"3 Things Every Player Wants to Know"

Playing Career: 

- Declined College offers from the U. of Miami and Harvard to play professional baseball. 

- Drafted by the Kansas City Royals with stops with the Reds, Mets, and Cardinals organizations.

Coaching: 

- Hitting Coach then Manager of the Colorado Rockies

- Hitting coach for the Texas Rangers

- Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates

- Currently a "Lifetime contract with the home team"

Topics discussed: 

- Personal faith journey

- His coaching philosophy and how it progressed

- Amazing stories including 3 World Series runs

- 3 things every player wants to know

- What he would tell a new coach starting out

Subscribe so you don't miss any new episodes! 

Nate:

This is the coach to coach podcast, episode number 32 game time. Hey, what's going on guys? Welcome to the coach to coach podcast where we believe every kid deserves a coach that cares and every coach deserves someone in their corner. I'm your host Nate Sallee and this podcast is sponsored by the Northern Kentucky fellowship of Christian athletes. Once again, I have to just give a quick shout out to all of our donors and our supporters, board members, volunteers, and student leaders who are all a valued part of this team. And I gotta tell you we are seeing life change happen here in the Northern Kentucky region as we continue to minister to and through coaches. Well, Hey, on this episode, part of the vision of this podcast is to capture and collect a wisdom and know that Kentucky greater Cincinnati and beyond. We're going beyond today. We got an interview with Clint hurdle. Clint comes with 45 years of being at a spring major league baseball training camp. He has played with guys like George Brett back in the day. He has managed with the Colorado Rockies. He was the hitting coach for the Texas Rangers and most recently you've probably remember him as the manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates and he is now in a next season of life and he was willing to take some time to sit down and share about his, his personal journey as a man of faith, some of the things he's learned along the way, coaching all those years and playing all those years with players. And he has three questions that he knows that he asked as a player of his coaches and he tries to answer those three questions with all of his players. And I think you're really going to appreciate his wisdom, his insight from a major league baseball manager, Clint hurdle, incredible guy. We had some great laughs, some good stories. You're going to want to grab whatever you use to take notes for our conversation with coach Clint hurdle.

Nate:

All right guys, we are here with Clint hurdle. Clint, how are you doing today?

Clint:

I'm doing really well. Nate, good to be with you.

Nate:

I see some Palm trees in the background, so you're probably sitting a little bit warmer than me. We're about 43 degrees here in Northern Kentucky.

Clint:

I happened to be perched up on the intercoastal waterway and go down to the Gulf of Mexico and Annamarie Island is where we've made our kind of made our home. We're transitioning from Pittsburgh to here. Yeah, 85 degrees. A little balmy today. That's awesome. Well, Hey, I'll have given the listeners a bio of your kind of your, your baseball world a little bit, but I just wanted to start kind of with present day. How is, if you're like me, my first spring without baseball was definitely kind of an one. Uh, and how has, how has this spring of 2020 with you with the transition and then you throw in all this Corona jazz, how are you doing?

Clint:

Man there's been a long transition in my life. I retired, basically took the side and put the uniform in the closet. Back in the middle of November is actually our anniversary day. Carla and I, our anniversary date, November 13th, I've done some interviewing for some positions. I actually got offered another contract. I thought about getting on that treadmill again. And then just it's through conversation, through prayer. Just decided, you know, I've been traveling a long time. I've been gone a long time. I have two, two teenagers in high school. It just seemed like the right time for me to reinvest in my family. That was the biggest transition. 45 consecutive spring trainings I've gone to. This was the first year I did not go to a spring training since I was 17, I think. 18 years old. Mmm. And another interesting facet. They've all been majorly camps, which doesn't happen very often. Even when I was a minor league player, even when I was a minor league manager, I get invited to come in. Great. That was kind of a mule a, I could hit him, I could hit a good foam go, I could throw BP forever. Those are two nice things right there. And you can throw strikes and you can hit their barrel. Yeah, you're all good. So that was a, a big transition. However, it wasn't that challenging. Um, I was at peace when I made my decision November and then watching the, the months play out. October, November, December, January, February. The challenge of the COVID 19, watching my wife, my wife, work in our, in our how's every day. Um, I gave it everything I had for 45 years. So I'd never had an itch. I wasn't going through withdrawals. I didn't need to get back in a uniform. I didn't need to be at the front of the room, didn't need to be making out a lineup card. I was good being home and trying to figure things out here. And for those of you that maybe are musically inclined, this might make more sense to them, but I think we all can relate a little bit to it. If my family, is a band right now, Nate, I'm just trying to be the bass player. I'm trying to be over on the side of the stage. I've been out front for 16 years as a manager. I've been out front most of my, most of my life coaching, playing. Um, so now the opportunity. Yeah. Biblically, Barnabas was a huge encourager to Paul. I'm trying to be an encourager from the side. I'm trying to be an encourager from behind. And there's some days though, I'm like a six month old puppy. You know, maybe I'm peeing in the corner and I got to get in your lap and look on your face and make up and figure things out. But creating space, making space, sharing space, then giving everybody their own space. I'm learning all this again. It's been wonderful. It's been good for, cause there's, there's days that I think these kids are looking like no time for you to go somewhere and now we're quarantined. So there's no going anywhere. It's been three plus weeks. A home cyber schooling as well. Yeah, my hands have been full. My heart's been full. We've delegated chores, we have movie nights, we have games of cards that we play. My, my daughter Maddie, I'm a special needs child at 17. She thinks she's the world's greatest Uno player ever. We're family walks. We have two dogs a lot going on. The homeschooling thing has been crazy cool. Because I'm the chorus teacher. I'm the driver's ed teacher, the English teacher. Um, so I'm a little bit stretched out, but uh, I'm having a blast.

