• Hurdle was born in Michigan, but his father moved the family to Merritt Island, Fla., when Clint was 6 years old. His father, Clint, Sr., worked at Kennedy Space Center, where he witnessed the moon blasts and Challenger explosion during his 37-year working career.

  But baseball was his passion.

  "A lot of Clinton's buddies would say, 'Let's go surfing,' but he'd say 'no,' and just about every Sunday, the five of us—Clint, Louise and our two daughters—would head out with a bag of balls and hit for an hour," the elder Hurdle said. "I'd pitch and they'd shag. The girls still get on him, saying they made him what he is today 'cause they were shagging.

  When I couldn't get with him, I had his mother go out with him at night. She would catch him, give him signals. He'd say, 'Mom, stop that.'

  "We've always been close. We've always talked. It's never been something that's forced. When the kids went on their senior trips, who did they want as chaperones? They wanted us. They could tell us anything, sometimes they tell us stuff we don't want to hear."

• A big league scout noticed Hurdle when he was 14. And in 1975, the Royals made him their first round pick, out of Merritt Island High School in Florida. After a meteoric rise through the Kansas City system, Hurdle arrived in the big leagues only six weeks after his 20th birthday, in September 1977. He was 6-foot-4 and 195 pounds with movie star looks. On cue, he homered into K.C.'s center-field waterfall in only his second at-bat, with Clint and Louise Hurdle watching from the stands.

  "That was special," his father said.

  The Sports Illustrated cover came the next spring. Royals fans dubbed him Mr. Wonderful, which hardly bothered Hurdle, who talked too much and partied too hard for traditionalists in the front office.

• Baseball linked three generations of Hurdle men. Clint's grandfather, Edward Clinton Hurdle, was offered a contract by Cincinnati at age 15—a day before his father died.

  "He was the oldest son. So he had to work," the elder Clint Hurdle, Sr. said.

• Clint became a born-again Christian late in his playing career. He was winner of the 1986 Danny Thompson Award for exemplary Christian spirit in baseball.

• Hurdle is a licensed insurance agent in Florida.

• Clint remarried in 1982 to his second wife, Julie. But they were later divorced.

  Hurdle was married for the third time on November 13, 1999. He and Karla Yearick set the date to avoid any conflict with the postseason.

  They have two children. Their first, Madison Reilly, was born August 7, 2002. The second, Christian Merrick, arrived on November 14, 2004. Clint said Christian was named after a grandfather whose birthday would have been on the same day—November 14.

  Karla's parents live in Bradenton, Florida, so the whole family was elated when Clint was named manager of the 2011 Pittsburgh Pirates, whose spring home is Bradenton.

• Ask Clint when he turned his life around, and he recalls the moment as if it were an epiphany.

  "It was in 1998 when I asked Karla to marry me," said Hurdle, who had already been through two failed marriages. "Karla looked me directly in the eye, I mean directly, and told me, 'You have to find a way to make yourself happy. You have to find that for yourself before we can be married.' It's been 10 years now and it's still working, still going strong."

  The couple had been dating for more than six years when Hurdle proposed. Karla had seen him change some, but wasn't satisfied that he had changed enough.

  "He still had a lot of things in his past he hadn't settled," she said. "I think he was trying to live up to that whole 'phenom thing,' and that was pretty deep rooted. He was still trying to please too many people, instead of making himself happy."

  Karla's words sparked Hurdle's conversion. He stopped drinking. He reaffirmed his Christian faith. He was once a man who preached to friends, but that waned. Now he lives by a quieter code.

  "It goes back to the saying, 'If you don't feel close to God today, who moved?' That's what happened to me. I had moved," he said.

• Clint learned motivation from his Dad, Clint, Sr., who was once drafted by the Cubs, but was drafted into military service. He later became an executive with Grumman Aerospace in Melbourne, Florida.

  When Clint was a little boy, the Hurdle men listened to Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese broadcast the Game of the Week, a ritual heavy in humor.

• Clint talks of how he gave up most of his childhood playing ball. Boy Scouts? Forget it. And he played football and basketball just to keep in shape for baseball. "I never went to my senior prom," Hurdle revealed. "I went to a Montreal Expos tryout. I might have gotten lucky three years earlier if I had gone. Everybody gets lucky on prom night, don't they? I didn't go through a fireman stage or an astronaut stage. I wanted to be a big league ballplayer."

• Hurdle is part jock and part philosopher. He bypassed a chance to attend Harvard on an academic scholarship as well as the University of Miami to play quarterback and opted instead to play baseball. At age 20, he was a Sports Illustrated cover boy, pegged "This Year's Phenom." But, by his own admission, he wilted under the weight of expectations.

  The consummate family man today, he partied like a rock star when he hit the big leagues.

  Now, finally, after life experiences that threatened to rob his natural lust for life, it's fair to say Hurdle has never been in a better place.

• On two occasions when Hurdle was playing in the Majors, he earned cameo appearances on the soap opera General Hospital.
• When an injury ended Clint's career in the mid-1980s, his father hopped in his car with his two daughters and set off for Kansas City, ready to help his son cope with an extremely painful crisis.

  "I was beaten up, I was broken," Clint Hurdle said. "A lot of things weren't going right. For the first time, I was physically shut down.

  "I just wasn't getting it. For the first time, I just didn't understand. I kept getting the same message from my dad a couple different times when things didn't go my way: 'Son, life isn't fair. You can either wallow in it or fight your way out of it and make something good happen. So let's go; let's make something happen.'

  "It was just like when I was a kid. My dad never forced anything upon me. My dad never said, 'You have to play catch.' And he never said, 'Sit down and listen to me.' But he was always there when I had a problem; he was always available. There were a couple times when he said, 'Hey, let's take a walk.'

  "And they were always very appropriate."

