DOES ANYONE EDIT THE TIMES?:

Lobsterman From Nicaragua Could Join Red Sox Cast (MURRAY CHASS, 1/14/07, NY Times)

Devern Hansack. Remember the name. Remember it because it is the name of a pitcher who pitched a no-hitter that most everyone probably doesn't know about. [...]

Hansack, a lobsterman from Nicaragua, is a 28-year-old right-hander, only the ninth player from his country to play in the major leagues. The last-day start was his second for Boston in the final weeks of the season.

In the Houston system for four years, Hansack was released at the end of spring training in 2004, and he was out of professional baseball for the next two years. Craig Shipley -- tipped off by the third-base coach for the Nicaraguan national team, who scouts for the Red Sox -- saw Hansack pitch in an international tournament in the Netherlands in 2005.

Shipley liked what he saw. "He was pretty easy to like," Shipley said. "He was throwing 93, 94 and had a good slider, an above-average slider." Shipley, Boston's vice president for international scouting, knew he wanted to sign him, but let him go home unsigned.

After Hansack returned home, Shipley sent Jon Dipuglia, the Latin American scouting cross-checker, to Nicaragua to sign him.

"We didn't make contact with him in Holland," Shipley said, explaining his strategy. "When you make contact, the player starts talking to others on the club and they say, 'I know this guy with that team and that guy with that team,' and you could lose the chance to sign him. I also didn't want scouts who were there to see me talking to him."

Hansack pitched last season for Class AA Portland in Maine, then was summoned by the Red Sox in September. He will try to win a bullpen job with Boston in spring training.

"I'm happy for Devern," Shipley said. "He took the opportunity and made the most of it. It was a good way to end the season.

Shipley said Hansack left a good impression on Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein and "the rest of the staff."

"So it's great for him," Shipley said. "Now he has the opportunity to make the team out of spring training. If you had told him that a year and a half ago, he'd probably have laughed at you."

Shipley added an additional thought. "If he keeps pitching well," he said, "he won't have to fish for lobster any more."

Everyone could unlikely write a sentence more awkward than that bolded one.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 14, 2007 2:27 PM