The grown man is tan. Like sorority tan. Jersey Shore tan. Clint Hurdle’s bronzed face, age 54 years, seemingly radiates from inside the dugout on a similarly scorching summer day.
See, Hurdle loves being on the field before the ballgames, in the mix, throwing batting practice, a rarity for major-league managers.
“You got to throw B.P., you got to work, I’m a working coach. I’ve never been a good enough manager to not work,” said Hurdle, the former Rockies skipper in his second season with Pittsburgh. “And it gets you out in the sun. I hope that I never lose the minor-league blood that I’ve gotten through this game. It’s about working.”
In a season sardined with story lines — Mike Trout and Bryce Harper, R.A. Dickey and Matt Cain, Yu Darvish and Josh Hamilton — Hurdle’s Pirates have demanded attention from the same baseball world that previously deemed Pittsburgh punchless punch lines. Even after Monday’s 5-4 loss against the Rockies, the Pirates are nine games over .500 (49-40) and just one game behind first-place Cincinnati in the National League Central.
“If you know him, or talk to him for five minutes, you pretty much know who he is — a person who’s going to say what he feels and mean it,” said Pittsburgh all-star Andrew McCutchen, who entered Monday with an NL-leading .371 batting average. “He’s very energetic in the clubhouse and on the field, positive, keeps you going in the right direction. And we respect him as well.”
The batting practice and the players’ manager reputation can only go so far. Hurdle was the darling of Denver when the Rockies went to the 2007 World Series. Less than two seasons later, the same players were tuning him out — and soon he was out as manager.
But as Hurdle said about the perennially losing Pirates, who haven’t had a winning season since 1992, “I think they were looking for things from the next manager. I am optimistic, I am positive, I believe in encouraging people and challenging people, speaking greatness to young men, helping them grow on and off the field. I think more than anything, they were looking for some direction, maybe a guy who had gone a couple places and been a small part of a group that had done some things.”
The Pirates entered the season with a payroll of about $63 million — fifth-lowest in baseball — and with names new even to fantasy geeks. But they’ve done it with pitching, including a 3.53 team ERA that’s fifth-best in the National League, as well as just six blown saves, fewest in the league.
And the boys are bonding. In the Pittsburgh clubhouse Monday, the players talked about a bond built amid losing and the growth through adversity. Yeah, every spring, the Pirates probably talked about growing through losing. But this bunch, under Hurdle, seemingly is walking the walk (though not taking walks — they’re second-to-last in the NL).
“He’s a big presence,” Joel Hanrahan, the Pirates’ all-star closer, said of Hurdle. “He’s one of those guys who you know he’s in the room when he walks in there, he’ll let you know that. He lets us play the game and if something is wrong, he’ll step in and kind of tell us how to do things.
“He connects to the fans really well there. They were excited when he came over and they’re still excited. There are actually quite a few Hurdle jerseys in the stands. He talks to the fans, he moved to Pittsburgh, tried to become one of them. They’ve really embraced him.”
The rejuvenation of Pittsburgh, which hasn’t had good baseball since Barry Bonds was skinny, is reminiscent of Denver in the fall of 2007, when a bunch of homegrown, likable ballplayers started clicking and making magic.
“The fans are starting to get loud,” Hurdle said. “They’re starting to get proud. … And with the team, we’ve developed trust in a year and a half, which is critical. They trust me and I trust them.”
Asked if there’s personal satisfaction in coming back to Denver, the place he was fired, with a contending team, Hurdle said: “It’s not really about personal satisfaction for me. What I really plug into and did when I was here in Colorado is watching the men grow up and play. To coach them up and instruct them, to grow them as men.
“And the personal satisfaction I get when I come here is when I walk out of the visiting dugout and look and see the flag in left field and know I was a smart part of hanging a National League pennant in a place where, for many years when I was here, was told it could not be done.”
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294, bhochman@denverpost.com or
Pirates on board
Pittsburgh is putting together a season to remember:
1992 — The last time Pittsburgh had a winning season (49-40 through Monday).
29-16 — Pittsburgh’s record in the past 45 games.
24 — Saves by Pirates closer Joel Hanrahan, second in the NL.
.372 — Batting average of Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen after going 2-for-4 Monday. Colorado’s Todd Helton hit .372 in 2000, the highest for an NL batting champion the last 13 seasons.
Benjamin Hochman, The Denver Post