• Clint was arrested and charged with stealing items from a grocery store in Williamsport, Pennsylvania on January 20, 1992. Police said the charge involved the theft of Valentine's Day items worth $1.79. Mets GM Al Harazin was quick to voice support for Hurdle, calling the incident an unfortunate misunderstanding. Harazin said Hurdle was confronted by police before he even left the store. Clint was more embarrassed than anything. He paid a fine and ended the affair.
• Clint had to undergo arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff he incurred from constant throwing, in August 1993. He left his Norfolk team on an off-day, flew to New York, had the surgery and returned to the Tides' dugout the next day. Hurdle also had bone marrow taken from his hip and injected into his shoulder on the same trip.
• Hurdle's office testifies that he is not a guy who is afraid to think outside the box. The wall in front of him is plastered with inspirational sayings. Shelves underneath the stereo are stacked with CDs, with Lyle Lovett, Joe Cocker and the soundtrack to "Chicago" all in heavy rotation. And sitting on his desk are family pictures and books on politics, pitching and life.

• "I’ve gone from being in the World Series to being released," Hurdle says. "From being an everyday player to being a bullpen catcher. From being happily married to twice divorced, and now happily married again with a pregnant wife. I can pretty much go wherever you want to go, on or off the field."

  The same mistakes that made Hurdle a disappointment as a player taught him the lessons that make him a good manager. Not to mention a better person.

• During the winter before 2007 spring training, Clint underwent successful treatment of sleep apnea and was more energetic and healthy after changing his diet, eschewing chocolate and Fritos.

  DAUGHTER MADISON

• Hurdle agreed to a two-year contract extension with the Rockies, August 7, 2002. But 20 minutes before the scheduled news conference to announce that, Clint received word that his wife had gone into labor while playing golf and was rushed to a Denver hospital. Clint immediately left so he could be on hand for the birth of Madison Ryan. About three weeks later, baby Madison was diagnosed with Prader Willi Syndrome, which is characterized by obesity and short stature and sometimes can lead to mild mental retardation.

• May 19, 2005: Clint's daughter, Madison, suffers from Prader-Willi Syndrome, a genetic disorder. She had a series of seizures and was hospitalized. Hurdle left the team to be with Madison and his wife, Karla, at The Children's Hospital in Denver until Madison recovered. She was allowed to go home a week later, on May 16.

  The condition can manifest itself in behavioral, developmental and eating disorders, and doctors and families are still learning about it. Those afflicted by Prader-Willi, about one in every 12,000 people, have symptoms including low muscle tone, morbid obesity, cognitive disabilities, and behavioral problems. Hurdle and his wife, Karla, have to constantly monitor "Maddie" because she never knows when she is full and has the urge to continue eating.

  Maddie's other genetic disorder makes her prone to seizures if she eats any of a large number of restricted foods, including those with sugar. Any parent can attest to the difficulty of keeping sweets away from a child.

  Parents dealing with the situation often trade ideas and support. Lori and Mike Kuna of Port Orchard, Washington, were the among first parents to contact the Hurdles. Their son, Jack, now 4, was born with PWS. They had never met until the Rockies came to Seattle.

  "We sat for two hours and it seemed like we'd known each other for 20 years," Hurdle said.

• Clint's daughter, Maddie, requires special care and a special kind of love. "Having her in my life has taken me to places I never dreamed of," Hurdle said. "She has brought more love and closeness into Karla and my life. And it's made me a better father to our son (Christian, nearly 3)."

  In August 2007, when Maddie turned 5, Hurdle had her birthday announcement played on the giant scoreboard at Coors Field. Saturday mornings are marked on the calendar with a star. Maddie wakes up her daddy early for their trip to the local Starbucks. "She's taught me about true, unconditional love," Hurdle said. "I think we lose that as we get older, as we grow up. She doesn't lose that."

• It was through his many trips to Children's Hospital to visit his daughter that Hurdle came in contact with other children suffering from various diseases. One was Kyle Blakeman, a teenager who loved to play football and baseball before contracting a cancer so rare that only 100 cases were documented worldwide.

  Blakeman's mother, who called in August 2007, before the Rockies went out and lost a heartbreaker to Pittsburgh. She informed Hurdle that Kyle was in the final stages of the terminal disease, and asked if he wanted to make a last visit.

  Of all things, Hurdle asked Kyle if he had any good-luck charm to pass along to the Rockies, who were battling just to stay afloat in the NL West race. Imagine that, a Major League manager asking a dying 15-year-old boy if he felt lucky.

  Kyle told Hurdle he had worn uniform No. 64 in youth football and wondered if that number might bring the Rockies some luck. So, that night, Hurdle wrote "64" atop his lineup card and circled it.

  Down by four runs in the ninth inning to the Nationals, the Rockies staged an improbable rally and pulled out a 6-5 victory. Hurdle scribbled "64" on his lineup card every day since, during the 2007 season, including for the sweeps of the Chicago Cubs in the NL division series and the Diamondbacks in the NLCS.

  Kyle Blakeman died a couple of days after that stunning come-from-behind triumph over Washington. His little sister, Macie, threw out the ceremonial first pitch before Game 4 of the NLCS.

• Clint's office in the Rockies clubhouse has pictures of his family all over the place. And lots of books also about—books on history, philosophy, sports and religion.

  "I learned to love reading from my mother (Louise). That's her passion," Hurdle said. "When I'm not reading something, I feel kind of lost."

  And then there are the compact discs. Stacks and stacks. Music is Hurdle's constant companion.

  "My tastes run from what I call Americana, guys like Tom Russell and Ray Wiley Hubbard, to classical, to opera, to old-school metal," he said. "I still listen to Grand Funk and Led Zeppelin."