Nate:

That's amazing. Yeah, it's, it's really good to see. Uh, a lot of people are being able to kind of redeem some of this time and I'm glad you guys have been able to do the same as well. And I actually was able to go to spring training any for a couple of days with my brother and father-in-law out to a Goodyear. We saw one of the games and just just happened to, we were just walking around the stadium just happened to run into Marty Brenneman who's the longtime broadcaster and recently retired and he was just on cloud nine as well during it. It was his last year, this past season. And he said, Hey, you know what, if I just want to come here for the game for about an hour and a half and then go play golf, I can do it. And he was like, I'm good. This is awesome.

Clint:

Marty has a home down here in Sarasota with his wife. Yeah, we run into them occasionally when we were out last, last spring prior to spring training when he went out in Arizona. Of course I get involved. I was in Boulder, but he has a standing feud with my daughter Maddie, about which teams better? The pirates are arrests. You may not know this, but I was a red for about a minute, for about a minute. And as it turned out, we had a very saucy year last year with the rents. Basically. It was, I guess it was kind of like a country feud at times. However, I've always had the utmost respect and respect for the organization for the tradition, the history, um, the city of Cincinnati in and of itself, it's a grassroots baseball town. They have one of the best museums of any major league organization. I lived at one Lytle place when I was in Cincinnati, actually got married second time across the street and, in Newport but justice of the peace way back when. So I've got some nostalgic history, Cincinnati and it's been a fun organization to watch grow and they really fought hard to put themselves in a pretty good place for this 2020 season.

Nate:

That's right. Yeah. It's, it's funny. I, we drive, I drove past the one Lytle place all the time driving around the area. That's, that's amazing. Uh, well Hey, just wanted to shift gears a little bit. Kinda from present day to, let's just take a look back kind of the, the history book a little bit. Tell us a little bit about your, your faith story. I know at one point, I know FCA a kind of a role into that. We just kind of love to hear a little bit of your journey.

Clint:

