Clint Hurdle: ‘Pirates are right fit’

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

The Pittsburgh Pirates thought they were interviewing Clint Hurdle. Turns out he was interviewing them as well.

As the Pirates asked him about his managerial style, Hurdle quizzed ownership and management about their plans to turn around one of the least-successful franchises in the four major pro sports. He liked the answers and, despite some of his close friends’ misgivings, he liked a job that some in baseball would be hesitant to take.

Hurdle, hired Monday as the Pirates’ sixth manager since their last winning season in 1992, insists he’s not intimidated at taking over a team that lost 105 games last season and has averaged 97 losses over the last six seasons.

“This wasn’t about taking a job because it was a sure thing,” Hurdle said. “This was about taking an opportunity that felt sure and fit right. I felt comfortable with the people I was going to get after the job with. ... I’m proud to be a Pirate, and we’re not going to back down from anybody.”

Hurdle, who managed the Colorado Rockies to the 2007 NL pennant, is convinced owner Bob Nutting, president Frank Coonelly and general manager Neal Huntington are determined to win, despite the Pirates’ record run of 18 consecutive losing seasons, the accompanying low payrolls and frequent roster turnovers.

“I looked them in the eyes and asked them, ‘Are you in?’ “ Hurdle said. “And to a man they looked me in the eye and said, ‘We’re in.’ ... I was extremely appreciate of the way the men defended the fort.”

The 53-year-old Hurdle knows he repeated some of what predecessors Jim Leyland, Gene Lamont, Lloyd McClendon, Jim Tracy and John Russell promised when they also said they could work with young talent and make it better, and win despite severe fiscal restraints.

“I’ve been at the front end of these news conferences, and the back end,” said Hurdle, who was hired as Colorado’s manager in 2002 and fired in 2009. “A guy comes in and he says, ‘We’re going to do this, we’re going to do that.’ If you replay the tape, the guy before him said the same thing. I’m well aware of the history, the road traveled. But I know where I want to go.”

Hurdle, the hitting coach for the AL champion Texas Rangers last season, replaces John Russell, who was fired the day after completing a 105-loss season — the Pirates’ worst in 58 years. Russell’s teams, thinned by the trades of nearly every productive everyday player, lost 299 games in three seasons.

“It’s like how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time,” Hurdle said. “We’re going to fix one thing at a time.”