• Rockies bench coach Jamie Quirk knew the old Clint Hurdle. They were teammates with the Royals in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The third member of their trio was Hall of Famer George Brett. Together, the group pounded Kansas City's watering holes.

  At that time, the Royals were battling for American League supremacy and Hurdle was projected to be a superstar. Instead, he became a prisoner of his potential, underachieving in 1978, and getting sent down to the minors in 1979. He rebounded with his best pro season, hitting .294 with 10 home runs and 60 RBIs, for a 1980 Royals club that advanced to the World Series. The Royals lost to Philadelphia in six games but Hurdle hit .417 (5-for-12) and received a ring, one he immediately sized for his father.

  "After all these years, it's still one of the most precious gifts I have," Clint, Sr. said.

• When Clint's Rockies were in the 2007 World Series, the manager was on Cloud 9, along with the rest of the Rocky Mountain region.

  "The cul-de-sac I live on, when we got back from Starbucks, there was a tailgate party [going on]. They had 'Hurdles Homeys' T-shirts made up, 30 kids and the barbecue pit going, balloons, and streamers. My world? It's past sky-high," Clint said.

• Hurdle was hired as the Pittsburgh Pirates' 39th manager on Nov. 15, 2010, replacing John Russell. Hurdle was also a candidate for the New York Mets but took himself out of the running and agreed to a three-year contract with the Pirates.

  The Pirates were coming off 18 consecutive losing seasons, the longest streak in North American professional sports history. However, Hurdle said he was not deterred by what seemed to be such a daunting task.

  "How do you eat an elephant?" Hurdle said. "One bite at a time."

  Hurdle got the job over a field of eight candidates. The other finalists was Pirates bench coach Jeff Banister.

  "We identified Clint as a guy we really wanted to talk with," general manager Neal Huntington said.

  Hurdle admitted he had some trepidation when he went into his initial interview with the Pirates. He knew about their long string of futility and their reputation within the sport of being unwilling to spend the money necessary to field a winner. However, Hurdle said owner Bob Nutting, club president Frank Connelly and Huntington all answered his questions to his satisfaction.

  "When I got all the information I needed it wasn't about, for me, engaging any further with anybody," Hurdle said of why he removed himself from consideration for the Mets' job. "If felt right in my mind, it felt right in my heart, it felt right professionally, it felt right personally.

  What also helped Hurdle's chances, in a roundabout way, was his use of the catch phrase "all in."

  "Behind the scenes in the baseball office, we've used that phrase a lot," Huntington said. "And Clint came in during our meetings, he used that phrase, all in. A phrase is a phrase but it means something to us." (John Perrotto-Beaver County Times-11/16/10)

• Joe Torre has four World Series rings. Tony La Russa has managed 102 playoff games, including 18 in the World Series. Ozzie Guillen was a third-base coach when the Marlins won a Series in 2003 and managed the White Sox to the championship two years later.

  They all won when someone didn't think they would, but for groundbreaking feats, consider the accomplishments of the 2007 Rockies and 2010 Rangers. Those franchises had combined to play 64 seasons without winning a playoff series but went on storybook rides to reach the World Series.

  There was a common denominator to the two teams, and now he has gone where his smile, enthusiasm, experience and willingness to be held accountable seem to be needed the most.

  Clint Hurdle might be the only man in America with a resume that allows him to talk about a Pirates World Series in the future tense without sounding like a complete lunatic.

  "We're not printing T-shirts for the players to wear that say, 'Hey, how about winning 82 (games),''' Hurdle says. "I didn't come here to have a winning season. I came here to be a small part of something that's both very special and significant.''

  Hurdle, who was a hitting coach for the Rangers in 2010 after directing the Rockies 21-1 run to the National League pennant in 2007, is the Pirates' seventh manager since 1992, when they had their last winning season. He knows the 18-year losing streak is the longest ever for an American major league franchise in any major sport.

  He doesn't know the names of all 37 shortstops the Pirates have had in this time, and probably can't name the only 15-game winner (Todd Ritchie, 15-9, 1999), but he knows the losing streak is not a fluke. Yet here he is, signed to a three-year contract and hoping he can find someone to play Barry Bonds to his Jim Leyland.

  Hurdle had a blast working for Ron Washington and Nolan Ryan last year, but jumped at the Pirates' job when general manager Neal Huntington called after the Rangers lost to the Giants in October.

  "It's the challenge, absolutely the challenge,'' Hurdle said. "When I started talking to the Pirates, I had friends calling me to ask what I was doing. They thought I was crazy. But I'm not afraid of a challenge. I know this is going to be hard. I've done hard before. We'll see how it ends up, but to me it's the right group of people, the right city, a blue-collar city, a no-nonsense city. Somebody is going to turn it around here. Why not me?''

  Hurdle inherits a team that went 57-105 under John Russell the year before, the team's worst season since the 1950s. It was outscored by a staggering 279 runs, finishing last in the National League in scoring and run prevention.

  Under controlling owner Robert Nutting and predecessor Kevin McClatchy, the Pirates have been both tight-fisted and short-sighted. In the last decade, they have traded away scores of veterans, including Brian Giles, Aramis Ramirez, Jason Bay, Jose Bautista and Freddy Sanchez, and missed chances to draft the likes of John Danks, Jered Weaver, Stephen Drew, Tim Lincecum, Clayton Kershaw, Matt Wieters, Matt LaPorta, Madison Bumgarner, Jason Heyward and Buster Posey when they used high first-round picks on Paul Maholm, Neil Walker, Brad Lincoln, Daniel Moskos and Pedro Alvarez.

  The worm may be starting to turn. Hurdle points to the entry-level nucleus built around Andrew McCutchen, Alvarez, Walker, Jose Tabata and Garrett Jones as a reason for hope but knows the long-term key is finding young pitching like his Rockies' cast (Jeff Francis, Ubaldo Jimenez, Aaron Cook and Manny Corpas) and Rangers' group (C.J. Wilson, Colby Lewis, Tommy Hunter, Neftali Feliz and Alexi Ogando).