FCA has always been involved in my faith journey. Basically. My mom and dad used to get us dressed up and send us out of the house on Sunday, Sunday school and we'd go to the kids' church. I think it bought them three or four hours for their own time. They were both working sometimes my dad working two shifts. It wasn't a bad thing at all. I took no disrespect or nothing that my folks didn't go to church with us. They sent us to church. We went to Bible Sunday school. Matter of fact, one of my greatest memories was every, every Sunday walking out the house and hearing platters in the background, knowing I was going to the church. As I continued to grow in my, my church journey, started off in a Methodist church, eventually started spending more time in church related activities. Basically the Methodist church was stretched and once I got into high school, a first Baptist church of Marinol was built. I gravitated to that. Um, and it was there that I kind of ran into two men really grabbed a hold of me. And it was the first time I had people wanting to invest in my soul rather than my baseball, football or basketball skills. I don't mean that in a bad way. Native just growing up when you comply and you got some skills and you're playing three sports, no, we want that kid in our team. And then we want you to quarterback her pitcher, shortstop, and your playing. And I reached out to a pastor, Glen Turner, a Sunday on Easter, the tax, we're going to talk next week, pastor Glen Turner, brother John Paul were the two men that really started helping me dig and to own my faith. And they explained the story of salvation. So they explained the reality that it's the one religion where God reached down. We don't have to reach up. It's not based on merit, based on grace. Right. And on my worst day, God loves me as much as he does on my best day in my mind, cause I don't have a best or worst day to him. He wants a relationship with my heart. He wants me to be a man of service. So they started sharing and preaching and you know, and then as you well know, maybe don't, but in a Baptist church they'll drop that health thing on you in a heartbeat. Where are you going? And it got my attention and I said like, think I'm going to heaven. I, you know, when they go, Hey, it ain't about more good than bad. This isn't the justice where the scales there. There's a way, then it's through Christ. It's either the redemptive blood of Jesus Chris and you know, it starts with believing in his life and it goes to the cross where he died for your sins. And then the greatest comeback, the greatest comeback ever in the history of the world was the resurrection. Um, and I said, you know what, that makes sense. I want some of that. So they said, we'll say the sinner's prayer. And they were having FCA functions at the church ongoing. So it wasn't just brother John and pastor lent. It was a leader in the, it was a leader in the community. It was one of our coaches at Edgewood junior high. It was some other teenage guys or teenage guys, or showing up and sharing faith So my salvation came at Marinol Baptist church. The one thing that I never really grasped Nate was when I made that commitment to Christ and I asked him to come into my life, take control of my life. I never realized that he would never leave. Hmm. Because after I made that commitment, there was a honeymoon period. And what I found out through that commitment was that if I want to stay grounded in Christ, I need to have people around me that are grounded in Christ. I need to do things with those people that are grounded in Christ. I don't need to try and be a religious Christian in a secular world. Just taking it on myself. I need there's strength in numbers. There's power in cohesion in a group and the church doesn't have to be in the church. The church can be on the street, it can be in your home, it can be in your locker room. And right now, even with the Covid 19 Church and shut down church has been deployed churches out going to get people and share with people. So yeah, I made that commitment. Things were good. There was a honeymoon period. And then when I graduated and accepted an opportunity to go play professional ball in the summer of 75, I kind of got isolated and I lost that touch. I lost that tight knit relationship with other believers. There were some believers on the team. Uh, however, my investment capital wasn't the same and I started losing ground and losing myself, started, you know, REM song. I started losing my religion. My Christian walk actually became a Christian obstacle based on my choice and my lack of development in my lack of reaching out. And truth be told, I shared this in FCA huddles ever since because I stay connected to FCA. I'm actually working with a group here in Sarasota and Nancy County, so that's a reignite the program here, but it was very involved in Pittsburgh as well. I use Jesus as an ATM card for 23 years from the age of 17 to the age of 40. If I needed some Jesus, I'd go get some Jesus. Things were roll, baby. I'd come back, I'd get on a little bit of a roll. Things that settled down, things that get good. Okay, let me get back in charge of this thing now let me grab these reigns. You know, and man, it was like a roller coaster ride that you couldn't get off of. The highs were high, the lows were low. The ride would never stop. At the age of 40 through some other circumstances. Basically through that 23 year period, I was married, divorced, married, divorced, married two years, married for nine years, got a daughter in and out, life as far as commitments to a faith based church. It's a Bible study, a baseball chapel always showed up on Sunday and I always went and I wouldn't pray for hits. I would pray for a better relationship. And little did I know that all this time God was putting men in my life and women in my life helped me reconnect. I wouldn't picking up what he was putting down, but the last woman that he put my life around at the time was my now wife Carla and uh, the age of 40, I kind of went through male applause. Just why am I here? What am I doing? You know, I had buddies, they tried, they tried relationships with younger women or a motorcycle or something else was the answer. I was fortunate enough that through Carla's unconditional love and wisdom, I needed to find myself and I had a list of about 20 things I needed to improve upon. And the first one was to recommit my life to Christ. The second was to get so cause I basically drank myself into this state of alcohol recovering alcoholic, now 21 years of sobriety.

Nate:

Congratulations.

Clint:

Yeah. Well thank you. But I had 18 other things down there to this day Nate I can't tell you what the other 18 were. Once I rededicated my life to Christ and got real with that. And once I got sober and got real with that, it's kind of taken care of itself. But it was through the godly wisdom of a woman that knew there was more man in there. Then I gave myself credit for and she called me out on it cause actually I proposed to her and she said, that's an interesting question I've grown accustomed to. She said, well there's a good guy in there, but he doesn't come out often enough and I would never even attempt it. So getting in a relationship with you like that until you find a way to make yourself happy, you'll never make me happy. So really 23 years of walking in the wilderness. I know the Israelites did 40. I did 23. Um, and when I recommitted my life to Christ at the age of 40, I looked at the past 22 years and has been nothing but miracle after miracle after miracle and it's taken me to that point today.

Nate:

Oh, thanks so much for sharing. A couple of points that just stuck out to me were the isolation and going out alone. I had my own kind of bow out with that as well, where when you start losing that community and that investment and that can, that's kind of where we're most most vulnerable, that that's not necessarily when we feel distant from God. It's not because he moved. It's usually because we moved and you know, I remember moving away at different times and knowing exactly where to go, what I needed to. I kind of thought of it. You mentioned the ATM thing. I had a very similar analogy. I would just kind of view them sometimes as a good luck charm where he was just a big part of my life and I was trying to make it, you know, at the collegiate level in baseball and he was just a part of my package to get as far as I could athletically. It really wasn't a surrendered life to him per se until I was about 21. And I thought, I just think it's a big difference and it's a good good thing to, to not only realize it's not just a good outweigh your bad, it's all him, but to realize that you need others and it's so much more than just an ATM or a good luck charm. That's great. Well, Hey, uh, moving forward, uh, let's, let's kinda switch gears into just kinda your, your coaching worlds is the coach coach podcast. We're going to be shipping this out to coaches of all levels and just would love to hear some of the lessons learned along the way. Uh, but first maybe, uh, kind of the, I know you had the, a lot of stops with the Rockies and then most recently with the pirates and there was a world series run mixed in there. I know at least one of them in 2007, I believe. I looked at that, that starting lineup that was quite a roster when you had Matt Holiday and all those guys. Tory all behind the, on the plate. Uh, man, that was, that was quite a squad. So what was, what was it like winning that, that uh, league championship and what were some of the, I don't know, maybe some of the pieces along the way that really you saw your, coaching or managing of it. Um, yeah. What were some lessons learned through, through that year?

