'I gave it everything I had': Clint Hurdle returns with Rockies, reflects on Pirates tenure

Sitting in a dugout at PNC Park for the first time since he was fired as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates an hour before the 2019 season finale, Clint Hurdle reflected on his nine-year tenure with pride and prejudice.

Hurdle beamed when talking about how he guided the Pirates out of a two-decade drought from winning baseball to three consecutive wild-card playoff berths, then lamented that it didn’t end the way anyone wanted.

“One of the things that I shared publicly when I was given the opportunity to be the manager were the hopes were to re-bond the city with its baseball team, and I believe we did that,” Hurdle said. “There are a lot of fingerprints on the success that we had collectively. We didn’t get to where we wanted to go, the final destination, a World Series championship.”

Hurdle returned as the bench coach for the Colorado Rockies as they opened a three-game series Friday against the Pirates. The 68-year-old Hurdle was serving as a special assistant to general manager Bill Schmidt when he was asked to replace Hensley Meulens as hitting coach in mid-April.

When the Rockies fired Bud Black after losing 33 of their first 40 games, he became the right-hand man for manager Warren Schaeffer, a Greensburg Central Catholic alum. Hurdle’s first managerial job was with the Rockies from 2002-09. He led them to the 2007 World Series, where they were swept by the Boston Red Sox, so Hurdle brings cache to Colorado’s dugout.

“Clint’s been great,” Schaeffer said. “He’s helped me out tremendously with all the ins and outs of managing in the big leagues. There are some things that are similar managing in the minor leagues to the big leagues, but there’s a lot of things that you need help with if you haven’t done it before. He’s been covering my blind spots and showing me the way. I’m very thankful for that. He, obviously, was a huge part of this city with the big turnaround with the Pirates. Everybody’s thankful for him.”

That includes the Pirates. They welcomed Hurdle back before the second inning by showing his photo on the scoreboard and with a brief tribute by public address announcer Guy Junker, who noted that Hurdle was the 2013 National League Manager of the Year and ranked fourth all-time in wins by a Pirates manager. That prompted Hurdle to step onto the field and doff his cap to the crowd.

Hurdle praised how PNC Park became a hostile environment for visitors, especially when the sellout crowd turned the 2013 NL wild-card game against the Cincinnati Reds into a blackout. The Pirates won 94 games in 2013, 88 in 2014 and 98 in 2015, never winning the NL Central Division but hosting wild-card games all three seasons.

“That three-year period in ’13-15, I probably had as much fun in the game of baseball as I’ve ever had anywhere,” Hurdle said. “The fans made part of that happen because the fan base, as you well know, here is so deeply passionate. There are a lot of good feelings coming back because we did a lot of ‘hard’ together, too. It’s like an old friend, one that I haven’t seen in a long time that I’m happy to see.”

Hurdle has followed the Pirates from afar because of his close relationship with Andrew McCutchen, Bryan Reynolds and Mitch Keller, the lone player holdovers from his time with the Pirates, as well as former Pirates players such as Clint Barmes, Jason Grilli, Josh Harrison, Jordy Mercer and Travis Snider.

But Hurdle shared the same fondness for Pirates manager Don Kelly as he does for Pittsburghers, in the hopes that Kelly can lead a similar turnaround and lead the Pirates back into postseason contention.

“I’m pulling for Donnie,” Hurdle said. “I reached out to him when he got the job. I thought it was really cool that he asked Gene Lamont to come back and find some GPS for him. There is always going to be a hole in my heart for the people here, the fans here, because we got close, but we didn’t crack that nut. To know how they reacted for three years and to know what it can look like. I’m just hoping that happens for somebody.”

That feeling is mutual, even though Kelly knows Hurdle mostly “from the other side” when their teams competed against each other. A Mt. Lebanon alum who followed the Pirates (and his brother-in-law Neil Walker) while playing for the Detroit Tigers, Kelly raised his arm to show that he still gets “chills thinking about the Cueto game.” They spent some time talking during batting practice and exchanged a hug.

“What a tremendous job he did here in Pittsburgh, bringing the city back to winning baseball,” Kelly said. “I think the world of Clint. I’m really happy that he’s still involved in the game. I have fond memories of competing against him from the other side. … That’s what we’re striving for here, is to get back to that winning baseball and find ways to get better every day because Pittsburgh fans are passionate. It’s going to be really exciting when we’re packing this place and blacking it out again for another playoff game.”

Where Hurdle inherited a 105-loss Pirates team when he was hired in November 2010, the Rockies also are enduring an epic season. They lost 50 games before they won 10 and already had 91 losses entering the weekend series.

So, he laughed when it was suggested that he’s the patron saint of lost causes. Hurdle spoke about the importance of how you can’t experience happy if you haven’t been sad or good if you haven’t been bad. Hurdle has run the gamut of emotions as a manager, and he realized he’s been built to endure the hard times.

“I don’t think that does anybody any good with me trying to speak what my legacy could be into existence because everybody’s got a different take,” Hurdle said. “I’d like to be known (as) I gave it everything I had. My mom used to tell me anytime I was on the phone with her, ‘Give it everything you got.’ I gave it everything I had in the nine years I was here. The coaches that I worked with gave it everything they had, the players we had gave it everything we had. We gave it the best push we could give, and we got close. I think people in Pittsburgh really respect that.”