Seven players, Hobson in All-Star Game

Blue Crabs hoping for repeat of last year when team boasted MVP

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Tuesday's Atlantic League All-Star game in Long Island finished too late for inclusion into this edition. Details of the 13th annual midsummer exhibition can be found in Friday's edition.

The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs matched sister club York with a league-high seven All-Star selections.

Second baseman Casey Benjamin, designated hitter Matt Craig, first baseman Eric Crozier, shortstop Travis Garcia, center fielder Jeremy Owens, starting pitcher Dan Reichert and relief pitcher Ryan Speier comprised the Blue Crabs' list of All-Stars in the game.

Blue Crabs skipper Butch Hobson was an All-Star manager at the game thanks to Southern Maryland's playoff run a year ago, advancing to the league championship series en route to finishing as the runner-up.

The Blue Crabs finished with the best record (41-29) during the first half of the season, which concluded on Independence Day, in winning the Liberty Division.

York (40-30) won the Freedom Division in the first half. Both teams are owned by Opening Day Partners, which includes Baltimore Orioles Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson as an investor.

All-Star selections were decided via votes from fans, media, league officials and coaching staffs. The game pits the league's two divisions against each other.

The Blue Crabs' divisional series victory over Long Island last postseason is what enabled Hobson to manage the Liberty All-Stars.

He brought Blue Crabs pitching coach Marty Janzen to the game as part of his All-Star coaching staff.

The Blue Crabs boast the best pitching in the league by a long shot with an impressive 3.17 ERA — almost a full run better than the next-best mound staff in the league (Bridgeport, 4.15).

Last year, Blue Crabs second baseman Mike Just was the unlikely most valuable player of the All-Star Game.

The gritty, undersized Just went 2 for 5 in the contest, scoring twice and delivering the pivotal one-out, two-run single that tied the game in the ninth with Liberty down, 5-3, at the onset of the frame.

Just stole second base and came around to score the game-winning run in what was a 7-5 comeback victory for Liberty. Ironically, all four Liberty runs in the ninth of last year's All-Star game came against former major league closer Armando Benitez, who New Jersey native Just ironically rooted for growing up as a New York Mets fan.

dcogle@somdnews.com