles and 106 RBI. Osborn is also in the top 10 in team history for every major offensive category.
Last season Osborn hit .298 with eight home runs and 48 RBI in 119 games. It was the fewest number of games played for Osborn as a Blue Crab, as he spent several days out of the lineup filling in for Hobson as manager.
Also new to the team is pitching coach Larry McCall who spent the last 21 seasons in the Baltimore Orioles farm system in the same capacity. The baseball veteran McCall is a former major leaguer who played on the New York Yankees back-to-back World Series Champion team of 1977 and 1978 before finishing his career with the Texas Rangers in 1979.
McCall also made it to the majors as a coach when he became the bullpen coach for Baltimore for the second half of the 2006 season.
The Blue Crabs play their games at Regency Furniture Stadium. Built in 2008, the stadium has 4,200 permanent seats with room for 1,800 more on the outfield bern. Despite being the Atlantic League's smallest market, the team drew over 240,000 fans to Regency Furniture Stadium last season for an average of 3,500 fans per game.
The Blue Crabs are owned by Opening Day Partners.
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General Manager: Keith Lupton