  Hurdle, like the Rays' Joe Maddon, is a bright, engaging guy who would be a success in any field. He was a gifted, multi-sport star as a teenager in Merritt Island, Fla., but encountered unforeseen difficulties in his supposed prime, having trouble hitting curveballs and maintaining relationships.

  His outlook and approach changed after he turned 40, when the woman he hoped would become his third wife turned down his initial proposal for marriage.

  "She told me that until you find a way to make yourself happy, you'll never make me happy ,'' Hurdle said. "That was hard. I went through a lot of self-evaluation. Maybe it was male menopause.

  "But what I came out of it with was this: I'm 40, and my next 40 years, if I get them all given to me, I'm not going to be a grabber, I'm going to be a giver. I want to develop a servant's way to live. I want to help other people. That's going to be the best way to help me.''

  Hurdle realized that as a player he always had three questions about the men who were his managers. Can I trust them? Can they make me better? Do they care about me as a person? He has made that his challenge with the players he works with, telling them those are the questions he wants them to ask about him. He believes there's as much responsibility to prove himself to players as there is for players to prove themselves to him.

  Hurdle's career record as a manager is 534-625, and it's not likely to get better any time soon. But he says he isn't coming to Pittsburgh to have a winning season or even a season when the Pirates win the NL Central, but to experience the unbridled joy he felt in going to the World Series with the '07 Rockies and '10 Rangers.  (Phil Rogers-Chicago Tribune-3/2/11)

• Upon his first trip back to Denver since being fired as the Rockies' manager and being hired to manage the Pirates, Hurdle admitted that one of the challenges in building a team that hasn't had any success of late is trying to get the players to believe in things they can't see right now, to have swagger when they don't feel it. He's also tried to help instill a mindset of keeping the game simple, playing hard and playing smart.

  "That being said, have you ever had a car broken down on the side of the road? You get out and try to push that car. You probably can't do it by yourself," Hurdle said. "You ask somebody to help you, throw it in neutral and push that car, you can probably get it moving. Then, if you get one more person to help, you can get it moving, and what's amazing is that once you get it moving, it's not as tough to push. That's what it was like (with Colorado) in 2005 and 2006, and that's what it is right now (in Pittsburgh)."  (Karen Price-Pittsburgh Tribune-Review-4/30/11)

• In 2013, Hurdle was named Sporting News N.L. Manager of the Year while with the Pirates.

• September 11, 2015: Clint Hurdle remembers the numbness. He remembers the sense of the unfathomable.

  Mostly, however, Hurdle remembers returning to the field on the other side of 9/11.

  "For me, the game took on a whole different feeling when we went back to play," the Pirates manager said, a solemn day of remembrance. "It truly became a game again. I'd talked about it being a game, at times I thought it was a game -- but I felt it then more than ever before in my life. And it's been a game ever since.

  "The solemnity returned to PNC Park, as it will forever on the anniversary of the day that changed, and fortified, America. In addition to joining the rest of MLB in observing moments of silence, the Pirates saluted on the field family members of the heroic victims of United Flight 93. Troy Richard, a cousin of Flight 93 pilot Captain Jason Dahl, threw out a ceremonial first pitch.

  On the morning of Sept. 11, Hurdle was in Phoenix with the Rockies, for whom he was serving as hitting coach.

  Hurdle could never before grasp how his parents must have felt when President Kennedy was shot on Nov. 22, 1963. On 9/11, he understood.

  "They probably looked like what I looked like—out of place, out of sorts. Disconnected," Hurdle said. "Something wasn't right. I sat on the side of the bed and it was on all the channels on TV. I felt numb, weird. Then the time off, to try to understand what just happened ... overwhelming."

  Following a seven-day moratorium, with Commissioner Bud Selig immediately canceling the schedule, baseball came back to life. So did Hurdle.

  "My favorite memory is when we started up again," Hurdle said. "The healing ... the therapeutic healing the game was able to bring ... that's what I grab onto every year at this time." (T Singer - MLB.com - September 12, 2015)

• By the time Clint was 30, his true calling started to become clear. "I became that guy: 'Hey, if you ever think about not playing, would you consider coaching or managing?''' Hurdle said. "Obviously, they don't ask you that question when you're on top of your game, so that already starts the wheels spinning a little bit."

  Hurdle, however, wasn't going to jump at the first opportunity. "I kept threatening them with playing," Hurdle said. "[Mets farm director] Steve Schryver called and offered me a Rookie-ball job. They were building the [complex for Spring Training and a Florida State League team] in St. Lucie, and I said, 'I live in Palm Bay. I'm an hour away. That would be a job I'd have interest in.' Steve said it wasn't going to happen. 'That's High-A. You have no managerial experience.' I told them, 'OK, I'm going to play.'

  "About two weeks later, he called me back and said, 'We thought about it, and we think we can bump you a level.' It might have been Lynchburg. I go, 'Wow, that's a nice offer. Thank you, but no. You're still building that place in Port St. Lucie. I'm going to play.' Steve said, 'That's not going to happen, Clint. We have people that have put time in.' I said, 'I get it, but that's what I got.'

  "Then a couple more weeks later, he called me up and said, 'So you're saying if you had an opportunity to manage the team in St. Lucie, you would do that?' I said, 'Yeah, that's what I've been saying for four weeks.' He goes, 'Well, I'm going to offer you the opportunity to manage the team in St. Lucie.' I said, 'Sounds like I'm not playing anymore.'"