Clint:

Yeah, it's been a journey as well. The things that were first important to me as a coach back in 1988, I think it was my first year as a minor league manager in the Mets organization. I manage the Mets organization six years and then went to the Rockies as a minor league hitting instructor. For three years, almost five years of the major league hitting coach. Before I started man, a world series trips, I took one a 1980s a player with the Royals of 2007 as a manager with the Rockies 2010 as the hitting coach with the Texas Rangers? Right. I've been to the world series three times, which is a pretty small group when you consider player, coach and manager. Yeah. You want to know a smaller group, Nate. We finished second place all three times. Each journey was significant in of itself because each had its own timeline, each had it's own cast of characters. I was a small cog in a world series club in 1980 with, you were checking a line about, you look at that line up. I hit seven. I had my best offensive year in the big leagues that year. The play with Brett, the play with McCray to play with, you know, Darryl Porter, uh, the play with Amos Otis, Willie Wilson. Oh, Willie Mays Aikens. There was just a, it was a really good group then in 2007 to actually be a manager of 18 that found itself during the season, but ignited late in the season. And what a great cast of characters. A good cast of characters. We had that season. You want to talk about a college team, college players, a grownup man that they grew up together on. Minor league system, Helton was at first base played at Tennessee, Tulowitski, Long beach. Uh, was a shortstop. Garrett an Atkins was from UCLA. And then we had Holliday. Yeah, came out of high school. His dad was connected to the university of Arkansas and then we had Brad Haup, I believe it was LSU national championship. So the fun thing about that group was we were never hot. We were never cold. We just kinda stay in the hunt for five plus months. And then with two weeks ago we're five or six games out and we caught fire. We won 13 out of 14. We had a play in game that we won in dramatic fashion and 13th inning slide at home that some people still don't think Holliday he did. And then we won five in a row. We once used me, we won seven in a row more to get to the world series. We swept the Phillies in a five game series or something, three, and we swept the Diamondback. So we won 21 out of 22 games, flat out on fire guys showing up early, staying late, different hero every night. The pitching, if the starter spit the bit, the bullpen came in and locked it down. If we had a lead after six and it was pretty much over our bullpen, shortened the games dramatically. And we found a way on offense, even though we're playing at Coors field, a lot of people thought, you know, everybody resonates. The Blake street bombers, not the home runs. That was a good offensive club cause we could beat you a number of different ways. We could still bases guys did put down buns, we hit homers, we hit doubles. We were aggressive on the basis, but we could, we could win a game by one run with the best of . And then we unfortunately ran into an eight day layoff because one of the world series was played And Boston, played Cleveland and they came back from being down three to one. They stretch that out. The eight games we went in there, we gave it our best shot, but we lost, I really believe we had lost some of the mojo the rhythm and the adrenaline and they were a good team that was hot and they rolled us up in four games and that was over. And then in 10 I went to the world series with the ranger as a hitting coach and it was a big year. Hamilton had where he was the NL MVP, but what a team, you look at another fantastic lineup to be the hidden coach of that team.

Nate:

Yeah. Was that the same season that Hamilton did the home run Derby craziness hit it the next year in 2008.

Clint:

Okay. Yeah. Excuse me. No, I want to say he did that in 2008 we, I wasn't there until two years later. Okay. I managed in that all star game, the national league club, the night at Yankee stadium they had, it was the last all star game at Yankee stadium. So also had that honor of managing in an all star game. That was the deal that went fifteen innings,

Nate:

I remember. And it was, yeah, that was a struggle on how are we going to finish this up?

Clint:

Yeah, it was nuts. So that's the timeline. I mean, I've been a hitting coach, I've been a minor league coordinator. I've been a minor league manager and a coach, first base in charge of outfielders, the hitting coach thing I always gravitate to. And then I felt the opportunity to manage in 2002 of the Rockies and then had the good fortune of managing for 16 years at the major league level with just two organizations. So things are important to me when I started, probably weren't as important to me when I ended. Um, I learned a lot about trust. I learned a lot from my players. I learned a lot from some critical guys that I had on my staff, some Barnabas's on my staff to help grow me up. Um, cause there's a lot of different vacuums you can call it get caught up in as a manager you gotta give man, you gotta give men and coaches the opportunity and the freedom to coach into play. And that's probably the biggest of, but I really wanted to embrace, I knew what to let go and let it happen. It was one of the best learning lessons that I had walking in the door.

