Jim Tracy: Clint Hurdle can turn Pirates around

Associated Press

PIRATES

Clint Hurdle lost his first home opener as Pittsburgh Pirates manager. His former lieutenant can relate to the feeling.

So, too, can each of the other seven men who managed his first home game as Pittsburgh’s skipper since 1968.

Jim Tracy’s Pirates lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-3 in PNC Park’s 2006 opening day, his first of two seasons that resulted in 94-plus losses each. Thursday, Tracy played the foil on the banks of the Allegheny, his Colorado Rockies beating Hurdle’s Pirates 7-1 behind a strong performance from starting pitcher Esmil Rogers.

A Pirates manager hasn’t won his home opener since Larry Shepard in 1968. Worse, the past four never produced a single winning season.

Tracy, though, believes it’s possible Hurdle — his former boss — can do what he couldn’t: Turn around the Pirates after years of losing. The Pirates have had 18 consecutive losing seasons, a record for major North American professional sports.

“Have I seen a difference?” Tracy said when asked about the direction of the team he guided to a 135-189 record in 2006-07. “Yes, I have. But I also think that has to go back to their manager and I’ll tell you that in his own way, he creates an energy level for a group of people, he helps to create momentum. I think that’s very, very important when you’re dealing with young players.”

Pittsburgh had the majors’ worst record last season at 57-105, its fourth consecutive last-place finish. The Pirates haven’t lost less than 90 games since 2004 and haven’t finished as high as fourth place since 2003.

Hurdle is the fifth manager — sixth if you count the final four seasons of Jim Leyland’s tenure; seventh if you count interim manager Pete Mackanin’s 26 games in 2005 — to attempt to restore the luster to a franchise that has won five World Series titles and was a National League powerhouse as recently as the early 1990s.

A commanding presence with infectious optimism, Hurdle has at least enticed the perpetually discouraged fanbase to believe a turnaround behind a young core is possible.