  After five seasons managing in the Mets' system, Hurdle became the Minor League hitting coach with the Rockies in 1993. He then was promoted to the big league job in 1997, and early in the 2002, season he replaced Buddy Bell as the team manager. Hurdle's seven-year managerial tenure was highlighted by the Rockies' late-season rally to claim the National League Wild Card berth in 2007, which led to the team's only World Series appearance.

  Hurdle's run in Denver ended early in the 2009 season, leaving him with some career decisions to make. He was offered a front-office job with the Rockies. MLB Network had interest in his becoming an analyst. Several teams contacted Hurdle about being a third-base coach or bench coach. Finally, the Rangers called. They wanted him as a hitting coach. Hurdle couldn't resist.

  A year later, the managerial opportunities returned. Hurdle interviewed with the Mets and the Pirates.  Hurdle didn't wait for the Mets to make a decision. He accepted an offer from the Bucs for reasons that extended beyond the playing field. Late in the 2002 season, his wife gave birth to a daughter, Madison, who was diagnosed with Prader-Willi Syndrome. In doing research, Hurdle found that the The Children's Institute of Pittsburgh had the only in-patient treatment for the condition.

  "I had been going and visiting kids there whenever I came in with the Rockies [since 2004], thinking there might be a need in our family someday," Hurdle said. "They [admit children for] a six-week period to help reorganize their lives and help families put their lives back together. The entire fourth floor is geared for Prader-Willi kids, teens and adults."

  It turned out it was a good fit for Hurdle, his family and the Pirates.  (Ringolsby - MLB.com - 6/30/16)

• The first two seasons for Clint in Pittsburgh, 2011 and 2012, were disappointing. The Bucs were showing signs of contending but then fading in the second halves. "It's kind of like the first time you get kicked off the playground and beat up," said Hurdle. "You go home and tell your dad. You go home and get big and strong. And you get back on the playground because it's the only one there."

  In 2013, however, the Pirates claimed the first of three consecutive NL Wild Card berths, ending a 20-year postseason drought in which the Bucs never even had a winning record.

  "The 2013 season came around and we met a lot of those same challenges," said Hurdle. "There were opportunities for us to go the wrong way again, and we never did. We pushed through it. It was fantastic."

  The 2016 season has been another challenge. After a decent start, the Pirates won for only the 10th time in 32 games on June 28. They fell into third place in the NL Central, 14 games behind the Cubs, and they trail the Dodgers, Cardinals, Marlins and Mets in the battle for one of the two NL Wild Card spots.

  It is a challenge that Hurdle welcomes. "I'm fortunate I have had others believe in me at times when I might not have believed in myself," he said. "Those times have given me the strength, the confidence and the courage to go on, and dream big. Hopefully stories like mine give other people the opportunity to dream big, and not be cut out and pasted on a cardboard box, and feel 'This is what I am, this is what I am always going to be.' It doesn't have to be that way. We all have a chance to grow.

  "You use your eyes and your ears. You learn. You ask others for help along the way. You get a couple of nice strong doses of humility. You kick your ego to the curb. You let that go for good. You get a chance."  Hurdle got his chance. He has taken advantage of it.  (Ringolsby - MLB.com - 6/30/16)

PLAYING CAREER NOTES

• Clint broke into the Majors with the Royals in 1977 and played through 1981 with them. His best season was 1980, when he hit .294 with 31 doubles, 10 homers and 60 RBI in 130 games. Then he hit .417 (5-for-12) in the 1980 World Series, which the Royals lost to the Phillies in six games.

• In December 1981, he was traded to the Reds for Scott Brown, spending the 1982 season with Cincinnati. The Reds released Clint after that season and he signed with the Mets, playing 13 games in New York in 1983 and 43 games in 1985. The Cardinals picked Clint in the December Winter Meetings draft before the 1986 season and he spent 1986 in St. Louis before being re-acquired by the Mets where he ended his Major League playing career in 1987.

• Clint was always a fine fastball hitter, but could be jammed by good pitching. He was a low-ball hitter.
• His strong arm was best suited for right field.
• Late in his career, he developed his skills as a catcher.
• In March 1978, after appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the "next big league superstar," Hurdle felt unending pressure. It wasn't until late in his career that Clint approached the game with a good attitude. By then, his clubhouse personality always kept loose any team he was on.

• Hurdle was conspicuously unable to coax a decent number of walks from Major League pitchers—despite having a history of doing so in the minors. In his last two minor league seasons before coming up with the Royals, Clint drew 118 and 96 walks. But in the two seasons when he played semi-regularly in the Majors, Hurdle drew only 56 and 34 walks. He later went down to the minors, where he notched another 100-walk season before he was through.

• Clint was a .259 hitter with a .341 on-base percentage for his Major League career.

MANAGERIAL/COACHING TRAITS

• The Mets once hailed Clint as a budding Major League Manager. He definitely has the intangibles needed for the job. A successful skipper is part teacher, part disciplinarian, part counselor and part public relations man.
• While at Williamsport (EL) in 1991, Clint said, "At this level, you have to constantly instruct. Every time I spank somebody, I have to find something good to say to them, also. I'd been doing a little more spanking than edifying (at one point), so it was an opportunity for a little edification."
• On being a hitting coach, Hurdle said, "I'm not smart enough to have one way for everybody to hit. I have watched too many hitters become successful with varied styles. I like personality in hitting," Clint explained. "I try to work off what each guy is comfortable with."
• His communication skills, work ethic, attention to detail, baseball knowledge, boundless energy and ability to relate well to varied personalities are attributes that have made him a fine hitting coach.
• Hurdle’s players revel in the knowledge that he’s impossible to offend. When Larry Walker called Hurdle a "goofball," the manager took it as a compliment. Todd Helton prefers the term "whack." Just imagine a Cardinal saying that about Tony La Russa. "He’s one of those guys who can walk into a bar and know everybody in the place before he’s had his second drink — even though he doesn’t drink anymore," Todd Helton said.
• Hurdle has learned from an impressive group in the Big Leagues—Whitey Herzog, Jim Frey and briefly the late Dick Howser in Kansas City; John McNamara in Cincinnati; Frank Howard and Davey Johnson with the Mets; and Herzog, once again, in St. Louis.
• Hurdle stressed accountability and responsibility.
• "It's kind of like a car. What's the most important part? You say the transmission. Well what happens if you lose the keys?" Hurdle said. "If you have a flat tire, I don't care what size engine you have, you are not going anywhere. Every part is important. It's about showing up everyday and taking care of your job, and hopefully helping somebody else take care of theirs. If you are not doing one of those two things then you are in the way."