Nate:

No, that's great. Yeah. You talked about building and one of the main resources we use in FCA with coaches is called three dimensional coaching or there's the physical side and then the mental emotional side. And then you have the kind of that heart and the spiritual side and you clearly had had knowledge of the game shoot, you'd been at big league camps since you were 17-18 years old. And then it sounds like the later on you got, the more you kind of saw the need for kind of those second and third dimension type things where it's about the relationship is about building trust and ultimately delegating well. So maybe what were some of the things that that stuck out to you as far as building that trust? Because I know it's a little bit different compared to maybe you know, a high school or college or middle school program, cause I know there's a lot of money involved and it's a little bit more of a business at that point, but how were you able to kind of build that trust, build that rapport and maximize those? Those player's potential.

Clint:

Well it's, it's very different and it's very similar and it all, it all works off your ability to earn trust. You need to have honest self evaluation of yourself, who you are, your role, what can you impact, what can you influence when to delegate? You gotta let coaches coach. Some of your coaches need to be smarter in their areas than you are and you need to give them the opportunity to go coach people up. Uh, you got to let players play. There's the time when a lineup does get made and you explain things certain ways or certain things are done. However, once the game plays, you want to put them in a position of strength and distractions are eliminated where they can truly focus on being a teammate. The one thing that I learned that humbled me the most was when I got into coaching. I got into coaching because I kept threatening to play and what I mean by that is they wanted me to manage when I was 30 which I thought, well, it makes sense, but I still wanted to play. I have 10 years in the big leagues. They wanted me to manage a very low level and I wanted to manage it, enable a level. It was 30 minutes from the home where I lived in and they kept offering me lower jobs. I kept saying, no, I'm going to apply unless you give me that job in port Saint Lucie because it's right down the street. So I held, I kept threatening to play, which got me the opportunity in st Lucie, which is what's gotten me on my, you know, my, my journey through coaching. But I was fortunate when I recommitted my life to Christ, Christ continued to bring men into my life and help, help me steer and help guide me. That challenged me about not losing sight of what that chair meant in the bigger picture. I needed to be intentional with my actions. I needed to be a servant. I needed to be a transformational leader. I needed to be a leader that players could trust, know that he's going to take, he's going to help us get where we want to get and he's not gonna use us to get where he wants to get. I really had to remember, remind myself daily how hard a game it is to play. The farther you get away from the game, the longer you're out. Sometimes the easier it looks, man, you want to get real easy, you get up them stands and watch them up top, game slow. Oh my gosh. Because I've got thrown out of a few and suspended a couple times and I'd rather watch those games up there looks way easier than in that speed of that dugout, let alone the speed on the field. But I'd always needed to remember what, what impacted me as a player who impacted me as a player and why they impacted me as a player. And I also needed to revisit the heartbeat of the game. I have tremendous respect and admiration, love and passion for the game of baseball. And there's been times throughout my career and even in the last few years where I feel that we've lost some of that in some areas. It's kind of like, do you remember the first car you bought Nate?

Nate:

Yeah. You did. You did you buy a car? Yeah. Um, well actually had a divorced parents of both famous, got a third car, so I didn't actually get to fully have a job in than purchase it. But I had a Ford ranger in a red Chevy 1500 that I had a different house. It's okay.

Clint:

But when that, when you were in that car was your car, right?

Nate:

Oh yeah.

Clint:

Did you take care of that car?

Nate:

Absolutely.

Clint:

Did you want anybody to mess with your car?

Nate:

No. They better stay away.

Clint:

Okay. That car was special and significant. You protected it. You honored it. You respected it. You took care of it. Now as you've gotten older, do you have a rental car policy? Can you go rent a car every now and then? Yeah. How do you take care of your rental car?

Nate:

It feels different. It feels, yeah. All I did was it got me where I wanted to go and I kept gas in it. That's right. Yeah.

Clint:

