April 30, 2020 • 46 mins
Clint Hurdle joins us on the show with some veteran insight!
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!
Website: https://www.nkyfca.org/podcast
Instagram: @nkyfca
Twitter: @nkyfca @natesallee24
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NKYFCA
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nate (00:00):
This is the coach to coach podcast, episode number 32 game
time.
(00:21):
Hey, what's going on guys?
Welcome to the coach to coachpodcast where we believe every
kid deserves a coach that caresand every coach deserves someone
in their corner.
I'm your host Nate Sallee andthis podcast is sponsored by the
Northern Kentucky fellowship ofChristian athletes.
Once again, I have to just givea quick shout out to all of our
donors and our supporters, boardmembers, volunteers, and student
(00:45):
leaders who are all a valuedpart of this team.
And I gotta tell you we areseeing life change happen here
in the Northern Kentucky regionas we continue to minister to
and through coaches.
Well, Hey, on this episode, partof the vision of this podcast is
to capture and collect a wisdomand know that Kentucky greater
(01:06):
Cincinnati and beyond.
We're going beyond today.
We got an interview with Clinthurdle.
Clint comes with 45 years ofbeing at a spring major league
baseball training camp.
He has played with guys likeGeorge Brett back in the day.
He has managed with the ColoradoRockies.
(01:27):
He was the hitting coach for theTexas Rangers and most recently
you've probably remember him asthe manager for the Pittsburgh
Pirates and he is now in a nextseason of life and he was
willing to take some time to sitdown and share about his, his
personal journey as a man offaith, some of the things he's
learned along the way, coachingall those years and playing all
(01:48):
those years with players.
And he has three questions thathe knows that he a sked as a
player of his coaches and hetries to answer those three
questions with all of hisplayers.
And I think you're really goingto appreciate his wisdom, h is
insight from a major leaguebaseball manager, Clint hurdle,
incredible guy.
We had some great laughs, s omegood stories.
(02:10):
You're g oing t o want to grabwhatever you use to take notes
for our conversation with coachClint hurdle.
All right guys, we are here withClint hurdle.
Clint, how are you doing today?
Clint (02:21):
I'm doing really well.
Nate, good to be with you.
Nate (02:24):
I see some Palm trees in the background, so you're
probably sitting a little bitwarmer than me.
We're about 43 degrees here inNorthern Kentucky.
Clint (02:31):
I happened to be perched up on the intercoastal waterway
and go down to the Gulf ofMexico and Annamarie Island is
where we've made our kind ofmade our home.
We're transitioning fromPittsburgh to here.
Yeah, 85 degrees.
A little balmy today.
That's awesome.
Well, Hey, I'll have given thelisteners a bio of your kind of
your, your baseball world alittle bit, but I just wanted to
(02:52):
start kind of with present day.
How is, if you're like me, myfirst spring without baseball
was definitely kind of an one.
Uh, and how has, how has thisspring of 2020 with you with the
transition and then you throw inall this Corona jazz, how are
you doing?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Maybe there's been a long transition in my life.
I retired, uh, basically tookthe side and put the uniform in
the closet.
Back in the middle of Novemberis actually our anniversary day.
Carla and I, our anniversarydate, November 13th, I've done
some interviewing for somepositions.
I actually got offered anothercontract.
I thought about getting on thattreadmill again.
And then just it's throughconversation, through prayer.
(03:29):
Just decided, you know, I'vebeen traveling a long time.
I've been gone a long time.
I have two, two teenagers inhigh school.
It just seemed like the righttime for me to reinvest in my
family.
That was the biggest transition.
45 consecutive spring trainingsI've gone to.
This was the first year I didnot go to a spring training
since I was 17, I think.
(03:51):
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 leagueplayer, even when I was a minor
league manager, I get invited tocome in.
Great.
That was kind of a mule a, Icould hit him, I could hit a
good foam go, I could throw BPforever.
Those are two nice things rightthere.
(04:12):
And you can throw strikes andyou can hit their barrel.
Yeah, you're all good.
So that was a, a big transition.
However, it wasn't thatchallenging.
Um, I was at peace when I mademy decision November and then
watching the, the months playout.
October, November, December,January, February.
The challenge of the COVID 19,watching my wife, my wife, work
(04:35):
in our, in our how's every day.
Um, I gave it everything I hadfor 45 years.
So I'd never had an itch.
I wasn't going throughwithdrawals.
I didn't need to get back in auniform.
I didn't need to be at the frontof the room, didn't need to be
making out a lineup card.
I was good being home and tryingto figure things out here.
And for those of you that maybeare musically inclined, this
(04:56):
might make more sense to them,but I think we all can relate a
little bit to it.
If my family, is a band rightnow, Nate, I'm just trying to be
the bass player.
I'm trying to be over on theside of the stage.
I've been out front for 16 yearsas a manager.
I've been out front most of my,most of my life coaching,
(05:19):
playing.
Um, so now the opportunity.
Yeah.
Biblically, Barnabas was a hugeencourager to Paul.
I'm trying to be an encouragerfrom the side.
I'm trying to be an encouragerfrom behind.
And there's some days though,I'm like a six month old puppy.
You know, maybe I'm peeing inthe corner and I got to get in
your lap and look on your faceand make up and figure things
(05:40):
out.
But creating space, makingspace, sharing space, then
giving everybody their ownspace.
I'm learning all this again.
It's been wonderful.
It's been good for, causethere's, there's days that I
think these kids are lookinglike no time for you to go
(06:01):
somewhere and now we'requarantined.
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 havemovie nights, we have games of
cards that we play.
My, my daughter Maddie, I'm aspecial needs child at 17.
She thinks she's the world'sgreatest Uno player ever.
(06:23):
We're family walks.
We have two dogs a lot going on.
The homeschooling thing has beencrazy cool.
Because I'm the chorus teacher.
I'm the driver's ed teacher, theEnglish teacher.
Um, so I'm a little bitstretched out, but uh, I'm
having a blast.
Nate (06:42):
That's amazing.
Yeah, it's, it's really good tosee.
Uh, a lot of people are beingable to kind of redeem some of
this time and I'm glad you guyshave been able to do the same as
well.
And I actually was able to go tospring training any for a couple
of days with my brother andfather-in-law out to a Goodyear.
We saw one of the games and justjust happened to, we were just
walking around the stadium justhappened to run into Marty
(07:04):
Brenneman who's the longtimebroadcaster and recently retired
and he was just on cloud nine aswell during i t.
It was his last year, this pastseason.
And he said, Hey, you know what,if I just w ant to come here for
the game for about an hour and ahalf and then go play golf, I
can do it.
And he was like, I'm good.
This is awesome.
Clint (07:22):
Marty has a home down here in Sarasota with his wife.
Yeah, we run into themoccasionally when we were out
last, last spring prior tospring training when he went out
in Arizona.
Of course I get involved.
I was in Boulder, but he has astanding feud with my daughter
Maddie, about which teamsbetter?
The pirates are arrests.
You may not know this, but I wasa red for about a minute, for
(07:46):
about a minute.
And as it turned out, we had avery saucy year last year with
the rents.
Basically.
It was, I guess it was kind oflike a country feud at times.
However, I've always had theutmost respect and respect for
the organization for thetradition, the history, um, the
(08:06):
city of Cincinnati in and ofitself, it's a grassroots
baseball town.
They have one of the bestmuseums of any major league
organization.
I lived at one Lytle place whenI was in Cincinnati, actually
got married second time acrossthe street and, in Newport but
justice of the peace way backwhen.
So I've got some nostalgichistory, Cincinnati and it's
(08:29):
been a fun organization to watchgrow and they really fought hard
to put themselves in a prettygood place for this 2020 season.
Nate (08:35):
That's right.
Yeah.
It's, it's funny.
I, we drive, I drove past theone Lytle place all the time
driving around the area.
That's, that's amazing.
Uh, well Hey, just wanted toshift gears a little bit.
Kinda from present day to, let'sjust take a look back kind of
the, the history book a littlebit.
Tell us a little bit about your,your faith story.
I know at one point, I know FCAa kind of a role into that.
(08:56):
We just kind of love to hear alittle bit of your journey.
Clint (08:59):
FCA has always been involved in my faith journey.
Basically.
My mom and dad used to get usdressed up and send us out of
the house on Sunday, Sundayschool and we'd go to the kids'
church.
I think it bought them three orfour hours for their own time.
They were both working sometimesmy dad working two shifts.
It wasn't a bad thing at all.
I took no disrespect or nothingthat my folks didn't go to
(09:21):
church with us.
They sent us to church.
We went to Bible Sunday school.
Matter of fact, one of mygreatest memories was every,
every Sunday walking out thehouse and hearing platters in
the background, knowing I wasgoing to the church.
As I continued to grow in my, mychurch journey, started off in a
Methodist church, eventuallystarted spending more time in
church related activities.
(09:43):
Basically the Methodist churchwas stretched and once I got
into high school, a firstBaptist church of Marinol was
built.
I gravitated to that.
Um, and it was there that I kindof ran into two men really
grabbed a hold of me.
And it was the first time I hadpeople wanting to invest in my
soul rather than my baseball,football or basketball skills.
(10:04):
I don't mean that in a bad way.
Native just growing up when youcomply and you got some skills
and you're playing three sports,no, we want that kid in our
team.
And then we want you toquarterback 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 talknext week, pastor Glen Turner,
brother John Paul were the twomen that really started helping
(10:27):
me dig and to own my faith.
And they explained the story ofsalvation.
So they explained the realitythat it's the one religion where
God reached down.
We don't have to reach up.
It's not based on merit, basedon grace.
Right.
And on my worst day, God lovesme as much as he does on my best
day in my mind, cause I don'thave a best or worst day to him.
(10:51):
He wants a relationship with myheart.
He wants me to be a man ofservice.
So they started sharing andpreaching 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 ina heartbeat.
Where are you going?
And it got my attention and Isaid like, think I'm going to
heaven.
(11:12):
I, you know, when they go, Hey,it ain't about more good than
bad.
This isn't the justice where thescales there.
There's a way, then it's throughChrist.
It's either the redemptive bloodof Jesus Chris and you know, it
starts with believing in hislife 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 theresurrection.
(11:33):
Um, and I said, you know what,that makes sense.
I want some of that.
So they said, we'll say thesinner's prayer.
And they were having FCAfunctions at the church ongoing.
So it wasn't just brother Johnand pastor lent.
It was a leader in the, it was aleader in the community.
It was one of our coaches atEdgewood junior high.
(11:54):
It was some other teenage guysor teenage guys, or showing up
and sharing faith So mysalvation came at Marinol
Baptist church.