• Cllint says he goes with his instincts most of the time.

  "I got some very good advice from a manager that has done this way more than I have," said Hurdle, who declined to identify the manager. "He said, 'You get a gut feeling in this thing kid, roll with it.' Sometimes they work, and sometimes it's indigestion."

• With a voice that can shake a room like a boom box, Hurdle is not shy about broadcasting his philosophies. This season, he's repeated pet phrases like "It takes courage to have patience" or "We respect everyone but fear no one" so often that reporters roll their eyes.

  But Hurdle believes what he preaches.

  "Absolutely I do," he said.

  He is aware of his critics in the media and in the stands, but he doesn't let them get to him like he once did.

  "That's the beauty in life, everyone has their views and opinions," he said. "A few years ago, it might have hurt and I would have cared what everybody thought. I don't go there anymore."

• Clint tells his team that are not going to celebrate their wins, nor are they going to dwell on their losses. Hurdle calls the concept "showering well." You go out, you prepare, you focus, you let it all out on the field. After the game, you honestly self-evaluate, then take a shower and go home. Don't carry it with you -- don't wear it.

• "Patience," Hurdle likes to say, in both the large and small scheme of things, "takes courage."

• During a rough patch the Pirates went through in May 2011, OF Matt Diaz related a message Hurdle had during a team meeting:

  "We're not going to have a meeting, saying, 'Hey we're in a tailspin,'" Diaz quoted Hurdle as saying. "We're going to have a meeting now. We've hit a rough patch; the pilot has put on the seatbelt sign. Now, go back to your seats, sit down, and get back to fundamentals. We'll hit blue skies again."

  The message was an effective one. Though the losing streak didn't end the day Hurdle addressed the team, he apparently set the tone for things to turn soon after.

  "He has not lied to us once, as a team," Diaz said. "We believe him. I think you'll see that, [with] the youngness of this team, [we] will go through streaks, and as we mature as a team, we'll start to get more consistent. There will be a lot more series wins [of] 2-1, rather than [losing] six [and then winning] four. That comes from getting too high and getting too low. Clint is the right guy to put a stop to that."

POST-PLAYING CAREER POSITIONS

• Clint began his Managerial career at St. Lucie (FSL-Mets in 1988 and 1989. In 1989, he won the Mets' Casey Stengel Manager of the Year Award.
• In 1990, Clint moved up to Jackson (TL-Mets) where he was rated the best Managerial prospect in the Texas League in 1990.
• When the Mets moved their Double-A team to Williamsport (EL) in 1991, Clint went with them.
• Hurdle was moved up to Manager at Tidewater (Illinois-Mets) in 1992 and stayed when the team moved into a new stadium in Norfolk in 1993.
• Clint left the Mets' organization at the end of the 1993 season (September 5) with a six-year record of 412-419 as a manager. With the hiring of Dallas Green as Manager it became apparent to Hurdle that his advancement would not happen in the near future. Clint said their was a possibility he could join the Mets' staff as bullpen coach in 1994, but that was not the position he really sought.
• Clint was hired by the Colorado Rockies as their roving minor league hitting instructor for 1994 through 1996.

• In 1997, Hurdle joined the Big League Rockies as batting coach.

  ROCKIES MANAGER

• On April 26, 2002, Hurdle was named as Interim Manager to replace Buddy Bell as Rockies' Manager.

  On November 11, 2003, the Rockies extended Clint's contract as Manager through the 2006 season.

  And on February 6, 2006, Hurdle signed an extension through 2007.

• As Clint began the 2007 season, knowing he was in the last year of his contract with the Rockies, he had no real anxiety.

  "This is my 32nd year in pro ball and I have been a lame duck for 29 years. I can't worry about that. What I can do is prepare more effectively. I am at the point where I need to show more development," Hurdle said.

  "There is no concern about next year other than what it leads to. I have seen too many people in my position or Dan's (general manager Dan O'Dowd's) position who focus on keeping their job and end up losing it. This season is about everybody taking a bigger step forward than we did (in 2006). And I believe in all my heart we have the talent here to do it."

  The Rockies went 76-86 in 2006, Hurdle's fifth in charge. They sat in first place on July 5, but went 32-43 after the All-Star break and ended up in last place in the National League West. Hurdle said he was "guilty of overmanaging" during the second half as the team went into a funk.

• Some former and current players have privately complained about Hurdle, saying he's too uptight and too often critical of them in the media. So Clint changed some in 2007, saying, "My job now is to walk side-by-side with the players, not in front or behind them. It's about actions, not words."

• April 2, 2007: The Rockies gave Clint a two-year contract extension, for the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

• May 29, 2009: The Rockies fired Hurdle as Manager.

• November 4, 2010: Clint joined the Rangers' coaching staff as Hitting Coach, replacing Rudy Jaramillo who left to join the Cubs' staff.

  PIRATES MANAGER

• November 15, 2010: Hurdle became Manager of the Pirates.

  February 18, 2013: The Pirates extended Clint a year, through the 2014 season, along with an option for 2015.

