Minor-league lifestyle suits Glenn Hubbard

Major league seasons

.244

Career battting average

1983

Best season (12 home runs, 70 RBIs, All-Star Game)

70

Career home runs

1,322

Career games

.983

Career fielding percentage

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Is Glenn Hubbard a lifer?

If 38 consecutive years in professional baseball qualifies, put him down happily as a yes.

The former Atlanta Braves second baseman, a popular working-man’s player in an era when the Braves weren’t very good, was in Asheville, N.C., last week as the first-base coach of the Lexington (Kentucky) Legends, an opponent of the Asheville Tourists at McCormick Field.

After 34 years with the Braves as a player and coach, minors and majors, he was let go after the 2010 season.

So, for the past four seasons, Hubbard has worked in the Kansas City Royals organization, first as a roving minor-league instructor and now with the Legends.

“I’m right where I’m supposed to be,” Hubbard said with a big smile after he watched the players he works with bang out 15 hits in a 15-7 victory against the Tourists.

“I didn’t realize it had been that number of years, but I knew it was a long time. That means I like what I’m doing.”

In 12 major-league seasons, he had a career average of .244. He played for the Braves from 1978-87 and made a World Series appearance with the Oakland Athletics while playing there from 1988-89.

Hubbard, who was selected to play in the All-Star Game in 1983, spent 10 years as a minor-league coach in the Braves’ organization after retiring as a player.

From 1999-2010, he was back in the majors as Atlanta’s first-base coach.

When Bobby Cox retired as the Braves’ manager in 2010, he had to deal with the shock and adjustment of leaving the organization.

“It was disappointing after being with them for (34) years,” he said. “I knew there were going to be some changes, so I asked for a minor-league job, but (Atlanta general manager) Frank Wren told me there were no openings.

“But the day I was let go, the Royals called.”

Tourists manager Fred Ocasio, who has former major-leaguer Mike Devereaux on his staff as hitting coach, said it helps young players to get guidance from coaches who know what it takes to make it to the majors.

“Guys like Hubbard and Mike, they get that respect because the players know what they have done in their careers,” Ocasio said.

After three years as a roving instructor, Hubbard is enjoying being with one team the entire season.

“This is 1,000 percent better. I like this (Class A) level of baseball as a coach,” he said. “There’s a lot of ugly baseball, but there is some good as well. Hopefully, I have made an impact.

“There’s more (pre-game) work. There’s more specific things you work on with the guys. The big leagues is just about winning, here it’s more about development, but it doesn’t negate the fact these guys need to learn how to win.”

But the pressure to win is totally different.

“We won 14 straight (National League division) championships in Atlanta, and I was part of (seven) of those, and I thought I was going to get fired every year.

“And the one year I didn’t think I was going to get fired, I got fired,” he said with a big laugh. “That’s baseball, I guess.”