Mine had a name. I took care of it. I washed it and I cleaned it. You better not mess it up. Hey. You know, be careful. And that's how I felt about the game of baseball. And in some areas it can help happen in society, can happen in your faith. You become a renter and not an owner. Um, and I wanted to make sure, and I was fortunate, I had a President in Colorado that grew me up, mentored me. Kelly McGregor was a big fan of FCA, also in Arkansas where he was an assistant athletic director, Frank Broyles. Um, he grew me up and he would always tell me, you need to be managerial when you're managing on and off the field, your, your actions will speak louder than your words. You need to be a man of integrity, a man of character. You can't act one way at home. And another way of the park and another way in the uniform, you need to find a way to be the same guy. So team first, that was hearkening to me early on as a kid when I realized when I got into the big leagues, because I went from being a really good high school player back on all American in a small, in a small school. So as I start playing pro bowl, there's all Americans everywhere you turn. Different levels of all Americans, you know. And then I realized, you know what, when you win, it's way better than losing. And when you win, not so much that it's a deodorant, but when you win and you don't do well personally, you feel a whole lot better when you lose and stink and have poor performance. That's tough.So the coaching philosophy evolved over time, but knowing that I was serving God and I actually had a friend telling me a long time ago, and it was Kelly, he said he's the president of the team. Our general manager was a man of faith Dan Murtaugh the three of us would meet regularly and not just talk baseball, but talk faith, talk family, talk roles and responsibilities. And Kelly would always share with me, as long as God wants you in that manager's behind that desk, no man can move you out. And when God doesn't want you to behind that desk, no man can keep you there while Kelly then fired me seven years down the road. Hey, we prayed later that day together. I was fired in New York as a minor league manager. I got fired. And in Colorado 14 months after going to the world series, I was fired. Last September 29th while we were playing the Reds, the last game of the season, God kept me in two chairs for 16 years to manage. And when he called time, it was time. No, man could keep me there. It's time to move on. So I do know this. There's going to be a day where if I'm on my knees in front of the Lord and I'm up in heaven, he's not going to ask me how many games I want as a manager. He's not going to say, Hey, did you bring the world series rings? He's gonna say, boy, how many did you leave to me? Wow. How'd you use your position? Who did you impact? Who did you influence? Did you grow boys and the men? Did you grow men and the leaders? Did you bring them to faith? Did you help him grow up that the love on their wives and honor their wives? Did you help him grow up their kids? Did you help them grow up their teammates and grow together? And that's where I got to and that's what I kept in place.

Nate:

Wow that's amazing. Yeah. Just to have that, that vision for really for, yeah. For generational transformation of those that you're, that you're building into. And baseball is such a beautiful vehicle to do that. I love the game as much as anybody else, but I've kind of had to realize at one point that uh, a, if it becomes your, you know, it's a great game but a terrible God. And at one point it became, it came my God and it definitely led me down some, some rough things personally. But when I, when I can see it just as the game that it is and as the vehicle that it can be to build up people, it's, it's a really a beautiful thing. Well, Hey, I got a one, one quick selfish question for you and then we'll, then we'll wrap up with kind of a final one. But being, being a Reds fan, I still appreciated and respected the heck out of Andrew McCutchen, just a special guy. He's, he was always not the biggest guy, but every ounce of them was just like look, like sheer muscle. He was fast. He could absolutely crush the ball and realize and no one, he was a man of faith as well. Uh, w what was it like coaching a player like that who kind of had several different tools and I'm sure it was, it was a good locker room guy as well.

Clint:

We're very fortunate to have a relationship with Andrew still to this day and his wife and his two boys, but another guy that I was fortunate Pittsburgh to watch come in with a girlfriend, marry her and have kids. Walk the whole evolution. Wow. I'm watching Maria and him, you know, from a girlfriend, boyfriend into a husband, wife, and then the kids coming. Andrew and I developed a relationship basically over time, and it started off with, I shared early on with him, I had three questions as a player growing up and I always wanted my players to know the questions I had because I wanted to answer them for those guys because I felt I could answer three basic questions and it goes, it touches on the 3D the transformational coaching that FCA does. Well, the first question was, can I trust you? The second question was, do you care about me? And the third question is, can you make me better? Yeah. Well, you know what? You're not going to get to the other two until you earn the trust. Because think about people that you trust in your life. What wouldn't you do for them, right?

Nate:

Yeah. You run through a wall for him and then people that you don't trust, you go X amount of distance and that's it. Yeah, there's a boundary there for sure.

Clint:

Right? So you earn their trust and that's what I told Andrew. So I'm here to earn your trust. Might take, you know, it's going to take some time. I don't expect it to happen overnight. There's going to be a situation come up. I want you to watch how I react, watch how I treat others, watch my actions, watch my words, and then I want players to know that I care about them more than a corner infielder with average speed plus pop, susceptible to breaking balls. You know all the metrics. No, he's got a heartbeat. What are his hobbies? What's his wife's name? What's his girlfriend? His mom and dad. He come from a broken home did he come from, a God fearing home. Just I needed to know the story so I needed to know the person and I needed to be able to feel the heartbeat of the player. I shared that with Andrew and then also shared with him. When we get those things in line, I really believe I've got enough life experiences. I can help you get better in some area. The fun thing about Andrew is I told him all the time. I can't relate to silver Slugger awards and MVPs and all those things, but I can relate to the two for 32 slumps. It seemed like every April he would be in a slump and it didn't matter. Spring training, it'd be seven homers and a 500 batting average come April. The switch went off, everything sped up. He'd be behind the heater ahead of the hook and we'd have to work through this and our Aprils were our times where we, and I tell him, I tell him and remind him, I should say, remind him that you're going to have a better chance to witness when you hit .220 that you ever will hitting .320 because people are watching like a Hawk.