  On November 12, 2013: The Baseball Writers Association of America named Hurdle as the runaway winner of the 2013 National League Manager of the Year. He was first on 25 of 30 ballots after taking the Pirates to the playoffs in their first winning season since 1992.

  "It is so rewarding for me to see what's happened, the synergy in the city," Hurdle said in Pittsburgh. "To be a small part of a group that's able to bring joy at so many different levels—that's what's rewarding to me in life."

• April 5, 2014: Hurdle and the Pirates agreed on a deal that will keep him in Pittsburgh through at least 2017.

• May 27, 2016: Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said he and Jeff Banister, the former Pirates bench coach who now manages the Rangers, still trade texts and emails nearly every day—but exchanging lineup cards was a long-awaited, once-in-a-lifetime moment for both skippers.

  "It's a great opportunity to bring closure to another part of this," said Hurdle, for whom Banister worked as bench coach for four-plus seasons. "I've spent 41 years in the game and I've met a lot of really good baseball people, developed a lot of relationships, developed some friendships and Jeff Banister would be at the top of that list as personally and professionally."

  Banister spent almost three decades with the Pirates' organization, beginning as a 25th-round draft pick in 1986, as a player through 1993, a Minor League manager from 1994-1998, and a coach with Pittsburgh from 1999-2014. Hurdle said he's certain Banister brought some of the Pirates' organizational philosophy to Texas.

  "There's things that have become important to him over time, I'm sure some of those had to do with the Pirates' organization and things that he learned while he was there," Hurdle said. "He'd been there 29 years, so there's a whole big database to pull from."

  Hurdle said losing Banister to the Rangers after the 2014 season was a blow to the Pirates' coaching staff. Among many roles, Banister was the brains behind the club's program to control the running game, but the pain of losing the "savvy, hard-nosed, gutsy baseball guy" was blunted only by Hurdle's joy at seeing Banister get his chance to manage in the Majors.

  "You're so happy for that man—I mean, how could I want to keep him as my bench coach when he's got a chance to be one of 30 managers?" Hurdle said. "I will get a big kick out of looking over at that dugout and seeing him in it, because I'm proud of him." (D Sessions - MLB.com - May 27, 2016)

  1,000 WINS

• June 23, 2016: Clint Hurdle was getting ready for a family picture at PNC Park, part of the club's annual Family Day festivities, when a surprise walked in the room. Hurdle hadn't thought about inviting his parents until that morning, right as he was walking out the door. But his wife, Karla, quickly got them on a last-minute flight from Orlando, Fla., to Pittsburgh. The Hurdles arrived in time to celebrate Family Day and, a day later, a milestone achievement for their son.

  The Pirates' 8-6 win over the Dodgers was the 1,000th of Hurdle's managerial career. His father, Clint Sr., was there for win No. 1 with the Rockies in 2002. He was there Friday night for No. 1,000, too. "The one thing that I am happy with is my dad's here. He's been with me through thick and thin, this whole crazy ride as a player and as a coach and as a manager," Hurdle said. "The thing for me is he's proud of me, but I'm more proud of him being the father that he's been through this whole crazy thing."

  The Pirates recognized the accomplishment in the clubhouse afterward, and Hurdle had time to reflect on becoming the 61st Major League manager to ever reach that mark. He's the sixth active manager with 1,000 wins, joining Bruce Bochy, Dusty Baker, Mike Scioscia, Buck Showalter and Terry Francona. "It's pretty special. It's a lot of wins," shortstop Jordy Mercer said. "He needed to be recognized, and we did it. It's a pretty cool thing he's got." Asked about the milestone before the game, Hurdle thought of Dan O'Dowd and Keli McGregor, who took a chance on him in Colorado. He recognized the Pirates leadership group, which gave him a second chance in Pittsburgh.

  "I'm just humbled," Hurdle said. "There's a lot of losses there, too. There's a lot of experience. There's a lot of learning. There's been a lifetime of learning." Hurdle owns a 1,000-1,043 career record, and it's probably felt at times like the majority of those 1,043 came over the last three weeks. The Pirates have endured perhaps their most challenging stretch since Hurdle helped change the franchise's expectations with a run to the postseason in 2013.

  To borrow two of his turns of phrase: He's been a thermostat, setting the temperature for the Pirates, not a thermometer. He's been a crockpot, in it for the long haul, not a microwave.

  "Tonight was another reason why I'm proud of these men. We're battling. We're doing some hard right now," Hurdle said. "We're all working together. I thanked them for their effort and told them I'm proud to be their manager." (A Berry - MLB.com - June 25, 2016)

• 1,000 victories. It was 2016 and Pirates skipper Clint Hurdle was sitting on the bench at Safeco Field  when the irony of the situation hit. Thirty-three years, two months, three weeks and one day earlier, across the street in the Kingdome, which has since been demolished, Hurdle reached a critical juncture in his baseball life. At the end of Spring Training in 1983, Mariners manager Rene Lachemann told 25-year-old Hurdle he had made the Opening Day roster.

  As the workout in Seattle the night before the season opener was beginning, however, Mariners general manager Dan O'Brien walked into Lachemann's office and told him to call in Hurdle, who was going to be released to make room on the roster for Ken Phelps. Hurdle's first reaction was to find a way to track down his father, who was driving Hurdle's pickup truck, loaded with Hurdle's personal items, from their Florida home to Seattle. Once Hurdle was informed the Highway Patrol found his father on I-70 in Missouri, reality set in.

  A first-round draft choice of the Royals in 1975, the seventh player taken overall, and the cover boy of a 1978 Sports Illustrated baseball issue that called him "This Year's Phenom," Hurdle thought he was done.

  "I had hit bottom," he said. "I had a good spring, and then … I had my pity party."

  He, however, refused to quit.

  "Lach told me I could still play and I had the coaching staff saying I could play, too," he said. "They gave me the confidence to keep going."