The one thing that I neverreally grasped Nate was when I
made that commitment to Christand I asked him to come into my
life, take control of my life.
I never realized that he wouldnever leave.
Hmm.
Because after I made thatcommitment, there was a
(12:16):
honeymoon period.
And what I found out throughthat 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 thosepeople that are grounded in
Christ.
I don't need to try and be areligious Christian in a secular
world.
Just taking it on myself.
I need there's strength innumbers.
(12:38):
There's power in cohesion in agroup 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 theCovid 19 Church and shut down
church has been deployedchurches out going to get people
and share with people.
So yeah, I made that commitment.
(12:59):
Things were good.
There was a honeymoon period.
And then when I graduated andaccepted an opportunity to go
play professional ball in thesummer of 75, I kind of got
isolated and I lost that touch.
I lost that tight knitrelationship with other
believers.
There were some believers on theteam.
Uh, however, my investmentcapital wasn't the same and I
(13:20):
started losing ground and losingmyself, started, you know, REM
song.
I started losing my religion.
My Christian walk actuallybecame a Christian obstacle
based on my choice and my lackof development in my lack of
reaching out.
And truth be told, I shared thisin FCA huddles ever since
(13:43):
because I stay connected to FCA.
I'm actually working with agroup here in Sarasota and Nancy
County, so that's a reignite theprogram here, but it was very
involved in Pittsburgh as well.
I use Jesus as an ATM card for23 years from the age of 17 to
the age of 40.
If I needed some Jesus, I'd goget some Jesus.
Things were roll, baby.
I'd come back, I'd get on alittle bit of a roll.
(14:04):
Things that settled down, thingsthat get good.
Okay, let me get back in chargeof this thing now let me grab
these reigns.
You know, and man, it was like aroller coaster ride that you
couldn't get off of.
The highs were high, the lowswere low.
The ride would never stop.
At the age of 40 through someother circumstances.
Basically through that 23 yearperiod, I was married, divorced,
(14:26):
married, divorced, married twoyears, married for nine years,
got a daughter in and out, lifeas far as commitments to a faith
based church.
It's a Bible study, a baseballchapel always showed up on
Sunday and I always went and Iwouldn't pray for hits.
I would pray for a betterrelationship.
And little did I know that allthis time God was putting men in
(14:48):
my life and women in my lifehelped me reconnect.
I wouldn't picking up what hewas putting down, but the last
woman that he put my life aroundat the time was my now wife
Carla and uh, the age of 40, Ikind of went through male
applause.
Just why am I here?
What am I doing?
You know, I had buddies, theytried, they tried relationships
with younger women or amotorcycle or something else was
(15:10):
the answer.
I was fortunate enough thatthrough Carla's unconditional
love and wisdom, I needed tofind myself and I had a list of
about 20 things I needed toimprove upon.
And the first one was torecommit my life to Christ.
The second was to get so cause Ibasically drank myself into this
state of alcohol recoveringalcoholic, now 21 years of
(15:34):
sobriety.
Nate (15:35):
Congratulations.
Clint (15:35):
Yeah.
Well thank you.
But I had 18 other things downthere to this day Nate I can't
tell you what the other 18 were.
Once I rededicated my life toChrist and got real with that.
And once I got sober and gotreal with that, it's kind of
taken care of itself.
But it was through the godlywisdom of a woman that knew
there was more man in there.
Then I gave myself credit forand she called me out on it
(15:56):
cause actually I proposed to herand she said, that's an
interesting question I've grownaccustomed to.
She said, well there's a goodguy in there, but he doesn't
come out often enough and Iwould never even attempt it.
So getting in a relationshipwith you like that until you
find a way to make yourselfhappy, you'll never make me
happy.
So really 23 years of walking inthe wilderness.
I know the Israelites did 40.
(16:18):
I did 23.
Um, and when I recommitted mylife to Christ at the age of 40,
I looked at the past 22 yearsand has been nothing but miracle
after miracle after miracle andit's taken me to that point
today.
Nate (16:34):
Oh, thanks so much for sharing.
A couple of points that juststuck out to me were the
isolation and going out alone.
I had my own kind of bow outwith that as well, where when
you start losing that communityand that investment and that
can, that's kind of where we'remost most vulnerable, that
that's not necessarily when wefeel distant from God.
(16:54):
It's not because he moved.
It's usually because we movedand you know, I remember moving
away at different times andknowing 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 themsometimes as a good luck charm
where he was just a big part ofmy life and I was trying to make
it, you know, at the collegiatelevel in baseball and he was
(17:16):
just a part of my package to getas far as I could athletically.
It really wasn't a surrenderedlife to him per se until I was
about 21.
And I thought, I just think it'sa big difference and it's a good
good thing to, to not onlyrealize 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 morethan just an ATM or a good luck
(17:40):
charm.
That's great.
Well, Hey, uh, moving forward,uh, let's, let's kinda switch
gears into just kinda your, yourcoaching worlds is the coach
coach podcast.
We're going to be shipping thisout to coaches of all levels and
just would love to hear some ofthe lessons learned along the
way.
Uh, but first maybe, uh, kind ofthe, I know you had the, a lot
of stops with the Rockies andthen most recently with the
(18:02):
pirates and there was a worldseries run mixed in there.
I know at least one of them in2007, I believe.
I looked at that, that startinglineup that was quite a roster
when you had Matt Holiday andall those guys.
Tory all behind the, on theplate.
Uh, man, that was, that wasquite a squad.
So what was, what was it likewinning that, that uh, league
championship and what were someof the, I don't know, maybe some
(18:24):
of the pieces along the way thatreally you saw your, how your
coaching or managing of it.
Um, yeah.
What were some lessons learnedthrough, through that year?
Clint (18:34):
Yeah, it's been a journey as well.
The things that were firstimportant to me as a coach back
in 1988, I think it was my firstyear as a minor league manager
in the Mets organization.
I manage the Mets organizationsix years and then went to the
Rockies as a minor leaguehitting instructor.
For three years, almost fiveyears of the major league
hitting coach.
Before I started man, a worldseries trips, I took one a 1980s
(18:55):
a player with the Royals of 2007as a manager with the Rockies
2010 as the hitting coach withthe Texas Rangers?
Right.
I've been to the world seriesthree times, which is a pretty
small group when you considerplayer, coach and manager.
Yeah.
You want to know a smallergroup, Nate.
We finished second place allthree times.
(19:20):
Each journey was significant inof itself because each had its
own timeline, each had it's owncast of characters.
I was a small cog in a worldseries club in 1980 with, you
were checking a line about, youlook at that line up.
I hit seven.
I had my best offensive year inthe big leagues that year.
The play with Brett, the playwith McCray to play with, you
know, Darryl Porter, uh, theplay with Amos Otis, Willie
(19:42):
Wilson.
Oh, Willie Mays Aikens.
There was just a, it was areally good group then in 2007
to actually be a manager of 18that found itself during the
season, but ignited late in theseason.
And what a great cast ofcharacters.
A good cast of characters.
We had that season.
You want to talk about a collegeteam, college players, a grownup
man that they grew up togetheron.
(20:03):
Minor league system, Helton wasat first base played at
Tennessee, Tulowitski, Longbeach.
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 theuniversity of Arkansas and then
we had Brad Haup, I believe itwas LSU national championship.
(20:24):
So the fun thing about thatgroup was we were never hot.
We were never cold.
We just kinda stay in the huntfor five plus months.
And then with two weeks agowe're five or six games out and
we caught fire.
We won 13 out of 14.
We had a play in game that wewon in dramatic fashion and 13th
inning slide at home that somepeople still don't think
(20:46):
Holliday he did.
And then we won five in a row.
We once used me, we won seven ina row more to get to the world
series.
We swept the Phillies in a fivegame series or something, three,
and we swept the Diamondback.
So we won 21 out of 22 games,flat out on fire guys showing up
(21:06):
early, staying late, differenthero every night.
The pitching, if the starterspit the bit, the bullpen came
in and locked it down.
If we had a lead after six andit was pretty much over our
bullpen, shortened the gamesdramatically.
And we found a way on offense,even though we're playing at
Coors field, a lot of peoplethought, you know, everybody
resonates.
The Blake street bombers, notthe home runs.
That was a good offensive clubcause we could beat you a number
(21:27):
of different ways.
We could still bases guys didput 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 raninto an eight day layoff b
ecause o ne of the world seriesw as played And Boston, played
Cleveland and they came backfrom being down three to one.
(21:47):
They stretch that out.
The eight games we went inthere, we gave it our best shot,
but we lost, I really believe wehad lost some of the mojo the
rhythm and the adrenaline andthey were a good team that was
hot and they rolled us up infour games an d t h at w as
over.
And then in 10 I went to t h e world series wi th t h e r a nger
a s a hitting coach an d i t was a big year.
Hamilton had wh ere h e w as theNL M VP, but what a team, you
(22:09):
look at another fantastic lineupto be the hidden coach of that
team.
Nate (22:13):
Yeah.
Was that the same season thatHamilton did the home run Derby
craziness hit it the next yearin 2008.
Clint (22:20):
Okay.
Yeah.
Excuse me.
No, I'm to, I want to say he didthat 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 theyhad, it was the last all star
game at Yankee stadium.
So also had that honor ofmanaging in an all star game.
That was the deal that wentfifteen innings,
Nate (22:39):
I remember.
And it was, yeah, that was astruggle on how are we going to
finish this up?
Clint (22:43):
Yeah, it was nuts.
So that's the timeline.
I mean, I've been a hittingcoach, I've been a minor league
coordinator.
I've been a minor league managerand a coach, first base in
charge of outfielders, thehitting coach thing I always
gravitate to.
And then I felt the opportunityto manage in 2002 of the Rockies
and then had the good fortune ofmanaging for 16 years at the
major league level with just twoorganizations.
(23:04):
So things are important to mewhen 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 somecritical guys that I had on my
staff, some Barnabas's on mystaff to help grow me up.
Um, cause there's a lot ofdifferent vacuums you can call
(23:24):
it get caught up in as a manageryou gotta give man, you gotta
give men and coaches theopportunity and the freedom to
coach into play.
And that's probably the biggestof, but I really wanted to
embrace, I knew what to let goand let it happen.
It was one of the best learninglessons that I had walking in
the door.
Nate (23:42):
No, that's great.
Yeah.
You talked about building andone of the main resources we use
in FCA with coaches is calledthree dimensional coaching or
there's the physical side andthen the mental emotional side.
And then you have the kind ofthat heart and the spiritual
side and you clearly had hadknowledge of the game shoot,
you'd been at big league campssince you were 17-18 years old.
