The question was an indictment of the season.
So what do you say to those people who want you fired?
“I have to wear it. I understand their frustration,” Rockies manager Clint Hurdle told me during batting practice Tuesday. “At the end of the day, it only matters what my players and the people I work for think.”
Owner Dick Monfort, the man responsible for Hurdle’s direct deposit, isn’t carrying around a pink slip in his pocket, in case you were wondering. Asked about those demanding Hurdle’s head, “It’s not going to happen. It’s not productive.”
Sports failure is a funny thing. It’s nothing like death. Everybody grieves differently, and is allowed their personal space. When a team’s season starts taking its last breaths, fans almost universally want emotion from leadership. Throw over a postgame spread. Rip the media. Create a YouTube moment with a news conference eruption.
That, to many, would show that Hurdle is as mad as they are. As for Hurdle, the only thing he thinks it would produce is regret. One of his colleagues, John McClaren, went postal a few weeks ago, and within days he was no longer the manager of the Seattle Mariners.
“I’m not hardwired that way. I am not going to try and have a reaction that other people want to see. I need to stay in contact with players. They know better than anybody who I am,” Hurdle said. “I don’t think I would ever give anybody the pleasure of seeing me melt down.”
There are plenty of examples in sports where coaches use more calm than storm. Hurdle mentioned basketball icons John Wooden and Mike Krzyzewski and Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy.
All practice self-restraint, a lesson that Hurdle has keenly incorporated. As late as 2006, his players were growing weary of his hands-on approach and biting criticism in the papers. The most important move Hurdle made before the greatest season in Rockies’ history didn’t involve a double switch. It was deciding before spring training to let the players police themselves, to put them in charge.
That’s critical to understanding his stance now.
How can he go nuts and start publicly trashing the same players who, in many ways, made last year’s magical finish possible? Wouldn’t that be hypocritical?
“I am not going to throw guys under the bus,” Hurdle said.
So call for him to be fired. It’s your right. But don’t think it’s going to fire him up.
