Clint Hurdle owned the room at the UVA Club and showed more than 200 local baseball fans that he is a tremendous public speaker.
The Curve Booster Club pulled off a coup by landing the Pirates manager for its members-only event Tuesday, and Hurdle wowed the crowd with his amazing gift for gab.
He was funny, charismatic and self-deprecating. Most importantly, he was brutally honest about several key issues.
He called Pedro Alvarez the team's "weakest link" this season.
He singled out Ronny Cedeno's inconsistent play and said that the club must get more out of the shortstop position.
He discussed dollars in detail, explaining why the franchise couldn't pick up pitcher Paul Maholm's $9.75 million option, why catcher Ryan Doumit is too expensive at more than $5 million and how outfielder Garrett Jones might be too pricey if he commands more than $2 million in arbitration.
He talked about how he knew Jones was trying too hard and noted how that gets old real fast.
"Don't try too hard," Hurdle recalled telling Jones. "Just try."
It's refreshing to hear a manager tell it like it is, instead of offering up nonsense that everyone can see through.
It's also easy to see why the Pirates hired Hurdle because he surely must have blown them away in the interview process.
Clearly, Hurdle can talk with the best of them, but the best part about him as a manager is he's not just all talk. An incident that occurred May 12 best proved that.
Andrew McCutchen is the franchise player, the guy the Pirates are trying to build around. But on May 11, the center fielder failed to run to first base on a swinging third strike in the dirt against the Dodgers, and the next day Hurdle benched him.
"I think the world of Andrew McCutchen," Hurdle told the crowd at the UVA Club.
He then went on to add that rules don't mean anything unless they apply to every player, including the star of the team.
So Hurdle set an example. He told his coaching staff during the afternoon that he was going to have to bench McCutchen, and they were surprised.
But McCutchen wasn't surprised. When he was summoned to Hurdle's office, he not only knew he was going Clint Hurdle owned the room at the UVA Club and showed more than 200 local baseball fans that he is a tremendous public speaker.
The Curve Booster Club pulled off a coup by landing the Pirates manager for its members-only event Tuesday, and Hurdle wowed the crowd with his amazing gift for gab.
He was funny, charismatic and self-deprecating. Most importantly, he was brutally honest about several key issues.
He called Pedro Alvarez the team's "weakest link" this season.
He singled out Ronny Cedeno's inconsistent play and said the club must get more out of the shortstop position.
He discussed dollars in detail, explaining why the franchise couldn't pick up pitcher Paul Maholm's $9.75 million option, why catcher Ryan Doumit is too expensive at more than $5 million and how outfielder Garrett Jones might be too pricey if he commands more than $2 million in arbitration.
He talked about how he knew Jones was trying too hard and noted how that gets old real fast.
"Don't try too hard," Hurdle recalled telling Jones. "Just try."
It's refreshing to hear a manager tell it like it is, instead of offering up nonsense that everyone can see through.
It's also easy to see why the Pirates hired Hurdle because he surely must have blown them away in the interview process.
Clearly, Hurdle can talk with the best of them, but the best part about him as a manager is he's not just all talk. An incident that occurred May 12 best proved that.
Andrew McCutchen is the franchise player, the guy the Pirates are trying to build around. But on May 11, the center fielder failed to run to first base on a swinging third strike in the dirt against the Dodgers, and the next day Hurdle benched him.
"I think the world of Andrew McCutchen," Hurdle told the crowd at the UVA Club.
He then went on to add that rules don't mean anything unless they apply to every player, including the star of the team.
So Hurdle set an example. He told his coaching staff during the afternoon that he was going to have to bench McCutchen, and they were surprised.
But McCutchen wasn't surprised. When he was summoned to Hurdle's office, he not only to get benched, he expected it.
"Your actions are going to speak louder than your words," Hurdle said. "There's a lot of people that can talk well in sports and politics, but what are your actions about?"
The Pirates have had a lot of problems for a long time, not the least of which has been a culture of losing that has engulfed the organization. That's what happens when you lose for 19 consecutive years.
Hurdle's task is changing that losing culture, and he did an exceptional job of it from spring training until late July, when the Bucs were tied for first in the NL Central at 51-44. Everything quickly collapsed, however, as the Pirates went 21-46 down the stretch to finish 72-90.
The Bucs accomplished plenty during 2011, but there's a danger that the players could remember getting pounded over the final two months more so than their accomplishments the first four.
"I don't think there's really anything farther from the truth," Hurdle said. "Very good lessons were learned through the first 3 1/2 months, and I think just as important of lessons were learned for the last 2 1/2 months.
"I don't think there's any bad taste left in anybody's mouth. We're not happy how we finished, but we took steps forward, and we know we've got more work to do."
Even with all the strides the Bucs made this year, they face an immediate danger in 2012 as they open the season with an incredibly difficult April schedule. They start with the Phillies, head west for nine games, return home to face the Cardinals and Rockies, then go to Atlanta.
That 22-game stretch alone could bury the Bucs in the standings and once again lead the players to doubt themselves or the team.
Hurdle doesn't buy any of that. He insists the culture already has changed, that the losing mentality does not exist, that a foundation for success is in place and that his players will not be bogged down by the pressures or disappointments that have dogged the franchise since 1992.
"I don't think there's any doubt for anybody that's been through the clubhouse now and experienced our spring training camp, our program, anything we're doing, that we've turned our back on the past," Hurdle said. "We're not going to be slaves to the past. We don't carry the baggage of the last 18 seasons."
Team president Frank Coonelly, also on hand to speak at the Curve Booster Club event, agreed with Hurdle that the culture already has been changed.
"My conversations with the players, my conversations with Clint as we were going through those tough two months, it was all positive," Coonelly said. "Those players weren't taking the position of, 'Here we go again' as the fans on blogs would do. That was not their mindset at all. Their mindset was, 'We're going to win tonight's game.'"
They didn't win very many of them late, but Hurdle said he continued to see confidence in the players' faces.
"Even when we didn't play well or get the wins that we wanted the last 2 1/2 months of the season, you come in that clubhouse, you couldn't tell what had happened the day before," Hurdle said. "That's one of the challenges I'm giving to these guys and I'm holding firm on is I don't want to know by your facial expression what we did yesterday."
That's some good advice because the only way the franchise will move forward is by forgetting about the past.
Specifically, the past 19 years.
Cory Giger is the host of "Sports Central" from 4 to 6 p.m. daily on ESPN Radio 1430 WVAM. Reach him at 949-7031 or @CoryGiger on Twitter.
