Clint Hurdle taught players to hit through wit.
He managed 17 years in the big leagues, suffered 1,345 losses, but won over organizations with his leadership and sense of humor. Hurdle has lived a life worthy of a movie, from Sports Illustrated coverboy to lost prospect to getting sober to leading the Rockies to the World Series.
The common thread connecting the pain and joy was funny, insightful anecdotes that reflected his engaging personality and learned humility.
Baseball is famous for its unwritten rules. Hurdle chose to write his thoughts down, authoring “Hurdle-isms: Wit and wisdom from a lifetime in baseball.”
Hurdle finds motivation through inspirational sayings, sharing those with 7,000 friends on a daily email. This book became an outgrowth of his 2023 life goal to “Grow” in his personal life and remove himself from his comfort zone, something he asked players to do for decades.
“I learned about myself, about the ability to write, about an entire process I had no idea about,” Hurdle told The Post about his book, which is available for pre-order. “It allowed me to revisit moments that were real and meaningful.”
Hurdle, 67, turned down more than a dozen book opportunities while managing. After his final season with the Pirates in 2019, he considered a multi-person project, sharing baseball stories from the rocking chair. But no publisher bit. He reached into his contacts, something he was reluctant to do, and talked with friend and best-selling author Jon Gordon. Gordon, known for “The Energy Bus,” advised Hurdle that he needed to “stretch,” to commit to going solo. Hurdle dug into his 13 journals logged over 20 years with the goal to “keep it light, bright and polite.”
The Hurdle-isms were born. In his breezy 20,000-word book often written on cross-country flights, Hurdle focuses on 25 of them. Those who followed the Rockies will recognize several, including, “There are two kinds of people in this world: those who are humble and those who are about to be,” and “multi-tasking makes me multi-mediocre.”
“The sayings just came from the way I saw life,” said Hurdle, long a voracious reader and music connoisseur.
Early in his playing career in Kansas City, Hurdle had a coach tell him the hardest thing in the simplest manner. Struggling at the time, Hurdle felt overwhelmed by pressure.
“I could have won a batting title, dated Marie Osmond and cured cancer,” Hurdle said, “and it wouldn’t have been good enough in my mind.”
As many people offered Hurdle advice, the coach told him, “It’s hard to relax when you are playing like horse (bleep).” The brutal truth — “Stop worrying about what everyone else is saying” — provided comfort, and motivated many Hurdle-isms.
Hurdle begins his book writing about restoring joy in sports and life. The first Hurdle-ism: Don’t keep score.
It remains difficult for baseball players not to define their lives by their batting average. When Hurdle was a member of the 1986 St. Louis Cardinals, manager Whitey Herzog had stats removed from the scoreboard because it was infecting so many minds, but it backfired when fans held up poster boards with updated numbers three days later. Hurdle learned from this, constantly instructing players to “focus on where you are going, not where you have been.”
“When I was teammates with George Brett, you couldn’t tell if he was hitting .150 or .350. He used to tell me, ‘Let’s get four hits today. I will get three, you get one,’” recalled Hurdle with a laugh. “When I worked with Todd Helton, I loved his passion. Whether he had a good day or bad day, he wanted to know what time we were hitting in the cage. I learned with Todd that when he came to me with a problem, I would tell him to go home and I would have a plan for him. I didn’t always have a plan, but the process could take over his life and I wanted him to get his mind off it.”
Hurdle realized that he was keeping score away from the field, judging others by their actions and judging himself by intentions. He joked that “I was the guy who would leave a price tag on during a gift exchange.” Hurdle believes when you stop keeping score, you can start “doing the right thing just because it’s the right thing to do.”
In the minor leagues, a Hurdle-ism sprouted organically when he and pitcher Dan Quisenberry were struggling in Class-A ball. Quisenberry and Hurdle wondered if they would ever have a game when they both did well, “Quiz believed we would. And he said that’s why I look forward to the postgame shower. I get to wash away all the crap that happened.”
“Shower well” appears in Chapter One. It is about removing life’s dirt and disappointment and focusing on being present, advice Hurdle dispenses to Rockies minor leaguers as a current assistant to the general manager.
Hurdle has been a roaring success and a spectacular failure. He relates to stars — he coached Hall of Famers Helton, Larry Walker and Vlad Guerrero — and the 25th player on the roster. He played both roles and everywhere in between.
His days as a manager are over. Now, he hopes to make a difference as an author. I told him that one of my favorite Hurdle-isms was his description of a game as “two drunks fighting outside a bar,” which served me well describing the Broncos over the years.
“Well, drunks are not exactly thinking logically,” Hurdle said. “You are moving in slow motion. You walk out there thinking you are Muhammad Ali and end up looking like Redd Foxx. I think if I do another book, I am going to explain where the Hurdle-isms originated. Those are some good stories.”
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