Nate:

Yeah. They want to see how they, how you're going to react when, when things aren't going your way personally.

Clint:

Yeah, and I've always shared with him, you know, when I, when I got to know him pretty good, I said, I'll tell you how much I think I hit you third every day and I'd let you take my daughter. I can't, I can't put any more trust in you than that. Back before he was married. Um, so he was just a fun guy to have on a team. Great laugh, great sense of humor, very creative, very arts oriented as well. Could sing, dance imitations, fun guy to be around. But he was a blessing. It was a blessing to be around.

Nate:

Thanks for sharing. I appreciate that. Kind of as a, as a final kind of wrap up, if there's any other lesson or thing you picked up along the way, what would you tell a younger coach that's just starting out? Getting their footing that you wish you would've known when you were starting out in your coaching?

Clint:

Don't worry about getting them to like ya. Work on getting them to respect you. Um, and think about the guys you gravitated to as a player. What type of coaches did you gravitate to. Be intentional with your actions. Be intentional with your words. Uh, the human touch is important. There's some kids that don't like to be touched. That's another thing you got to find out about. Some kids love to be hugged. Some kids just need a hug, a hug and hang in there and they're good. You've just empowered them. You've given them everything they need. Some kids just sitting down and talking through what do you feel? Here's what I'm seeing, but what do you feel? I don't know and it's going to take time and you can't expect to happen overnight. But I would, I would encourage them to keep the heartbeat in first place. There are people, they're not pieces. You hear that term a lot in our industry today. You know that they're pieces.. Attached to every player and there's a story to find out about every player because there's reasons. They act the way they do. They've all, whether the choices they've made, the history of the lifestyle they come up with. You can learn so much about, maybe it's former coaches that you talked to, maybe it's some other players you asked about. Um, and then just smiling, sitting down with them and sharing those three questions. Hey, I want to earn your trust. It'll take what it takes and Hey, you know what I care about you. Is there something I can do for you away from the park? And then, you know what? I really think that we get to that point and there's some things I can, I can bring to the table that they make you better as a player as well. The other thing, the last thing I would add is there's so much failure in the game of baseball. Remind them that failure is an event. It's not a person that's good because there's some kids that were, man, I mean I see it in little league. You see it in, you know, usually you see it in college, you seen it in the pros. Failure is an event. It's not a person. And sometimes failure can be your best teacher. What can we learn from that opportunity that it didn't work out, that you failed it? What can we learn from that? And when that opportunity arises the next time, what could you do differently to get a better outcome?

Nate:

Yeah, that's, that is a game changer. I remember hearing for the first time the difference between guilt and shame where guilt says, I've made a mistake, but shame says I am a mistake. And so many times when we fail, we just feel like we are a failure. Not that we have failed and failure is an event. Not a person that's a great way to put that as well because as gosh, how many times did I strike out or have that that o for four day with with two or three K's and just felt like as a person I am a failure, not just I had a bad day at the yard. To have a healthy view of still being competitive, still playing with all of our heart is doing it for the Lord. Not for man, but not letting it wear it, like not having it. Wear us down now like you were talking about and that's a big, that's a big one. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that.

Clint:

Yeah, you bet!

Nate:

Awesome. Well, I did pick up on another line that you had was you said you wanted to have a lifetime contract with the home team. So tell me a little bit more about what that means for you in this season.

Clint:

Oh my gosh. It all goes back to getting fired and then thinking about what's next, what needs to be next, what should be next? And through a couple of conversations, my wife and I had, I can remember Carla, she's been raising two children. I've been half a dad for 17 years for Madden, no special needs shop or I'll go 15 year old son. I've been half of that half a husband. I mean truthfully I'm home half the year, you know spring training. We always come here together. So we spent three to four months together. We put them in school down here, but I'm still gone eight, 10 hours a day. I mean whatever it is that started where on the travel started to wear on. Yeah. And then having the conversation, Carla would say, well, if you want to do that San Diego thing or you want to do that, we'll figure this out. And the kids will, and I just kept hearing it. It just kept resonated almost like somebody bang, bang and a drum in the back of my head going, buddy, maybe it's time for you to pull the car over and just get and just say, you know what? You don't need to do that. I need to do this. I need to settle down. I need to find a way to pour back into this family. And I mean I got offered a contract with a great opportunity and through those conversations I can almost see myself getting right back on that treadmill. And here I go again and I thought, I got my health. I've got healthy children. I mean Maddie, yes, she's a special needs but she's a healthy child. Yeah, she's given us a lot of joy. Christian is 15 he's on the crew team. He's doing things.They're both in high school. My wife has been a Saint. She, you know, behind every good man is a much better woman. And she's been, I'm not sure I'm a good man. She's a better woman. She's been my life source, my energy, my truth teller. And it's time to stop dragging them around. It's time for me to just fit in. And that's what I came up with. The thing. I just need to sign a lifetime, a lifetime contract with the home team and, and do that.