(24:02):
And then it sounds like thelater on you got, the more you
kind of saw the need for kind ofthose second and third dimension
type things where it's about therelationship is about building
trust and ultimately delegatingwell.
So maybe what were some of thethings that that stuck out to
you as far as building thattrust?
Because I know it's a little bitdifferent compared to maybe you
(24:23):
know, a high school or collegeor middle school program, cause
I know there's a lot of moneyinvolved and it's a little bit
more of a business at thatpoint, but how were you able to
kind of build that trust, buildthat rapport and maximize those?
Those player's potential.
Clint (24:38):
Well it's, it's very different and it's very similar
and it all, it all works offyour ability to earn trust.
You need to have honest selfevaluation of yourself, who you
are, your role, what can youimpact, what can you influence
when to delegate?
You gotta let coaches coach.
Some of your coaches need to besmarter in their areas than you
(24:59):
are and you need to give themthe opportunity to go coach
people up.
Uh, you got to let players play.
There's the time when a lineupdoes get made and you explain
things certain ways or certainthings are done.
However, once the game plays,you want to put them in a
position of strength anddistractions are eliminated
where they can truly focus onbeing a teammate.
The one thing that I learnedthat humbled me the most was
(25:22):
when I got into coaching.
I got into coaching because Ikept threatening to play and
what I mean by that is theywanted me to manage when I was
30 which I thought, well, itmakes sense, but I still wanted
to play.
I have 10 years in the bigleagues.
They wanted me to manage a verylow level and I wanted to manage
it, enable a level.
It was 30 minutes from the homewhere I lived in and they kept
(25:42):
offering me lower jobs.
I kept saying, no, I'm going toapply unless you give me that
job in port Saint Lucie becauseit's right down the street.
So I held, I kept threatening toplay, which got me the
opportunity in st Lucie, whichis what's gotten me on my, you
know, my, my journey throughcoaching.
But I was fortunate when Irecommitted my life to Christ,
Christ continued to bring meninto my life and help, help me
steer and help guide me.
(26:04):
That challenged me about notlosing sight of what that chair
meant in the bigger picture.
I needed to be intentional withmy actions.
I needed to be a servant.
I needed to be atransformational leader.
I needed to be a leader thatplayers could trust, know that
he's going to take, he's goingto help us get where we want to
get and he's not gonna use us toget where he wants to get.
I really had to remember, remindmyself daily how hard a game it
(26:26):
is to play.
The farther you get away fromthe game, the longer you're out.
Sometimes the easier it looks,man, you want to get real easy,
you get up them stands and watchthem up top, game slow.
Oh my gosh.
Because I've got thrown out of afew and suspended a couple times
and I'd rather watch those gamesup there looks way easier than
in that speed of that dugout,let alone the speed on the
field.
(26:46):
But I'd always needed toremember what, what impacted me
as a player who impacted me as aplayer and why they impacted me
as a player.
And I also needed to revisit theheartbeat of the game.
I have tremendous respect andadmiration, love and passion for
the game of baseball.
And there's been timesthroughout my career and even in
the last few years where I feelthat we've lost some of that in
(27:09):
some areas.
It's kind of like, do youremember the first car you
bought Nate?
Nate (27:14):
Yeah.
You did.
You did you buy a car?
Yeah.
Um, well actually had a divorcedparents of both famous, got a
third car, so I didn't actuallyget to fully have a job in than
purchase it.
But I had a Ford ranger in a redChevy 1500 that I had a
different house.
It's okay.
Clint (27:32):
But when that, when you were in that car was your car,
right?
Nate (27:35):
Oh yeah.
Clint (27:35):
Did you take care of that car?
Nate (27:37):
Absolutely.
Clint (27:38):
Did you want anybody to mess with your car?
Nate (27:40):
No.
They better stay away.
Clint (27:42):
Okay.
That car was special andsignificant.
You protected it.
You honored it.
You respected it.
You took care of it.
Now as you've gotten older, doyou have a rental car policy?
Can you go rent a car every nowand then?
Yeah.
How do you take care of yourrental car?
Nate (27:58):
It feels different.
It feels, yeah.
All I did was it got me where Iwanted to go and I kept gassing
it.
That's right.
Yeah.
Clint (28:05):
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 thegame of baseball.
And in some areas it can helphappen in society, can happen in
your faith.
You become a renter and not anowner.
Um, and I wanted to make sure,and I was fortunate, I had a
(28:28):
President in Colorado that grewme up, mentored me.
Kelly McGregor was a big fan ofFCA, also in Arkansas where he
was an assistant athleticdirector, Frank Broyles.
Um, he grew me up and he wouldalways tell me, you need to be
managerial when you're managingon and off the field, your, your
actions will speak louder thanyour words.
You need to be a man ofintegrity, a man of character.
(28:49):
You can't act one way at home.
And another way of the park andanother way in the uniform, you
need to find a way to be thesame guy.
So team first, that washearkening to me early on as a
kid when I realized when I gotinto the big leagues, because I
went from being a really goodhigh school player back on all
American in a small, in a smallschool.
(29:09):
So as I start playing pro bowl,there's all Americans everywhere
you turn.
Different levels of allAmericans, you know.
And then I realized, you knowwhat, when you win, it's way
better than losing.
And when you win, not so muchthat it's a deodorant, but when
you win and you don't do wellpersonally, you feel a whole lot
better when you lose a nd stinkand have poor performance.
That's tough.So the coachingphilosophy evolved over time,
(29:35):
but knowing that I was servingGod and I actually had a friend
t elling me a long time ago, andit was K elly, he said he's the
president of the team.
Our general manager was a man offaith Dan Murtaugh the three of
us would meet regularly and notjust talk baseball, but talk f
aith, talk family, talk rolesand responsibilities.
And Kelly would always share with me, as long as God wants you
(29:56):
i n that manager's behind thatdesk, no man can move you out.
And when God doesn't want you tobehind that desk, no man can
keep you there w hile Kelly thenfired me seven years down the
road.
Hey, we prayed later that daytogether.
I was fired in New York as aminor league manager.
I got fired.
And i n Colorado 14 months aftergoing to the world series, I was
(30:18):
fired.
Last September 29th while wewere playing the Reds, the last
game of the season, God kept mein two chairs for 16 years to
manage.
And when he called time, it wastime.
No, man c ould keep me t here.
I t's time to move on.
So I do know this.
There's going to be a day whereif I'm on my knees in front of
the Lord and I'm up in heaven,he's not going to ask me how
(30:40):
many games I want as a manager.
He's not g oing t o say, Hey,did you bring the world series
rings?
He's g onna say, boy, how manydid you leave to me?
Wow.
How'd you use your position?
Who did you impact?
W ho did you influence?
Did you grow boys and the m en?
Did you grow men a nd theleaders?
Did you bring them to faith?
(31:00):
Did you help h im grow up thatthe love on their wives and
honor their wives?
Did you h elp h im grow up theirkids?
Did you help t hem grow up theirteammates and g row together?
And that's where I got to andthat's what I kept in place.
Nate (31:11):
Wow that's amazing.
Yeah.
Just to have that, that visionfor really for, yeah.
For generational transformationof those that you're, that
you're building into.
And baseball is such a beautifulvehicle to do that.
I love the game as much asanybody else, but I've kind of
had to realize at one point thatuh, a, if it becomes your, you
know, it's a great game but aterrible God.
(31:33):
And at one point it became, itcame my God and it definitely
led me down some, some roughthings personally.
But when I, when I can see itjust as the game that it is and
as the vehicle that it can be tobuild up people, it's, it's a
really a beautiful thing.
Well, Hey, I got a one, onequick selfish question for you
and then we'll, then we'll wrapup with kind of a final one.
(31:53):
But being, being a Reds fan, Istill appreciated and respected
the heck out of AndrewMcCutchen, just a special guy.
He's, he was always not thebiggest guy, but every ounce of
them was just like look, likesheer muscle.
He was fast.
He could absolutely crush theball and realize and no one, he
was a man of faith as well.
Uh, w what was it like coachinga player like that who kind of
(32:15):
had several different tools andI'm sure it was, it was a good
locker room guy as well.
Clint (32:20):
We're very fortunate to have a relationship with Andrew
still to this day and his wifeand his two boys, but another
guy that I was fortunatePittsburgh to watch come in with
a girlfriend, marry her and havekids.
Walk the whole evolution.
Wow.
I'm watching Maria and him, youknow, from a girlfriend,
boyfriend into a husband, wife,and then the kids coming.
Andrew and I developed arelationship basically over
(32:44):
time, and it started off with, Ishared early on with him, I had
three questions as a playergrowing up and I always wanted
my players to know the questionsI had because I wanted to answer
them for those guys because Ifelt I could answer three basic
questions and it goes, ittouches on the 3D the
transformational coaching thatFCA does.
Well, the first question was,can I trust you?
The second question was, do youcare about me?
(33:06):
And the third question is, canyou make me better?
Yeah.
Well, you know what?
You're not going to get to theother two until you earn the
trust.
Because think about people thatyou trust in your life.
What wouldn't you do for them,right?
Nate (33:17):
Yeah.
You run through a wall for himand then people that you don't
trust, you go X amount ofdistance and that's it.
Yeah, there's a boundary therefor sure.
Clint (33:25):
Right?
So you earn their trust andthat's what I told Andrew.
So I'm here to earn your trust.
Might take, you know, it's goingto take some time.
I don't expect it to happenovernight.
There's going to be a situationcome up.
I want you to watch how I react,watch how I treat others, watch
my actions, watch my words, andthen I want players to know that
I care about them more than acorner infielder with average
(33:46):
speed plus pop, susceptible tobreaking 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 didhe come from, a God fearing
home.
Just I needed to know the storyso I needed to know the person
and I needed to be able to feelthe heartbeat of the player.
I shared that with Andrew andthen also shared with him.
(34:07):
When we get those things inline, I really believe I've got
enough life experiences.
I can help you get better insome area.
The fun thing about A ndrew i sI told him all the time.
I can't relate to silver Sluggerawards and MVPs and all those
things, but I can relate to thetwo for 32 s lumps.
It seemed like every April hewould be in a slump and it
didn't matter.
(34:27):
Spring training, it'd be sevenhomers and a 500 batting average
come April.
The switch went off, e verythingsped up.
He'd be behind the heater aheadof the hook and we'd have to
work through this a nd ourAprils were o ur times where we,
and I tell h im, I tell h im andremind h im, I should say,
remind him that you're going tohave a better chance t o witness
when you hit.220 t hat y ou everwill hitting.320 b ecause people
(34:51):
a re watching like a Hawk.
