Clinton Merrick Hurdle, the new Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates is a person whose actions speak louder than words. For him, being second is not an option and he will be merciless on the players, his assistants and anyone else involved in the Pittsburgh Pirates, till they reach the pinnacle. Under his guidance, the Pittsburgh Pirates, long used to being ‘also rans’, will move only in one direction – upwards.
Clinton Merrick Hurdle was born on July 30th 1957 in Big Rapids, Michigan. In a career spanning ten years playing as an outfielder in Major League Baseball teams such as Kansas City Royals, Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals he retired and then started his career as a Manager. His initial stint as manager was with the St. Lucie Mets, a Class ‘A’ team in 1988. He also served as Manager for the AA Jackson Mets and the AAA Tidewater/Norfolk Tides between 1990 and 1993. 1994 saw him as minor league hitting instructor of the Colorado Rockies and in 1997 he was promoted as their hitting coach. Clint Hurdle was promoted as Manager of the Rockies in 2002 and in 2006 he was given a two year extension of his contract. In 2007 he was instrumental in propelling the Colorado Rockies to their second best finish in the team’s 15 year history by being victorious in 14 out of 15 games and reached the playoffs only for the second time in Rockies history. After defeating many more fancied teams, the Rockies got the first pennant in their history and reached the 2007 World Series, but they lost to the Boston Red Sox. Due to player injuries and other factors, the Rockies did poorly in 2008 & 2009. He parted ways with the Rockies and joined MLB Network as a studio analyst till the end of 2009. Towards the end of 2009 he was hired as hitting coach for the Texas Rangers and Hurdle helped them to win their first American League pennant before losing to the San Francisco Giants in the 2010 World Series. Hurdle had the option of joining as Manager for both Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Mets, but he opted for the Pirates and joined as Manager in November 2010 on a three year contract.
He decided on the Pirates as he felt that they had the latent talent available and it only needed nurturing to make the Pirates a team to reckon with. He is sure, with the core of young talent such as Andrew McCutchen and second baseman Neil Walker, he will be able to build a formidable set of Pirates. Lots of work has to be done to hone the team to be winners. They had finished the last season with a dismal ERA of 5.00in the majors and the second lowest batting average of 0.242.
The Pirates, down in the dumps for close to two decades, has already had a resurgence under Hurdles stewardship. Hurdle lead the Pirates to a 47-43 record and was only one game out of first place in the NL Central. This was the first time the Pirates had an average of over 0.500 since 1992. Under Hurdle’s leadership, the outlook for the Pirates seems promising and the initial turnaround is a morale booster for the team.