Nate:

That's excellent. Well, Hey, I want to make sure everybody knows where they can get in contact with you a little bit more. I know you have a almost daily take the take the Sundays off, but you have uh, Clint hurdle.com. Uh, tell us a little bit about the, the daily kind of devotionals that you send out.

Clint:

It's been fun. It has been really encouraging and rewarding the last six to eight weeks, Clinthurdle.com if you type that in, it'll take you to my website and if you went on, so that website's about that big.

Nate:

It's simple. I like it.

Clint:

But it tells the story. Uh, we were setting up some programs in Colorado, there was 12 of us count, 13 count, may and some front office people, some employees, some coaches, you know, just life lessons, leadership and trying to sprinkle some faith. Then with it and then it was over. I take the notes or some quotes and text them and I did that for in 2009 I started doing it and you know, seven weeks into the season I'm fired. Um, and it was on July 4th weekend I was on a family vacation. My phone rings now look at this number to Colorado. Wait a minute, what's this? And it was one of the, one of our, one of our leaders, the female on the phone going, Hey Clint, how you doing? I'm like, well, you know, I'm okay. I'm doing pretty good. It's weird. I said, I keep looking at my watch. My wife tells me to stop. My swipe card doesn't work anymore. Um, but I'm okay. I'm doing pretty good. She goes, well, I'm not, I miss the meetings. I miss the lessons. I miss all of us getting together. And at the bottom of all your texts, you would always say, make a difference today. Love Clint. She said, you're not making a difference today. And I don't know. I don't think you love me.

Nate:

Wow.

Clint:

My wife happened to be watching me having this conversation and I got off the phone. I looked at her and I went, wow. And she goes, what was that all about? And I told her she was, so, what are you going to do about it? Well, I'm gonna take a little walk around this block here and figure something out. So I took a walk around the block and it was plain as day to me. I needed to find a way to start connecting with people. There's people that are looking for encouragement. I was one of them. So many times I mentioned I'm a flawed man, two divorces and alcoholic. However, 16 years as a manager in the big leagues. I'm a man of faith. I'm a man of God. I'm a child of God. I've led, I've been responsible. I've been blessed. He's made a miracle in my life. There's people out there that are looking for miracles in their life that need encouragement. They need a hug, need something. Maybe they can read something that day. It just empowers them. It gives them some hope. This is a time of hope. This is a time of pause in our country. And I know there were times when I had maybe just a couple of people and it only takes one to help you on your journey to help you on your way. To say I care and I'm here to listen. I'm going to give you the greatest gift I can give you. I'm gonna give you some time. So it became a devotional email and it became an encouragement email so there's two options. Some people sign up for both, but some people sign up for one or the other and the numbers have grown exponentially since the new year. Actually since the end of the season, for some reason, for whatever reason, the numbers have picked up, more people are reading than ever before. It helps me cause it sharpens me first Nate. I've got to do the research, I got to do the reading. And if an electrocutes, me I think, you know what I prayed over and then I put it in a thing. All these are done at least a week ahead of time and it's so encouraging to get an email. Like today. I got probably close to 20 or 25 responses for the two emails. Perfect message for me today. Well, it was sent out nine days ago. It wasn't like I crafted it today and put it in the hopper and you got it today. God's timing.

Nate:

Yeah, he uses it all. Well, Hey, thank you so much for, for sharing and being open with your story and sharing some of the wisdom. I know a lot of our listeners are going to be encouraged to coach and to grow personally at home with their teams. You really brought it today and I appreciate it. It's a blessing to you and your bride and your family. Keep enjoying that, that warm weather, even though we're doing the quarantine thing for a little bit longer.

Clint:

Thank you. We're going to stay sheltered here. We're going to, we're gonna follow the rules and let me know if I can be of service to you and thanks for reaching out, Nate.

Nate:

Alright. Take care. We'll talk to you soon.

Clint:

Love you man, Bye.

Nate:

Wow. Wow, wow. Again, so grateful to Clint for coming on the show and being so transparent with his personal story, for being generous with the lessons that he's learned both through mistakes and other people that have built into him as a person, as a coach back in the day when he was a player. What about those three questions? Can I trust you? Do you care about me? Will you be able to make me better? I know if you're like me, I was asking those questions deep down in my heart when I was going through as an athlete and that's something that we should probably be answering for our players and here's a little wrinkle in it. The same things are being asked of, for those of us that have a spouse or children as well, those same questions are being asked. It just may not be in the baseball world or the sport world. Hey, if you haven't already, we encourage you to go ahead and hit subscribe on whatever app you're listening to. That way you don't miss any new episodes coming down the pipe. In the future, we're trying to push out new episodes a little bit more quickly because of Corona virus and people have more time on their hands. So go ahead and hit subscribe. We have some other great ones coming down the road. So go ahead and do that. And until next time, keep growing. Keep learning and keep changing lives on your team and in your home.