Nate (34:53):
Yeah.
They want to see how they, howyou're going to react when, when
things aren't going your waypersonally.
Clint (34:57):
Yeah, and I've always shared with him, you know, when
I, when I got to know him prettygood, I said, I'll tell you how
much I think I hit you thirdevery day and I'd let you take
my daughter.
I can't, I can't put any moretrust in you t han t hat.
Back before he was married.
U m, so he was just a fun guy tohave on a team.
Great laugh, great sense ofhumor, very creative, very arts
oriented as well.
(35:17):
Could sing, dance imitations,fun guy to be around.
But he was a blessing.
I t was a blessing to be around.
Nate (35:24):
Thanks for sharing.
I appreciate that.
Kind of as a, as a final kind ofwrap up, if there's any other
lesson or thing you picked upalong the way, what would you
tell a younger coach that's juststarting out?
Getting their footing that youwish you would've known when you
were starting out in yourcoaching?
Clint (35:40):
Don't worry about getting them to like ya.
Work on getting them to respectyou.
Um, and think about the guys yougravitated to as a player.
What type of coaches did yougravitate to.
Be intentional with youractions.
Be intentional with your words.
Uh, the human touch isimportant.
There's some kids that don'tlike to be touched.
That's another thing you got tofind out about.
(36:02):
Some kids love to be hugged.
Some kids just need a hug, a hugand hang in there and they're
good.
You've just empowered them.
You've given them everythingthey need.
Some kids just sitting down andtalking through what do you feel
?
Here's what I'm seeing, but whatdo you feel?
I don't know and it's going totake time and you can't expect
to happen overnight.
But I would, I would encouragethem to keep the heartbeat in
(36:27):
first place.
There are people, they're notpieces.
You hear that term a lot in ourindustry today.
You know that they're pieces..
Attached to every player andthere's a story to find out
about every player becausethere's reasons.
They act the way they do.
They've all, whether the choicesthey've made, the history of the
(36:48):
lifestyle they come up with.
You can learn so much about,maybe it's former coaches that
you talked to, maybe it's someother 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 andHey, you know what I care about
you.
(37:08):
Is there something I can do foryou away from the park?
And then, you know what?
I really think that we get tothat point and there's some
things I can, I can bring to thetable that they make you better
as a player as well.
The other thing, the last thingI would add is there's so much
failure in the game of baseball.
Remind them that failure is anevent.
It's not a person that's goodbecause there's some kids that
(37:31):
were, man, I mean I see it inlittle league.
You see it in, you know, usuallyyou see it in college, you seen
it in the pros.
Failure is an event.
It's not a person.
And sometimes failure can beyour best teacher.
What can we learn from thatopportunity that it didn't work
out, that you failed it?
What can we learn from that?
And when that opportunity arisesthe next time, what could you do
(37:54):
differently to get a betteroutcome?
Nate (37:56):
Yeah, that's, that is a game changer.
I remember hearing for the firsttime the difference between
guilt and shame where guiltsays, 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 andfailure is an event.
(38:16):
Not a person that's a great wayto put that as well because as
gosh, how many times did Istrike out or have that that o
for four day with with two orthree K's and just felt like as
a person I am a failure, notjust I had a bad day at the
yard.
To have a healthy view of stillbeing competitive, still playing
with all of our heart is doingit for the Lord.
(38:38):
Not for man, but not letting itwear it, like not having it.
Wear us down now like you weretalking about and that's a big,
that's a big one.
Yeah.
Thanks for sharing that.
Clint (38:47):
Yeah, you bet!
Nate (38:47):
Awesome.
Well, I did pick up on anotherline that you had was you said
you wanted to have a lifetimecontract with the home team.
So tell me a little bit moreabout what that means for you in
this season.
Clint (38:58):
Oh my gosh.
It all goes back to gettingfired and then thinking about
what's next, what needs to benext, what should be next?
And through a couple ofconversations, my wife and I
had, I can remember Carla, she'sbeen raising two children.
I've been half a dad for 17years for Madden, no special
(39:19):
needs shop or I'll go 15 yearold son.
I've been half of that half ahusband.
I mean truthfully I'm home halfthe year, you know spring
training.
We always come here together.
So we spent three to four monthstogether.
We put them in school down here,but I'm still gone eight, 10
hours a day.
I mean whatever it is thatstarted where on the travel
(39:40):
started to wear on.
Yeah.
And then having theconversation, Carla would say,
well, if you want to do that SanDiego thing or you want to do
that, we'll figure this out.
And the kids will, and I justkept hearing it.
It just kept resonated almostlike somebody bang, bang and a
drum in the back of my headgoing, buddy, maybe it's time
for you to pull the car over andjust get and just say, you know
what?
You don't need to do that.
(40:00):
I need to do this.
I need to settle down.
I need to find a way to pourback into this family.
And I mean I got offered acontract with a great
opportunity and through thoseconversations I can almost see
myself getting right back onthat treadmill.
And here I go again and Ithought, I got my health.
I've got healthy children.
(40:20):
I mean Maddie, yes, she's aspecial needs but she's a
healthy child.
Yeah, she's given us a lot ofjoy.
Christian is 15 he's on the crewteam.
He's doing things.They're bothin high school.
My wife has been a Saint.
She, you know, behind every goodman is a much better woman.
And she's been, I'm not sure I'ma good man.
(40:42):
She's a better woman.
She's been my life source, myenergy, my truth teller.
And it's time to stop draggingthem 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 (41:01):
That's excellent.
Well, Hey, I want to make sureeverybody knows where they can
get in contact with you a littlebit more.
I know you have a almost dailytake the take the Sundays off,
but you have uh, Clinthurdle.com.
Uh, tell us a little bit aboutthe, the daily kind of
devotionals that you send out.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
It's been fun.
It has been really encouragingand rewarding the last six to
eight weeks, Clinthurdle.com ifyou type that in, it'll take you
to my website and if you wenton, so that website's about that
big.
Nate (41:34):
It's simple.
I like it.
Clint (41:36):
But it tells the story.
Uh, we were setting up someprograms in Colorado, there was
12 of us count, 13 count, mayand some front office people,
some employees, some coaches,you know, just life lessons,
leadership and trying tosprinkle some faith.
Then with it and then it wasover.
I take the notes or some quotesand text them and I did that for
(41:57):
in 2009 I started doing it andyou know, seven weeks into the
season I'm fired.
Um, and it was on July 4thweekend I was on a family
vacation.
My phone rings now look at thisnumber to Colorado.
Wait a minute, what's this?
And it was one of the, one ofour, one of our leaders, the
female on the phone going, HeyClint, how you doing?
(42:18):
I'm like, well, you know, I'mokay.
I'm doing pretty good.
It's weird.
I said, I keep looking at mywatch.
My wife tells me to stop.
My swipe card doesn't workanymore.
Um, but I'm okay.
I'm doing pretty good.
She goes, well, I'm not, I missthe meetings.
I miss the lessons.
I miss all of us gettingtogether.
And at the bottom of all yourtexts, you would always say,
make a difference today.
Love Clint.
(42:38):
She said, you're not making adifference today.
And I don't know.
I don't think you love me.
Nate (42:43):
Wow.
Clint (42:45):
My wife happened to be watching me having this
conversation and I got off thephone.
I looked at her and I went, wow.
And she goes, what was that allabout?
And I told her she was, so, whatare you going to do about it?
Well, I'm gonna take a littlewalk around this block here and
figure something out.
So I took a walk around theblock and it was plain as day to
me.
I needed to find a way to startconnecting with people.
(43:06):
There's people that are lookingfor encouragement.
I was one of them.
So many times I mentioned I'm aflawed man, two divorces and
alcoholic.
However, 16 years as a managerin 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.
(43:27):
There's people out there thatare looking for miracles in
their life that needencouragement.
They need a hug, need something.
Maybe they can read somethingthat day.
It just empowers them.
It gives them some hope.
This is a time of hope.
This is a time of pause in ourcountry.
And I know there were times whenI had maybe just a couple of
people and it only takes one tohelp you on your journey to help
you on your way.
(43:47):
To say I care and I'm here tolisten.
I'm going to give you thegreatest gift I can give you.
I'm gonna give you some time.
So it became a devotional emailand 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 numbershave grown exponentially since
(44:09):
the new year.
Actually since the end of theseason, for some reason, for
whatever reason, the numbershave picked up, more people are
reading than ever before.
It helps me cause it sharpens mefirst Nate.
I've got to do the research, Igot to do the reading.
And if an electrocutes, me Ithink, you know what I prayed
over and then I put it in athing.
All these are done at least aweek ahead of time and it's so
(44:31):
encouraging to get an email.
Like today.
I got probably close to 20 or 25responses for the two emails.
Perfect message for me today.
Well, it was sent out nine daysago.
It wasn't like I crafted ittoday and put it in the hopper
and you got it today.
God's timing.
Nate (44:49):
Yeah, he uses it all.
Well, Hey, thank you so muchfor, for sharing and being open
with your story and sharing someof the wisdom.
I know a lot of our listenersare going to be encouraged to
coach and to grow personally athome with their teams.
You really brought it today andI appreciate it.
It's a blessing to you and yourbride and your family.
(45:09):
Keep enjoying that, that warmweather, even though we're doing
the quarantine thing for alittle bit longer.
Clint (45:15):
Thank you.
We're going to stay shelteredhere.
We're going to, we're gonnafollow the rules and let me know
if I can be of service to youand thanks for reaching out,
Nate.
Nate (45:22):
Alright.
Take care.
We'll talk to you soon.
Clint (45:24):
Love you man, Bye.
Nate (45:38):
Wow.
Wow, wow.
Again, so grateful to Clint forcoming on the show and being so
transparent with his personalstory, for being generous with
the lessons that he's learnedboth through mistakes and other
people that have built into himas a person, as a coach back in
the day when he was a player.
What about those threequestions?
(45:59):
Can I trust you?
Do you care about me?
Will you be able to make mebetter?
I know if you're like me, I wasasking those questions deep down
in my heart when I was goingthrough as an athlete and that's
something that we shouldprobably be answering for our
players and here's a littlewrinkle in it.
The same things are being askedof, for those of us that have a
(46:19):
spouse or children as well,those same questions are being
asked.
It just may not be in thebaseball world or the sport
world.
Hey, if you haven't already, weencourage you to go ahead and
hit subscribe on whatever appyou're listening to.
That way you don't miss any newepisodes coming down the pipe.
In the future, we're trying topush out new episodes a little
(46:39):
bit more quickly because ofCorona virus and people have
more time on their hands.
So go ahead and hit subscribe.
