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
behind change direction front land layout marks starting
We're starting to make some marks in the right direction on the road. The layout of the land behind us is what it is. We can't change that. We can change what's in front of us.
butterfly cocoon cut free help man picked reading saw thinking trying understand
I really didn't understand while I was reading it, but it told a story of a man who saw a butterfly trying to come out of a cocoon, and he picked it up and cut the cocoon away from the butterfly, thinking he was going to help free it,
catching far number pitches playing saw seeing
He's kind of playing behind, catching up, as far as seeing pitches. He saw a number of pitches today.
ballgame couple early gone innings kept passion saw south
I think you saw the passion he has for competition. The way he kept after it and kept us in the ballgame - a couple early innings could have gone south on him. He didn't let it happen.
build half hope kidding nice road saw season second victory
That's a nice come-from-behind victory on the road for us. There's no kidding anybody. This is what we saw in the second half of the season and it's what we hope we can build on.
initially
Initially we just wanted him to be able to get healthy. And now for him to come back and be able to pitch, that's a plus.
further physically seems stretch
I don't know that we want to stretch him out further than that. . . . He doesn't have an old body. He seems to be pretty physically fit.
alarming number
His strikeouts are a little alarming for his number of at-bats,
group todd win
I think it was as important for the group to win without Todd in the lineup as it was for Todd to see the group win without him,
aware gate gotten happy roll slow
He is well aware he has come out of the gate slow and then gotten on a roll by the end of May. He is not happy with it, and we think there is better there. We know there is better there. It is up to him.
answering ball challenged hit seen talk
You talk about being challenged and answering the challenge. He has hit the ball (recently) as well as I have ever seen him hit the ball.
avoiding expect factors finishing games home last motivating record winning
Having a winning record at home or avoiding finishing last weren't motivating factors for us. When you are 27 games under .500, can we really expect to be better at home?
opportunity pitches presented wasting
He's been working on an assortment of pitches to use if that opportunity is ever presented to him. I think he's wasting his time.
steps
This is just another step, and we have a lot of steps to take to get where we want to be.