Life's lessons had sting for Hurdle

With dad's help, former 'phenom' learned to count blessings

Clay Latimer, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 8, 2007 at midnight

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Clint Hurdle thought his day could get no better.

After a stunning sweep of Philadelphia in the National League Division Series, he stood in the middle of his clubhouse on a wild Saturday night, drenched in beer and champagne and locked in a euphoric haze.

Then he spotted a familiar face across the room, a 73-year-old, white-haired man with a passion for baseball, wisecracks and garrulous conversation: his father, Clinton Edward Hurdle.

"We had a couple big hugs," said the elder Hurdle, who lives in Florida. "It was good."

It was an acknowledgment of one of the nicest relationships in baseball in recent years: a father and child who also are confidants and friends for life, not to mention phonemates who warrant their own 1-800 number.

"It's very rare that 48 hours go by where we don't talk," Clint said. "It's amazing how much smarter he got as I got older."

When Clint was a baby, his father put him on his knee and pointed him toward the TV during the Game of the Week.

"I think he knew what was going on," the elder Hurdle said.

He coached Clint from Little League through high school, watched him make his big league debut at 20, marveled when he made the cover of Sports Illustrated the following spring, under the headline "The Next Phenom."

But the script didn't cooperate.

Ups and downs

Ten tortuous years after his celebrated start, Hurdle limped away from the game, worn down by injuries, sad demotions, pressure and life. Reborn as a manager, he fell off the fast track 14 years ago, haunted by what-ifs and a rocky personal life.

"You get into major league baseball at 18, and you want to show everybody you're a man," he said. "I wasn't a man. I was a big kid trying to figure things out. I stumbled and fell a number of times.

"I tried going to some other people. But I was more or less looking for people telling me what I wanted to hear. It just got to the point where I needed to go back to my father. I finally went back to the man I love the most. And the man who knew me the best.

"I still didn't get it right, and that's when I started going to him like an ATM. I mean, I've been divorced twice. This isn't a story where you'd want someone to follow in my footsteps. It's been one of education and love unconditionally from a father and a mother - and about a son finally getting it right."

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 Hurdle said.

Clint's father received a call from the Chicago Cubs but was drafted into military service. 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.

As his grandfather lay near death in Big Rapids, Mich., three years ago, Clint flew to see him before the start of a four-game series with the San Francisco Giants. Even then, good-natured barbs dominated the talk.

"I got up this morning and said: 'I can either mow the lawn, or I can fly to Michigan,' " Clint Hurdle said, opening the visit.

The conversation soon veered to the Giants.

"He asked me if I was going to pitch to Barry Bonds," Clint said. "I didn't have an answer. So he said, 'What are you, crazy? What's wrong with you? You don't pitch to Bonds.'

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. There's always been the humor, the laughter fabric. We've been able to laugh with one another, and at one another."

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

But baseball was his passion.

Baseball came first

"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 the Kansas City Royals made him a first-round draft pick in 1975. After a meteoric rise through the Kansas City system, Hurdle arrived in the big leagues 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. In the 1980s, Hurdle made guest appearances on the soap opera General Hospital, but in 1978 he didn't need to play a star. He was one - in ballparks and bars.

"I left home really early," he said. "I didn't go to college, I went out into the real world. There were challenges and adversity, and I made some decisions that didn't work out so well."

Dad was there to help

When an injury ended Hurdle's career, 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."

With a happy ending eluding him on the field, Hurdle turned to managing. Popular with players and fans, he led the Class A Mets to the Florida State League Championship in 1988 and impressed Mets management during stints in AA and AAA. Baseball America named him one of the top major league managerial prospects. When the Mets hired Dallas Green in 1993, however, Hurdle and Mets minor league director Steve Phillips "agreed" that Hurdle should find another job.

"That was disappointing because people who were actually there were very high (on Clint) and they were pushing him up," the elder Hurdle said. "That's why I'm a Mets hater today. I hate to be vengeful, but . . ."

When the Rockies hired him as a hitting instructor in 1994, Hurdle was determined to take a different approach to the game, convincing his father to do the same.

"One of the things we continually talked about through my playing career was how we took it for granted," Hurdle said.

"I didn't embrace the ride enough. I didn't embrace the good times. When I did well, I expected to, and when I played badly, I beat myself up.

"As a father, I think when I did well, he expected me to do well, and when I didn't, he worried. We talked about it over the years, and there came a point in time when we said, 'We're going to have fun with this. We're going to enjoy this. And we have; we haven't missed an opportunity."

Criticism tough on father

It hasn't always been easy. Hurdle's critics called for his head when the Rockies slumped early this season, which naturally bothered his father, who had a hard enough time watching games when the Rockies were on a roll.

During the wild-card playoff with San Diego, for example, he wandered through his house, his anxiety nearly becoming misery when the Padres went ahead 8-6 in the 13th.

"I hate to say it, but after that two-run homer, I thought we'd bought the farm," he said. "I guess I should kick myself for not having faith in the guys.

"I just get very nervous. I bet I put in five miles that night. That's one reason I wouldn't want to watch all the games. I didn't have any problems when I coached Clint. But I get worn out now. I'm completely beat."

Two hours later, he picked up a ringing phone in his Florida home. On the other end was his son, determined to share another big day.

"I gave him a card, maybe five, six years ago on their anniversary, saying, 'Thanks for being with me for all the rough times, from birth until now,' Hurdle said.

"It was like: I'm sorry for everything. I know he's very happy and proud of me. That being said, I'm happy he's my dad. So to have him here now is as good as it gets for me."

Clint Hurdle's managerial record

Year Team W L Pct. Fin.

2002 Rockies 67 73 .479 4

2003 Rockies 74 88 .457 4

2004 Rockies 68 94 .420 4

2005 Rockies 67 95 .414 5

2006 Rockies 76 86 .469 4

2007* Rockies 90 73 .552 2*Earned Nl Wild Card, Beat Phillies 3-0 In Nl Division Series

latimerc@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2596

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