We have some other great onescoming down the road.
So go ahead and do that.
And until next time, keepgrowing.
Keep learning and keep changinglives on your team and in your
home.
This is the coach to coach podcast, episode number 32 game
time.
(00:21):
Hey, what's going on guys?
Welcome to the coach to coachpodcast where we believe every
kid deserves a coach that caresand every coach deserves someone
in their corner.
I'm your host Nate Sallee andthis podcast is sponsored by the
Northern Kentucky fellowship ofChristian athletes.
Once again, I have to just givea quick shout out to all of our
donors and our supporters, boardmembers, volunteers, and student
(00:45):
leaders who are all a valuedpart of this team.
And I gotta tell you we areseeing life change happen here
in the Northern Kentucky regionas we continue to minister to
and through coaches.
Well, Hey, on this episode, partof the vision of this podcast is
to capture and collect a wisdomand know that Kentucky greater
(01:06):
Cincinnati and beyond.
We're going beyond today.
We got an interview with Clinthurdle.
Clint comes with 45 years ofbeing at a spring major league
baseball training camp.
He has played with guys likeGeorge Brett back in the day.
He has managed with the ColoradoRockies.
(01:27):
He was the hitting coach for theTexas Rangers and most recently
you've probably remember him asthe manager for the Pittsburgh
Pirates and he is now in a nextseason of life and he was
willing to take some time to sitdown and share about his, his
personal journey as a man offaith, some of the things he's
learned along the way, coachingall those years and playing all
(01:48):
those years with players.
And he has three questions thathe knows that he a sked as a
player of his coaches and hetries to answer those three
questions with all of hisplayers.
And I think you're really goingto appreciate his wisdom, h is
insight from a major leaguebaseball manager, Clint hurdle,
incredible guy.
We had some great laughs, s omegood stories.
(02:10):
You're g oing t o want to grabwhatever you use to take notes
for our conversation with coachClint hurdle.
All right guys, we are here withClint hurdle.
Clint, how are you doing today?
Clint (02:21):
I'm doing really well.
Nate, good to be with you.
Nate (02:24):
I see some Palm trees in the background, so you're
probably sitting a little bitwarmer than me.
We're about 43 degrees here inNorthern Kentucky.
Clint (02:31):
I happened to be perched up on the intercoastal waterway
and go down to the Gulf ofMexico and Annamarie Island is
where we've made our kind ofmade our home.
We're transitioning fromPittsburgh to here.
Yeah, 85 degrees.
A little balmy today.
That's awesome.
Well, Hey, I'll have given thelisteners a bio of your kind of
your, your baseball world alittle bit, but I just wanted to
(02:52):
start kind of with present day.
How is, if you're like me, myfirst spring without baseball
was definitely kind of an one.
Uh, and how has, how has thisspring of 2020 with you with the
transition and then you throw inall this Corona jazz, how are
you doing?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Maybe there's been a long transition in my life.
I retired, uh, basically tookthe side and put the uniform in
the closet.
Back in the middle of Novemberis actually our anniversary day.
Carla and I, our anniversarydate, November 13th, I've done
some interviewing for somepositions.
I actually got offered anothercontract.
I thought about getting on thattreadmill again.
And then just it's throughconversation, through prayer.
(03:29):
Just decided, you know, I'vebeen traveling a long time.
I've been gone a long time.
I have two, two teenagers inhigh school.
It just seemed like the righttime for me to reinvest in my
family.
That was the biggest transition.
45 consecutive spring trainingsI've gone to.
This was the first year I didnot go to a spring training
since I was 17, I think.
(03:51):
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 leagueplayer, even when I was a minor
league manager, I get invited tocome in.
Great.
That was kind of a mule a, Icould hit him, I could hit a
good foam go, I could throw BPforever.
Those are two nice things rightthere.
(04:12):
And you can throw strikes andyou can hit their barrel.
Yeah, you're all good.
So that was a, a big transition.
However, it wasn't thatchallenging.
Um, I was at peace when I mademy decision November and then
watching the, the months playout.
October, November, December,January, February.
The challenge of the COVID 19,watching my wife, my wife, work
(04:35):
in our, in our how's every day.
Um, I gave it everything I hadfor 45 years.
So I'd never had an itch.
I wasn't going throughwithdrawals.
I didn't need to get back in auniform.
I didn't need to be at the frontof the room, didn't need to be
making out a lineup card.
I was good being home and tryingto figure things out here.
And for those of you that maybeare musically inclined, this
(04:56):
might make more sense to them,but I think we all can relate a
little bit to it.
If my family, is a band rightnow, Nate, I'm just trying to be
the bass player.
I'm trying to be over on theside of the stage.
I've been out front for 16 yearsas a manager.
I've been out front most of my,most of my life coaching,
(05:19):
playing.
Um, so now the opportunity.
Yeah.
Biblically, Barnabas was a hugeencourager to Paul.
I'm trying to be an encouragerfrom the side.
I'm trying to be an encouragerfrom behind.
And there's some days though,I'm like a six month old puppy.
You know, maybe I'm peeing inthe corner and I got to get in
your lap and look on your faceand make up and figure things
(05:40):
out.
But creating space, makingspace, sharing space, then
giving everybody their ownspace.
I'm learning all this again.
It's been wonderful.
It's been good for, causethere's, there's days that I
think these kids are lookinglike no time for you to go
(06:01):
somewhere and now we'requarantined.
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 havemovie nights, we have games of
cards that we play.
My, my daughter Maddie, I'm aspecial needs child at 17.
She thinks she's the world'sgreatest Uno player ever.
(06:23):
We're family walks.
We have two dogs a lot going on.
The homeschooling thing has beencrazy cool.
Because I'm the chorus teacher.
I'm the driver's ed teacher, theEnglish teacher.
Um, so I'm a little bitstretched out, but uh, I'm
having a blast.
Nate (06:42):
That's amazing.
Yeah, it's, it's really good tosee.
Uh, a lot of people are beingable to kind of redeem some of
this time and I'm glad you guyshave been able to do the same as
well.
And I actually was able to go tospring training any for a couple
of days with my brother andfather-in-law out to a Goodyear.
We saw one of the games and justjust happened to, we were just
walking around the stadium justhappened to run into Marty
(07:04):
Brenneman who's the longtimebroadcaster and recently retired
and he was just on cloud nine aswell during i t.
It was his last year, this pastseason.
And he said, Hey, you know what,if I just w ant to come here for
the game for about an hour and ahalf and then go play golf, I
can do it.
And he was like, I'm good.
This is awesome.
Clint (07:22):
Marty has a home down here in Sarasota with his wife.
Yeah, we run into themoccasionally when we were out
last, last spring prior tospring training when he went out
in Arizona.
Of course I get involved.
I was in Boulder, but he has astanding feud with my daughter
Maddie, about which teamsbetter?
The pirates are arrests.
You may not know this, but I wasa red for about a minute, for
(07:46):
about a minute.
And as it turned out, we had avery saucy year last year with
the rents.
Basically.
It was, I guess it was kind oflike a country feud at times.
However, I've always had theutmost respect and respect for
the organization for thetradition, the history, um, the
(08:06):
city of Cincinnati in and ofitself, it's a grassroots
baseball town.
They have one of the bestmuseums of any major league
organization.
I lived at one Lytle place whenI was in Cincinnati, actually
got married second time acrossthe street and, in Newport but
justice of the peace way backwhen.
So I've got some nostalgichistory, Cincinnati and it's
(08:29):
been a fun organization to watchgrow and they really fought hard
to put themselves in a prettygood place for this 2020 season.
Nate (08:35):
That's right.
Yeah.
It's, it's funny.
I, we drive, I drove past theone Lytle place all the time
driving around the area.
That's, that's amazing.
Uh, well Hey, just wanted toshift gears a little bit.
Kinda from present day to, let'sjust take a look back kind of
the, the history book a littlebit.
Tell us a little bit about your,your faith story.
I know at one point, I know FCAa kind of a role into that.
(08:56):
We just kind of love to hear alittle bit of your journey.
Clint (08:59):
FCA has always been involved in my faith journey.
Basically.
My mom and dad used to get usdressed up and send us out of
the house on Sunday, Sundayschool and we'd go to the kids'
church.
I think it bought them three orfour hours for their own time.
They were both working sometimesmy dad working two shifts.
It wasn't a bad thing at all.
I took no disrespect or nothingthat my folks didn't go to
(09:21):
church with us.
They sent us to church.
We went to Bible Sunday school.
Matter of fact, one of mygreatest memories was every,
every Sunday walking out thehouse and hearing platters in
the background, knowing I wasgoing to the church.
As I continued to grow in my, mychurch journey, started off in a
Methodist church, eventuallystarted spending more time in
church related activities.
(09:43):
Basically the Methodist churchwas stretched and once I got
into high school, a firstBaptist church of Marinol was
built.
I gravitated to that.
Um, and it was there that I kindof ran into two men really
grabbed a hold of me.
And it was the first time I hadpeople wanting to invest in my
soul rather than my baseball,football or basketball skills.
(10:04):
I don't mean that in a bad way.
Native just growing up when youcomply and you got some skills
and you're playing three sports,no, we want that kid in our
team.
And then we want you toquarterback 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 talknext week, pastor Glen Turner,
brother John Paul were the twomen that really started helping
(10:27):
me dig and to own my faith.
And they explained the story ofsalvation.
So they explained the realitythat it's the one religion where
God reached down.
We don't have to reach up.
It's not based on merit, basedon grace.
Right.
And on my worst day, God lovesme as much as he does on my best
day in my mind, cause I don'thave a best or worst day to him.
(10:51):
He wants a relationship with myheart.
He wants me to be a man ofservice.
So they started sharing andpreaching 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 ina heartbeat.
Where are you going?
And it got my attention and Isaid like, think I'm going to
heaven.
(11:12):
I, you know, when they go, Hey,it ain't about more good than
bad.
This isn't the justice where thescales there.
There's a way, then it's throughChrist.
It's either the redemptive bloodof Jesus Chris and you know, it
starts with believing in hislife 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 theresurrection.
(11:33):
Um, and I said, you know what,that makes sense.
I want some of that.
So they said, we'll say thesinner's prayer.
And they were having FCAfunctions at the church ongoing.
So it wasn't just brother Johnand pastor lent.
It was a leader in the, it was aleader in the community.
It was one of our coaches atEdgewood junior high.
(11:54):
It was some other teenage guysor teenage guys, or showing up
and sharing faith So mysalvation came at Marinol
Baptist church.
The one thing that I neverreally grasped Nate was when I
made that commitment to Christand I asked him to come into my
life, take control of my life.