  He hooked up with the Mets, playing five more years, spending parts of four of those seasons in the big leagues with the Mets and Cardinals. More importantly, "I became associated with Davey Johnson. My world changed."

• By the time he was 30, his true calling started to become clear.

  "I became that guy, 'Hey if you ever think about not playing, would you consider coaching or managing?''' Hurdle said. "Obviously, they don't ask you that question when you're on top of your game, so that already starts the wheels spinning a little bit."

  Hurdle, however, wasn't going to jump at the first opportunity.

  "I kept threatening them with playing," Hurdle said. "[Mets farm director] Steve Schryver called and offered me a rookie-ball job. They were building the [complex for Spring Training and a Florida State League team] in St. Lucie, and I said, 'I live in Palm Bay. I'm an hour away. That would be a job I'd have interest in.' Steve said it wasn't going to happen. 'That's High-A. You have no managerial experience.' I told them, 'OK, I'm going to play.

  "About two weeks later, he called me back and said, 'We thought about it, and we think we can bump you a level.' It might have been Lynchburg. I go, 'Wow, that's a nice offer. Thank you, but no. You're still building that place in Port St. Lucie. I'm going to play.' Steve said, 'That's not going to happen, Clint. We have people that have put time in.' I said, 'I get it, but that's what I got.'

  "Then a couple more weeks later, he called me up and said, `So you're saying if you had an opportunity to manage the team in St. Lucie, you would do that?' I said, 'Yeah, that's what I've been saying for four weeks.' He goes, 'Well, I'm going to offer you the opportunity to manage the team in St. Lucie.' I said, 'Sounds like I'm not playing anymore.'"

  After five seasons managing in the Mets' system, Hurdle became the Minor League hitting coach with the Rockies in 1993. He then was promoted to the big league job in 1997, and early in the 2002 season he replaced Buddy Bell as the team manager. His seven-year managerial tenure was highlighted by the Rockies' late-season rally to claim the National League Wild Card berth in 2007, which led to the team's only World Series appearance.

  Hurdle's run in Denver ended early in the 2009 season, leaving him with some career decisions to make. He was offered a front-office job with the Rockies. MLB Network had interest in him becoming an analyst. Several teams contacted him about being a third base coach or bench coach. Finally, the Rangers called. They wanted him as a hitting coach. Hurdle couldn't resist.

  A year later, the managerial opportunities returned. He interviewed with the Mets and the Pirates. Hurdle didn't wait for the Mets to make a decision. He accepted an offer from the Pirates for reasons that extended beyond the playing field. Late in the 2002 season, his wife gave birth to a daughter, Madison, who was diagnosed with Prader-Willi Syndrome. In doing research, Hurdle found that the The Children's Institute of Pittsburgh had the only in-patient treatment for the condition.

  "I had been going and visiting kids there whenever I came in with the Rockies [since 2004], thinking there might be a need in our family someday," Hurdle said. "They [admit children for] a six-week period to help reorganize their lives and help families put their lives back together. The entire fourth floor is geared for Prader-Willi kids, teens and adults."

  It turned out it was a good fit for Hurdle, his family and the Pirates.

  "It's kind of like the first time you get kicked off the playground and beat up," said Hurdle. "You go home and tell your dad. You go home and get big and strong. And you get back on the playground because it's the only one there."

  In 2013, however, the Pirates claimed the first of three consecutive National League Wild Card berths, ending a 20-year postseason drought in which the Pirates never even had a winning record.

  "I'm fortunate I have had others believe in me at times when I might not have believed in myself," he said. "Those times have given me the strength, the confidence and the courage to go on, and dream big. Hopefully stories like mine give other people the opportunity to dream big, and not be cut out and pasted on a cardboard box, and feel like 'This is what I am, this is what I am always going to be.' It doesn't have to be that way. We all have a chance to grow. You use your eyes and your ears. You learn. You ask others for help along the way. You get a couple of nice strong doses of humility. You kick your ego to the curb. You let that go for good. You get a chance."

  Hurdle got his chance. He has taken advantage of it. (Tracy Ringolsby - MLB.com - June 30, 2016)

• September 5, 2017: The Pirates agreed to a four-year contract extension with Clint, keeping him in Pittsburgh through the 2021 season.

• September 29, 2019: The Pirates fired Hurdle as Manager.

• Nov 13, 2019: Clint Hurdle isn’t ready to formally retire, but the former Pirates and Rockies manager decided he’s done coaching at the Major League level after declining an offer to be the Padres’ hitting coach. Hurdle, who previously served as a hitting coach in Colorado and Texas, turned down a two-year offer to join San Diego’s coaching staff this offseason. After talking it over with his family and his “Mount Rushmore of mentors,” Hurdle said he has “decided to put the baseball pants in the closet.”

  Baseball has consumed every spring and summer of Hurdle’s life since he was selected by the Royals in the first round of the 1975 Draft. He played from ’75-‘87 then immediately began managing in the Mets’ Minor League system in ’88. He worked as a Minor League hitting instructor from 1994 until he was promoted to Colorado’s coaching staff in 1997. His Major League managing career began with the Rockies in 2002 and ended an hour before the Pirates’ final game this past season.

  Now, as Hurdle put it, he’s got a “lifetime contract playing for the home team.” (A Berry - MLB.com - Nov 13, 2019)

• Dec 9, 2021: The Rockies named Clint Hurdle special assistant to the general manager.

• October 6, 2014: Hurdle underwent successful surgery to replace his right hip.

  Clint, at age 57, spent most of the 2014 season dealing with arthritis in the hip, which made walking painful. He put off surgery until the completion of the season rather than disrupt the team in the middle of the year. Pittsburgh went 88-74 and earned a second consecutive playoff berth before falling to San Francisco in the wild-card round.