The Lancaster Barnstormers have started their search for a new manager and the candidates are familiar names to baseball fans.

The team has scheduled or will attempt to schedule interviews with Wally Backman, Gary Carter, Ryan Minor, Bob Robertson and Hal Lanier, according to Keith Lupton, general manager in charge of baseball operations.

Lupton said they have already talked to two other possible replacements: Tom Herr, the 'Stormers manager for their first two years, including their championship season in 2006; and Butch Hobson, currently the manager of the Nashua Pride.

Lupton said Pete Incaviglia was no longer being considered because he got another job in baseball.

Opening Day Partners, the company that owns the Barnstormers as well as three other teams in the Atlantic League, is interviewing people for Lancaster's vacancy as well as the managerial position for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, an expansion team that will debut in 2008.

"We're looking for the two best, both on the field and in the community," said Lupton, who added that along with those mentioned above, others will also be considered.

The 'Stormers fired Frank Klebe in July and pitching coach Rick Wise finished the season as the interim manager. In 2007, Lancaster was 57-69 (29-34 and 10 games back in the season's first half and 28-35, 12 games behind in the second half).

• Herr would seem to have an in as the "local guy" and the person who led the 'Stormers to their first title. But he is still hopeful he will land a job with an affiliated team.



• Hobson managed the Pride to the Can-Am League championship this season. He has managed the Nashua team for the last eight seasons, the first six in the Atlantic League, where they won the championship in 2002. Wise was the pitching coach under Hobson for two of those seasons at Nashua.



• Minor was a player for the Stormers in their first season and has been a coach for the Atlantic League's Road Warriors and York Revolution the past two seasons. A former Baltimore Orioles player and a resident of Maryland, Minor seems a good fit for the Blue Crabs job.



• Backman played 14 major league seasons, mostly for the New York Mets, and was named manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks in November 2004 before being let go four days later due to off-field issues. Backman has said in published reports that those things were in the past and did not come up during the interview process.



• Carter was a Hall of Fame catcher for the Mets and he has experience managing in their minor league system.



• Lanier managed the Houston Astros for three seasons, including a first-place finish in the NL West in 1986 when he was named Manager of the Year.



• Robertson played 11 major league seasons, nine of those with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Lupton said Backman will be interviewed today and they are working out the schedules for the others.

The GM said the team will likely make a decision before the end of November.

E-mail: bwilson@lnpnews.com