I never realized that he wouldnever leave.
Hmm.
Because after I made thatcommitment, there was a
(12:16):
honeymoon period.
And what I found out throughthat 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 thosepeople that are grounded in
Christ.
I don't need to try and be areligious Christian in a secular
world.
Just taking it on myself.
I need there's strength innumbers.
(12:38):
There's power in cohesion in agroup 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 theCovid 19 Church and shut down
church has been deployedchurches out going to get people
and share with people.
So yeah, I made that commitment.
(12:59):
Things were good.
There was a honeymoon period.
And then when I graduated andaccepted an opportunity to go
play professional ball in thesummer of 75, I kind of got
isolated and I lost that touch.
I lost that tight knitrelationship with other
believers.
There were some believers on theteam.
Uh, however, my investmentcapital wasn't the same and I
(13:20):
started losing ground and losingmyself, started, you know, REM
song.
I started losing my religion.
My Christian walk actuallybecame a Christian obstacle
based on my choice and my lackof development in my lack of
reaching out.
And truth be told, I shared thisin FCA huddles ever since
(13:43):
because I stay connected to FCA.
I'm actually working with agroup here in Sarasota and Nancy
County, so that's a reignite theprogram here, but it was very
involved in Pittsburgh as well.
I use Jesus as an ATM card for23 years from the age of 17 to
the age of 40.
If I needed some Jesus, I'd goget some Jesus.
Things were roll, baby.
I'd come back, I'd get on alittle bit of a roll.
(14:04):
Things that settled down, thingsthat get good.
Okay, let me get back in chargeof this thing now let me grab
these reigns.
You know, and man, it was like aroller coaster ride that you
couldn't get off of.
The highs were high, the lowswere low.
The ride would never stop.
At the age of 40 through someother circumstances.
Basically through that 23 yearperiod, I was married, divorced,
(14:26):
married, divorced, married twoyears, married for nine years,
got a daughter in and out, lifeas far as commitments to a faith
based church.
It's a Bible study, a baseballchapel always showed up on
Sunday and I always went and Iwouldn't pray for hits.
I would pray for a betterrelationship.
And little did I know that allthis time God was putting men in
(14:48):
my life and women in my lifehelped me reconnect.
I wouldn't picking up what hewas putting down, but the last
woman that he put my life aroundat the time was my now wife
Carla and uh, the age of 40, Ikind of went through male
applause.
Just why am I here?
What am I doing?
You know, I had buddies, theytried, they tried relationships
with younger women or amotorcycle or something else was
(15:10):
the answer.
I was fortunate enough thatthrough Carla's unconditional
love and wisdom, I needed tofind myself and I had a list of
about 20 things I needed toimprove upon.
And the first one was torecommit my life to Christ.
The second was to get so cause Ibasically drank myself into this
state of alcohol recoveringalcoholic, now 21 years of
(15:34):
sobriety.
Nate (15:35):
Congratulations.
Clint (15:35):
Yeah.
Well thank you.
But I had 18 other things downthere to this day Nate I can't
tell you what the other 18 were.
Once I rededicated my life toChrist and got real with that.
And once I got sober and gotreal with that, it's kind of
taken care of itself.
But it was through the godlywisdom of a woman that knew
there was more man in there.
Then I gave myself credit forand she called me out on it
(15:56):
cause actually I proposed to herand she said, that's an
interesting question I've grownaccustomed to.
She said, well there's a goodguy in there, but he doesn't
come out often enough and Iwould never even attempt it.
So getting in a relationshipwith you like that until you
find a way to make yourselfhappy, you'll never make me
happy.
So really 23 years of walking inthe wilderness.
I know the Israelites did 40.
(16:18):
I did 23.
Um, and when I recommitted mylife to Christ at the age of 40,
I looked at the past 22 yearsand has been nothing but miracle
after miracle after miracle andit's taken me to that point
today.
Nate (16:34):
Oh, thanks so much for sharing.
A couple of points that juststuck out to me were the
isolation and going out alone.
I had my own kind of bow outwith that as well, where when
you start losing that communityand that investment and that
can, that's kind of where we'remost most vulnerable, that
that's not necessarily when wefeel distant from God.
(16:54):
It's not because he moved.
It's usually because we movedand you know, I remember moving
away at different times andknowing 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 themsometimes as a good luck charm
where he was just a big part ofmy life and I was trying to make
it, you know, at the collegiatelevel in baseball and he was
(17:16):
just a part of my package to getas far as I could athletically.
It really wasn't a surrenderedlife to him per se until I was
about 21.
And I thought, I just think it'sa big difference and it's a good
good thing to, to not onlyrealize 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 morethan just an ATM or a good luck
(17:40):
charm.
That's great.
Well, Hey, uh, moving forward,uh, let's, let's kinda switch
gears into just kinda your, yourcoaching worlds is the coach
coach podcast.
We're going to be shipping thisout to coaches of all levels and
just would love to hear some ofthe lessons learned along the
way.
Uh, but first maybe, uh, kind ofthe, I know you had the, a lot
of stops with the Rockies andthen most recently with the
(18:02):
pirates and there was a worldseries run mixed in there.
I know at least one of them in2007, I believe.
I looked at that, that startinglineup that was quite a roster
when you had Matt Holiday andall those guys.
Tory all behind the, on theplate.
Uh, man, that was, that wasquite a squad.
So what was, what was it likewinning that, that uh, league
championship and what were someof the, I don't know, maybe some
(18:24):
of the pieces along the way thatreally you saw your, how your
coaching or managing of it.
Um, yeah.
What were some lessons learnedthrough, through that year?
Clint (18:34):
Yeah, it's been a journey as well.
The things that were firstimportant to me as a coach back
in 1988, I think it was my firstyear as a minor league manager
in the Mets organization.
I manage the Mets organizationsix years and then went to the
Rockies as a minor leaguehitting instructor.
For three years, almost fiveyears of the major league
hitting coach.
Before I started man, a worldseries trips, I took one a 1980s
(18:55):
a player with the Royals of 2007as a manager with the Rockies
2010 as the hitting coach withthe Texas Rangers?
Right.
I've been to the world seriesthree times, which is a pretty
small group when you considerplayer, coach and manager.
Yeah.
You want to know a smallergroup, Nate.
We finished second place allthree times.
(19:20):
Each journey was significant inof itself because each had its
own timeline, each had it's owncast of characters.
I was a small cog in a worldseries club in 1980 with, you
were checking a line about, youlook at that line up.
I hit seven.
I had my best offensive year inthe big leagues that year.
The play with Brett, the playwith McCray to play with, you
know, Darryl Porter, uh, theplay with Amos Otis, Willie
(19:42):
Wilson.
Oh, Willie Mays Aikens.
There was just a, it was areally good group then in 2007
to actually be a manager of 18that found itself during the
season, but ignited late in theseason.
And what a great cast ofcharacters.
A good cast of characters.
We had that season.
You want to talk about a collegeteam, college players, a grownup
man that they grew up togetheron.
(20:03):
Minor league system, Helton wasat first base played at
Tennessee, Tulowitski, Longbeach.
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 theuniversity of Arkansas and then
we had Brad Haup, I believe itwas LSU national championship.
(20:24):
So the fun thing about thatgroup was we were never hot.
We were never cold.
We just kinda stay in the huntfor five plus months.
And then with two weeks agowe're five or six games out and
we caught fire.
We won 13 out of 14.
We had a play in game that wewon in dramatic fashion and 13th
inning slide at home that somepeople still don't think
(20:46):
Holliday he did.
And then we won five in a row.
We once used me, we won seven ina row more to get to the world
series.
We swept the Phillies in a fivegame series or something, three,
and we swept the Diamondback.
So we won 21 out of 22 games,flat out on fire guys showing up
(21:06):
early, staying late, differenthero every night.
The pitching, if the starterspit the bit, the bullpen came
in and locked it down.
If we had a lead after six andit was pretty much over our
bullpen, shortened the gamesdramatically.
And we found a way on offense,even though we're playing at
Coors field, a lot of peoplethought, you know, everybody
resonates.
The Blake street bombers, notthe home runs.
That was a good offensive clubcause we could beat you a number
(21:27):
of different ways.
We could still bases guys didput 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 raninto an eight day layoff b
ecause o ne of the world seriesw as played And Boston, played
Cleveland and they came backfrom being down three to one.
(21:47):
They stretch that out.
The eight games we went inthere, we gave it our best shot,
but we lost, I really believe wehad lost some of the mojo the
rhythm and the adrenaline andthey were a good team that was
hot and they rolled us up infour games an d t h at w as
over.
And then in 10 I went to t h e world series wi th t h e r a nger
a s a hitting coach an d i t was a big year.
Hamilton had wh ere h e w as theNL M VP, but what a team, you
(22:09):
look at another fantastic lineupto be the hidden coach of that
team.
Nate (22:13):
Yeah.
Was that the same season thatHamilton did the home run Derby
craziness hit it the next yearin 2008.
Clint (22:20):
Okay.
Yeah.
Excuse me.
No, I'm to, I want to say he didthat 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 theyhad, it was the last all star
game at Yankee stadium.
So also had that honor ofmanaging in an all star game.
That was the deal that wentfifteen innings,
Nate (22:39):
I remember.
And it was, yeah, that was astruggle on how are we going to
finish this up?
Clint (22:43):
Yeah, it was nuts.
So that's the timeline.
I mean, I've been a hittingcoach, I've been a minor league
coordinator.
I've been a minor league managerand a coach, first base in
charge of outfielders, thehitting coach thing I always
gravitate to.
And then I felt the opportunityto manage in 2002 of the Rockies
and then had the good fortune ofmanaging for 16 years at the
major league level with just twoorganizations.
(23:04):
So things are important to mewhen 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 somecritical guys that I had on my
staff, some Barnabas's on mystaff to help grow me up.
Um, cause there's a lot ofdifferent vacuums you can call
(23:24):
it get caught up in as a manageryou gotta give man, you gotta
give men and coaches theopportunity and the freedom to
coach into play.
And that's probably the biggestof, but I really wanted to
embrace, I knew what to let goand let it happen.
It was one of the best learninglessons that I had walking in
the door.
Nate (23:42):
No, that's great.
Yeah.
You talked about building andone of the main resources we use
in FCA with coaches is calledthree dimensional coaching or
there's the physical side andthen the mental emotional side.
And then you have the kind ofthat heart and the spiritual
side and you clearly had hadknowledge of the game shoot,
you'd been at big league campssince you were 17-18 years old.
(24:02):
And then it sounds like thelater on you got, the more you
kind of saw the need for kind ofthose second and third dimension
type things where it's about therelationship is about building
trust and ultimately delegatingwell.
