The Pirates officially announced today that Clint Hurdle will become the 39th manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hurdle, the former Colorado Rockies Manager who was replaced in Denver by John Russell's predecessor, Jim Tracy (got all that?), has a career record of 534-625 (.461) as a manager (most wins in Rockies history), including 1 World Series appearance. Last year, he was the hitting coach for the Texas Rangers in their AL winning season.
The fact that he has experience as a hitting coach will help develop our young talent more so than John Russell was able to do, as apart from various minor league managerial positions, he was the 3rd base coach for the Pirates from 2003-05. At least, that's the hope at this point. As all Pirates fans know, anything can and will happen during the course of the season.
Early indications are that Hurdle will have control over his coaches, although he didn't demand the right to hire an entirely new staff. Hopefully this means the end of Tony Beasley as the 3rd base coach.
Better Know a Manager: Clint Hurdle
Clint is originally from Big Rapids, Michigan, but moved to Florida when he was just 4 years old. He was selected by Kansas City 9th overall in 1975. Touted as a power hitter, he never was able to live up to his hype, and he played just parts of his 10 seasons in the majors, with only 2 years of more than 100 games played. His career batting average is .259 and has a career .745 OPS. In high school, Hurdle played baseball, basketball, and football, and signed a letter of intent with the University of Miami to play football before changing his mind after being picked by KC in the 1975 draft.
In his 7.25 seasons as the manager of the Rockies, he was over .500 in just one season, when the Rockies won the NL Penant for the first time in team history after making the playoffs on a wildcard. Other than that, he has placed higher than 4th place in the NL West exactly once, so while he will definitely be an upgrade over Russell, don't expect him to be the answer, at least not immediately. However, Hurdle will show more emotion on the bench than the block of wood that was John Russell and could be the spark that the young Pirates need to truly become a competitive team again.
He was named the NL coach for the 2008 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium. He finished 3rd in voting for Manager of the Year in 2007.
Hurdle is named for his father, Clinton Sr. He is married to his wife, Karla, and he has 3 children: daughter Madison (8), son Christian (6, whose birthday is today!), and a daughter, Ashley (24), from a previous marriage. His daughter Madison has a rare disease, Prader-Willi Syndrome, and Clint is the Prader-Willi National Spokesperson.
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