Clint Hurdle
Clint Hurdle
Clinton Merrick Hurdleis an American former professional baseball outfielder and current manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball. Hurdle played in MLB for the Kansas City Royals, Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets, and St. Louis Cardinals, and has also managed for the Colorado Rockies...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth30 July 1957
CityBig Rapids, MI
difficult extended front goal hold knew onto players start task
Our goal was to give them something to hold onto over the winter. At the start of the season, we knew we had a difficult task in front of us, a lot of challenges. A lot of opportunities were extended to a lot of young players. And a lot of young players answered.
almost anywhere ask bit field innings low player position ready spring
We had almost every position player play anywhere from the low 60s to 100 innings in the field (in spring training). We're not probably going to ask him to do that much, but it's going to need to be a little bit more than him just getting 25 at-bats and being ready to go.
continues good improve offensive optimistic players reason
Our young players give us reason to be optimistic for the future. Holliday continues to improve and should become a good offensive player.
baggage came cutting farm good guys laid last players success together work
We are a work in progress. These guys had a lot of baggage laid on them last year. We weren't that good last year. There were a lot of young players cutting their teeth, but they also are players who came up together (through the farm system) and had success together. And they want to have more success together.
pride night play
There's always a sense of pride you take out on the field to play your best every night. Sometimes your best stinks.
ball great means playing production run successful
With production comes entitlement. If you play better you get more playing time, which means more opportunity. Cory has been on a successful run of late. He is stroking the ball well and playing great defense.
artistic hits offensive played runs six team
We didn't play our best. We wobbled out of the bullpen, we got six runs on six hits and 10 walks, which probably wasn't very artistic from an offensive standpoint, but we played better than the other team tonight.
bitter bridge brought five forward gap group guys hung large moving players rather six steps taken taste took woods
We are moving forward with a large group of players rather than having five or six guys we brought in to bridge a gap for a year. We had our first taste of the process. The first two months, it was a very bitter taste. We took a lot of ridicule. But we hung together. We are not out of the woods yet, but we've taken steps forward.
club core formed group growing next players step together
There is more anticipation on the part of the players than there has been in a long time. The club is growing together and has formed a core group together. They know now that they can compete. The next step is to win.
baseball definitely good kim playing trials
We can definitely get used to (having Kim around), because while he's had his trials and tribulations in other areas, he's playing good baseball for us.
admire asset attention brought energy fed focal gone guys handled help hot kept learned lessons months others paying players point seeing standpoint team time tough transition tremendous trying valuable waste younger
He's had to have two very very big months to get him where he is right now, but he can get hot like nobody's business. He's probably learned some very valuable lessons through this year. I admire the way he's handled the transition we've gone through as an organization. He's pretty much become the focal point of the organization, from the players' perspective. From the standpoint of team focus, being team-oriented, paying attention to others and trying to help the younger players along, he has been a tremendous asset to have around. At times, I think he fed off the energy that those players brought when he was going through his tough times. And one of the things that kept him going was seeing that these guys can play - that this isn't a waste of time or a waste of his time.
brought energy fed hot months players tough
He's had to have two very, very big months to get him where he is right now, but he can get hot like nobody's business. At times, I think he fed off the energy that the young players brought when he was going through his tough times.
game kick last messages players sent text voice
His voice was stronger. He got a big kick out of the game last night. He sent text messages to the players after.
freedom fun hesitant knows nice playing smart
He's doing fine. He knows he has the freedom to play, be smart but be aggressive. We don't want to see him with a hesitant nature. We want him to play like he's 6 and playing in the backyard. He's done some nice things. He's fun to watch.