So maybe what were some of thethings that that stuck out to
you as far as building thattrust?
Because I know it's a little bitdifferent compared to maybe you
(24:23):
know, a high school or collegeor middle school program, cause
I know there's a lot of moneyinvolved and it's a little bit
more of a business at thatpoint, but how were you able to
kind of build that trust, buildthat rapport and maximize those?
Those player's potential.
Clint (24:38):
Well it's, it's very different and it's very similar
and it all, it all works offyour ability to earn trust.
You need to have honest selfevaluation of yourself, who you
are, your role, what can youimpact, what can you influence
when to delegate?
You gotta let coaches coach.
Some of your coaches need to besmarter in their areas than you
(24:59):
are and you need to give themthe opportunity to go coach
people up.
Uh, you got to let players play.
There's the time when a lineupdoes get made and you explain
things certain ways or certainthings are done.
However, once the game plays,you want to put them in a
position of strength anddistractions are eliminated
where they can truly focus onbeing a teammate.
The one thing that I learnedthat humbled me the most was
(25:22):
when I got into coaching.
I got into coaching because Ikept threatening to play and
what I mean by that is theywanted me to manage when I was
30 which I thought, well, itmakes sense, but I still wanted
to play.
I have 10 years in the bigleagues.
They wanted me to manage a verylow level and I wanted to manage
it, enable a level.
It was 30 minutes from the homewhere I lived in and they kept
(25:42):
offering me lower jobs.
I kept saying, no, I'm going toapply unless you give me that
job in port Saint Lucie becauseit's right down the street.
So I held, I kept threatening toplay, which got me the
opportunity in st Lucie, whichis what's gotten me on my, you
know, my, my journey throughcoaching.
But I was fortunate when Irecommitted my life to Christ,
Christ continued to bring meninto my life and help, help me
steer and help guide me.
(26:04):
That challenged me about notlosing sight of what that chair
meant in the bigger picture.
I needed to be intentional withmy actions.
I needed to be a servant.
I needed to be atransformational leader.
I needed to be a leader thatplayers could trust, know that
he's going to take, he's goingto help us get where we want to
get and he's not gonna use us toget where he wants to get.
I really had to remember, remindmyself daily how hard a game it
(26:26):
is to play.
The farther you get away fromthe game, the longer you're out.
Sometimes the easier it looks,man, you want to get real easy,
you get up them stands and watchthem up top, game slow.
Oh my gosh.
Because I've got thrown out of afew and suspended a couple times
and I'd rather watch those gamesup there looks way easier than
in that speed of that dugout,let alone the speed on the
field.
(26:46):
But I'd always needed toremember what, what impacted me
as a player who impacted me as aplayer and why they impacted me
as a player.
And I also needed to revisit theheartbeat of the game.
I have tremendous respect andadmiration, love and passion for
the game of baseball.
And there's been timesthroughout my career and even in
the last few years where I feelthat we've lost some of that in
(27:09):
some areas.
It's kind of like, do youremember the first car you
bought Nate?
Nate (27:14):
Yeah.
You did.
You did you buy a car?
Yeah.
Um, well actually had a divorcedparents of both famous, got a
third car, so I didn't actuallyget to fully have a job in than
purchase it.
But I had a Ford ranger in a redChevy 1500 that I had a
different house.
It's okay.
Clint (27:32):
But when that, when you were in that car was your car,
right?
Nate (27:35):
Oh yeah.
Clint (27:35):
Did you take care of that car?
Nate (27:37):
Absolutely.
Clint (27:38):
Did you want anybody to mess with your car?
Nate (27:40):
No.
They better stay away.
Clint (27:42):
Okay.
That car was special andsignificant.
You protected it.
You honored it.
You respected it.
You took care of it.
Now as you've gotten older, doyou have a rental car policy?
Can you go rent a car every nowand then?
Yeah.
How do you take care of yourrental car?
Nate (27:58):
It feels different.
It feels, yeah.
All I did was it got me where Iwanted to go and I kept gassing
it.
That's right.
Yeah.
Clint (28:05):
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 thegame of baseball.
And in some areas it can helphappen in society, can happen in
your faith.
You become a renter and not anowner.
Um, and I wanted to make sure,and I was fortunate, I had a
(28:28):
President in Colorado that grewme up, mentored me.
Kelly McGregor was a big fan ofFCA, also in Arkansas where he
was an assistant athleticdirector, Frank Broyles.
Um, he grew me up and he wouldalways tell me, you need to be
managerial when you're managingon and off the field, your, your
actions will speak louder thanyour words.
You need to be a man ofintegrity, a man of character.
(28:49):
You can't act one way at home.
And another way of the park andanother way in the uniform, you
need to find a way to be thesame guy.
So team first, that washearkening to me early on as a
kid when I realized when I gotinto the big leagues, because I
went from being a really goodhigh school player back on all
American in a small, in a smallschool.
(29:09):
So as I start playing pro bowl,there's all Americans everywhere
you turn.
Different levels of allAmericans, you know.
And then I realized, you knowwhat, when you win, it's way
better than losing.
And when you win, not so muchthat it's a deodorant, but when
you win and you don't do wellpersonally, you feel a whole lot
better when you lose a nd stinkand have poor performance.
That's tough.So the coachingphilosophy evolved over time,
(29:35):
but knowing that I was servingGod and I actually had a friend
t elling me a long time ago, andit was K elly, he said he's the
president of the team.
Our general manager was a man offaith Dan Murtaugh the three of
us would meet regularly and notjust talk baseball, but talk f
aith, talk family, talk rolesand responsibilities.
And Kelly would always share with me, as long as God wants you
(29:56):
i n that manager's behind thatdesk, no man can move you out.
And when God doesn't want you tobehind that desk, no man can
keep you there w hile Kelly thenfired me seven years down the
road.
Hey, we prayed later that daytogether.
I was fired in New York as aminor league manager.
I got fired.
And i n Colorado 14 months aftergoing to the world series, I was
(30:18):
fired.
Last September 29th while wewere playing the Reds, the last
game of the season, God kept mein two chairs for 16 years to
manage.
And when he called time, it wastime.
No, man c ould keep me t here.
I t's time to move on.
So I do know this.
There's going to be a day whereif I'm on my knees in front of
the Lord and I'm up in heaven,he's not going to ask me how
(30:40):
many games I want as a manager.
He's not g oing t o say, Hey,did you bring the world series
rings?
He's g onna say, boy, how manydid you leave to me?
Wow.
How'd you use your position?
Who did you impact?
W ho did you influence?
Did you grow boys and the m en?
Did you grow men a nd theleaders?
Did you bring them to faith?
(31:00):
Did you help h im grow up thatthe love on their wives and
honor their wives?
Did you h elp h im grow up theirkids?
Did you help t hem grow up theirteammates and g row together?
And that's where I got to andthat's what I kept in place.
Nate (31:11):
Wow that's amazing.
Yeah.
Just to have that, that visionfor really for, yeah.
For generational transformationof those that you're, that
you're building into.
And baseball is such a beautifulvehicle to do that.
I love the game as much asanybody else, but I've kind of
had to realize at one point thatuh, a, if it becomes your, you
know, it's a great game but aterrible God.
(31:33):
And at one point it became, itcame my God and it definitely
led me down some, some roughthings personally.
But when I, when I can see itjust as the game that it is and
as the vehicle that it can be tobuild up people, it's, it's a
really a beautiful thing.
Well, Hey, I got a one, onequick selfish question for you
and then we'll, then we'll wrapup with kind of a final one.
(31:53):
But being, being a Reds fan, Istill appreciated and respected
the heck out of AndrewMcCutchen, just a special guy.
He's, he was always not thebiggest guy, but every ounce of
them was just like look, likesheer muscle.
He was fast.
He could absolutely crush theball and realize and no one, he
was a man of faith as well.
Uh, w what was it like coachinga player like that who kind of
(32:15):
had several different tools andI'm sure it was, it was a good
locker room guy as well.
Clint (32:20):
We're very fortunate to have a relationship with Andrew
still to this day and his wifeand his two boys, but another
guy that I was fortunatePittsburgh to watch come in with
a girlfriend, marry her and havekids.
Walk the whole evolution.
Wow.
I'm watching Maria and him, youknow, from a girlfriend,
boyfriend into a husband, wife,and then the kids coming.
Andrew and I developed arelationship basically over
(32:44):
time, and it started off with, Ishared early on with him, I had
three questions as a playergrowing up and I always wanted
my players to know the questionsI had because I wanted to answer
them for those guys because Ifelt I could answer three basic
questions and it goes, ittouches on the 3D the
transformational coaching thatFCA does.
Well, the first question was,can I trust you?
The second question was, do youcare about me?
(33:06):
And the third question is, canyou make me better?
Yeah.
Well, you know what?
You're not going to get to theother two until you earn the
trust.
Because think about people thatyou trust in your life.
What wouldn't you do for them,right?
Nate (33:17):
Yeah.
You run through a wall for himand then people that you don't
trust, you go X amount ofdistance and that's it.
Yeah, there's a boundary therefor sure.
Clint (33:25):
Right?
So you earn their trust andthat's what I told Andrew.
So I'm here to earn your trust.
Might take, you know, it's goingto take some time.
I don't expect it to happenovernight.
There's going to be a situationcome up.
I want you to watch how I react,watch how I treat others, watch
my actions, watch my words, andthen I want players to know that
I care about them more than acorner infielder with average
(33:46):
speed plus pop, susceptible tobreaking 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 didhe come from, a God fearing
home.
Just I needed to know the storyso I needed to know the person
and I needed to be able to feelthe heartbeat of the player.
I shared that with Andrew andthen also shared with him.
(34:07):
When we get those things inline, I really believe I've got
enough life experiences.
I can help you get better insome area.
The fun thing about A ndrew i sI told him all the time.
I can't relate to silver Sluggerawards and MVPs and all those
things, but I can relate to thetwo for 32 s lumps.
It seemed like every April hewould be in a slump and it
didn't matter.
(34:27):
Spring training, it'd be sevenhomers and a 500 batting average
come April.
The switch went off, e verythingsped up.
He'd be behind the heater aheadof the hook and we'd have to
work through this a nd ourAprils were o ur times where we,
and I tell h im, I tell h im andremind h im, I should say,
remind him that you're going tohave a better chance t o witness
when you hit.220 t hat y ou everwill hitting.320 b ecause people
(34:51):
a re watching like a Hawk.
Nate (34:53):
Yeah.
They want to see how they, howyou're going to react when, when
things aren't going your waypersonally.
Clint (34:57):
Yeah, and I've always shared with him, you know, when
I, when I got to know him prettygood, I said, I'll tell you how
much I think I hit you thirdevery day and I'd let you take
my daughter.
I can't, I can't put any moretrust in you t han t hat.
Back before he was married.
U m, so he was just a fun guy tohave on a team.
Great laugh, great sense ofhumor, very creative, very arts
oriented as well.
(35:17):
Could sing, dance imitations,fun guy to be around.
But he was a blessing.
I t was a blessing to be around.
Nate (35:24):
Thanks for sharing.
I appreciate that.
Kind of as a, as a final kind ofwrap up, if there's any other
lesson or thing you picked upalong the way, what would you
tell a younger coach that's juststarting out?
Getting their footing that youwish you would've known when you
were starting out in yourcoaching?
Clint (35:40):
Don't worry about getting them to like ya.
Work on getting them to respectyou.
Um, and think about the guys yougravitated to as a player.
What type of coaches did yougravitate to.
Be intentional with youractions.
Be intentional with your words.
Uh, the human touch isimportant.
There's some kids that don'tlike to be touched.
That's another thing you got tofind out about.
(36:02):
Some kids love to be hugged.
Some kids just need a hug, a hugand hang in there and they're
good.
You've just empowered them.
You've given them everythingthey need.
Some kids just sitting down andtalking through what do you feel
?
Here's what I'm seeing, but whatdo you feel?
I don't know and it's going totake time and you can't expect
to happen overnight.
But I would, I would encouragethem to keep the heartbeat in
(36:27):
first place.
There are people, they're notpieces.
You hear that term a lot in ourindustry today.
You know that they're pieces..
Attached to every player andthere's a story to find out
about every player becausethere's reasons.
They act the way they do.
They've all, whether the choicesthey've made, the history of the
(36:48):
lifestyle they come up with.
You can learn so much about,maybe it's former coaches that
you talked to, maybe it's someother 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 andHey, you know what I care about
you.
(37:08):
Is there something I can do foryou away from the park?
And then, you know what?
I really think that we get tothat point and there's some
things I can, I can bring to thetable that they make you better
as a player as well.
The other thing, the last thingI would add is there's so much
failure in the game of baseball.
Remind them that failure is anevent.
It's not a person that's goodbecause there's some kids that
(37:31):
were, man, I mean I see it inlittle league.
You see it in, you know, usuallyyou see it in college, you seen
it in the pros.
Failure is an event.
It's not a person.
And sometimes failure can beyour best teacher.
What can we learn from thatopportunity that it didn't work
out, that you failed it?
What can we learn from that?
And when that opportunity arisesthe next time, what could you do
(37:54):
differently to get a betteroutcome?
Nate (37:56):
Yeah, that's, that is a game changer.
I remember hearing for the firsttime the difference between
guilt and shame where guiltsays, 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 andfailure is an event.
(38:16):
Not a person that's a great wayto put that as well because as
gosh, how many times did Istrike out or have that that o
for four day with with two orthree K's and just felt like as
a person I am a failure, notjust I had a bad day at the
yard.
To have a healthy view of stillbeing competitive, still playing
with all of our heart is doingit for the Lord.
(38:38):
Not for man, but not letting itwear it, like not having it.
Wear us down now like you weretalking about and that's a big,
that's a big one.
Yeah.
Thanks for sharing that.
Clint (38:47):
Yeah, you bet!
Nate (38:47):
Awesome.
Well, I did pick up on anotherline that you had was you said
you wanted to have a lifetimecontract with the home team.
So tell me a little bit moreabout what that means for you in
this season.
Clint (38:58):
Oh my gosh.
It all goes back to gettingfired and then thinking about
what's next, what needs to benext, what should be next?
And through a couple ofconversations, my wife and I
had, I can remember Carla, she'sbeen raising two children.
I've been half a dad for 17years for Madden, no special
(39:19):
needs shop or I'll go 15 yearold son.
I've been half of that half ahusband.
I mean truthfully I'm home halfthe year, you know spring
training.
We always come here together.
So we spent three to four monthstogether.
We put them in school down here,but I'm still gone eight, 10
hours a day.
I mean whatever it is thatstarted where on the travel
(39:40):
started to wear on.
Yeah.
And then having theconversation, Carla would say,
well, if you want to do that SanDiego thing or you want to do
that, we'll figure this out.
And the kids will, and I justkept hearing it.
It just kept resonated almostlike somebody bang, bang and a
drum in the back of my headgoing, buddy, maybe it's time
for you to pull the car over andjust get and just say, you know
what?
You don't need to do that.
(40:00):
I need to do this.
I need to settle down.
I need to find a way to pourback into this family.
And I mean I got offered acontract with a great
opportunity and through thoseconversations I can almost see
myself getting right back onthat treadmill.
And here I go again and Ithought, I got my health.
I've got healthy children.
(40:20):
I mean Maddie, yes, she's aspecial needs but she's a
healthy child.
Yeah, she's given us a lot ofjoy.
Christian is 15 he's on the crewteam.
He's doing things.They're bothin high school.
My wife has been a Saint.
She, you know, behind every goodman is a much better woman.
And she's been, I'm not sure I'ma good man.
(40:42):
She's a better woman.
She's been my life source, myenergy, my truth teller.
And it's time to stop draggingthem 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 (41:01):
That's excellent.
Well, Hey, I want to make sureeverybody knows where they can
get in contact with you a littlebit more.
I know you have a almost dailytake the take the Sundays off,
but you have uh, Clinthurdle.com.
Uh, tell us a little bit aboutthe, the daily kind of
devotionals that you send out.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
It's been fun.
It has been really encouragingand rewarding the last six to
eight weeks, Clinthurdle.com ifyou type that in, it'll take you
to my website and if you wenton, so that website's about that
big.
Nate (41:34):
It's simple.
I like it.
Clint (41:36):
But it tells the story.
Uh, we were setting up someprograms in Colorado, there was
12 of us count, 13 count, mayand some front office people,
some employees, some coaches,you know, just life lessons,
leadership and trying tosprinkle some faith.
Then with it and then it wasover.
I take the notes or some quotesand text them and I did that for
(41:57):
in 2009 I started doing it andyou know, seven weeks into the
season I'm fired.
Um, and it was on July 4thweekend I was on a family
vacation.
My phone rings now look at thisnumber to Colorado.
Wait a minute, what's this?
And it was one of the, one ofour, one of our leaders, the
female on the phone going, HeyClint, how you doing?
(42:18):
I'm like, well, you know, I'mokay.
I'm doing pretty good.
It's weird.
I said, I keep looking at mywatch.
My wife tells me to stop.
My swipe card doesn't workanymore.
Um, but I'm okay.
I'm doing pretty good.
She goes, well, I'm not, I missthe meetings.
I miss the lessons.
I miss all of us gettingtogether.
And at the bottom of all yourtexts, you would always say,
make a difference today.
Love Clint.
(42:38):
She said, you're not making adifference today.
And I don't know.
I don't think you love me.
Nate (42:43):
Wow.
Clint (42:45):
My wife happened to be watching me having this
conversation and I got off thephone.
I looked at her and I went, wow.
And she goes, what was that allabout?
And I told her she was, so, whatare you going to do about it?
Well, I'm gonna take a littlewalk around this block here and
figure something out.
So I took a walk around theblock and it was plain as day to
me.
I needed to find a way to startconnecting with people.
(43:06):
There's people that are lookingfor encouragement.
I was one of them.
So many times I mentioned I'm aflawed man, two divorces and
alcoholic.
However, 16 years as a managerin 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.
(43:27):
There's people out there thatare looking for miracles in
their life that needencouragement.
They need a hug, need something.
Maybe they can read somethingthat day.
It just empowers them.
It gives them some hope.
This is a time of hope.
This is a time of pause in ourcountry.
And I know there were times whenI had maybe just a couple of
people and it only takes one tohelp you on your journey to help
you on your way.
(43:47):
To say I care and I'm here tolisten.
I'm going to give you thegreatest gift I can give you.
I'm gonna give you some time.
So it became a devotional emailand 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 numbershave grown exponentially since
(44:09):
the new year.
Actually since the end of theseason, for some reason, for
whatever reason, the numbershave picked up, more people are
reading than ever before.
It helps me cause it sharpens mefirst Nate.
I've got to do the research, Igot to do the reading.
And if an electrocutes, me Ithink, you know what I prayed
over and then I put it in athing.
All these are done at least aweek ahead of time and it's so
(44:31):
encouraging to get an email.
Like today.
I got probably close to 20 or 25responses for the two emails.
Perfect message for me today.
Well, it was sent out nine daysago.
It wasn't like I crafted ittoday and put it in the hopper
and you got it today.
God's timing.
Nate (44:49):
Yeah, he uses it all.
Well, Hey, thank you so muchfor, for sharing and being open
with your story and sharing someof the wisdom.
I know a lot of our listenersare going to be encouraged to
coach and to grow personally athome with their teams.
You really brought it today andI appreciate it.
It's a blessing to you and yourbride and your family.
(45:09):
Keep enjoying that, that warmweather, even though we're doing
the quarantine thing for alittle bit longer.
Clint (45:15):
Thank you.
We're going to stay shelteredhere.
We're going to, we're gonnafollow the rules and let me know
if I can be of service to youand thanks for reaching out,
Nate.
Nate (45:22):
Alright.
Take care.
We'll talk to you soon.
Clint (45:24):
Love you man, Bye.
Nate (45:38):
Wow.
Wow, wow.
Again, so grateful to Clint forcoming on the show and being so
transparent with his personalstory, for being generous with
the lessons that he's learnedboth through mistakes and other
people that have built into himas a person, as a coach back in
the day when he was a player.
What about those threequestions?
(45:59):
Can I trust you?
Do you care about me?
Will you be able to make mebetter?
I know if you're like me, I wasasking those questions deep down
in my heart when I was goingthrough as an athlete and that's
something that we shouldprobably be answering for our
players and here's a littlewrinkle in it.
The same things are being askedof, for those of us that have a
(46:19):
spouse or children as well,those same questions are being
asked.
It just may not be in thebaseball world or the sport
world.
Hey, if you haven't already, weencourage you to go ahead and
hit subscribe on whatever appyou're listening to.
That way you don't miss any newepisodes coming down the pipe.
In the future, we're trying topush out new episodes a little
(46:39):
bit more quickly because ofCorona virus and people have
more time on their hands.
So go ahead and hit subscribe.
We have some other great onescoming down the road.
So go ahead and do that.
And until next time, keepgrowing.
Keep learning and keep changinglives on your team and in your
home.
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