On the eve of 50, Hinch reflects on life, baseball

Tigers manager A.J. Hinch turns 50 years old next Wednesday. He has had great and bad moments during his half-century, from being the winningest manager in Astros history to being suspended for the 2020 season for his involvement in the 2017 sign-stealing scandal.

Now at the helm in Detroit, Hinch said the rebuilding is over and the Tigers are thinking about the postseason this year. MLB.com caught up with the Tigers skipper for a sit-down interview at Yankee Stadium and talked about turning 50 and what he hopes to accomplish during the next 50 years. Two things are obvious: He loves his family and baseball.

MLB.com: On May 15, you will turn 50 years old. Can you believe how much time has flown?

Hinch: No, because I feel like it was yesterday where I looked at coaches and managers [as a player], and they would be in their 50s and 60s and I’m like, 'Man, those guys are old.' Now I’m one of those guys. Time flies, and I’ve been very fortunate to be in the game the majority of my life, and it’s a fun journey that continues.

MLB.com: You have a day game against the Marlins on your birthday, but you have a day off the next day. Any birthday plans?

Hinch: My family will help me celebrate -- the staff, the group [as well]. We’ll get on a plane and fly to Arizona. Ironically, it was where I was married. It was where my kids were born. My in-laws are there. We’ll have a fun day … hopefully, it’s with a win. My wife is rooting for a win more than anybody on May 15, because she wants to have a good night.

MLB.com: What’s the biggest advice you took from your parents that you use today?

Hinch: I use a motto all the time with my kids or with my players or staff: Do it right or do it again. That was instilled by my dad, because everything that we did was with a purpose, and we had to do it right. If I didn’t mow the lawn correctly, I had to do it over again. If I didn’t wash the car correctly, I had to do it over again. [The same with] my homework assignment. I had to do it over again. On the field, if I made mistakes, I had to do it over again. To me, that’s been a standard that was set for me when I was young -- do it right or do it again.

MLB.com: I've noticed that you're not afraid to say you've made mistakes. How did you get that attitude?

Hinch: One of the things I try to always remember is being relatable and being transparent with who you are as a person; [that’s] key. In this job, I get so much opportunity to show the human side of the game, whether it’s interaction with my players or in front of the camera with the media and everything in between. Being relatable is something that is important to me. I’m human. You are going to make mistakes. I’m going to make decisions that don’t work out. Some of them are good. Some of them are bad. But I understand that we are all human. We all make mistakes. I hope that anyone who watches our team or any team that I’ve been a part of understands the human element.

MLB.com: During the sign-stealing scandal, you immediately came out and said you were wrong. Why didn’t you hesitate?

Hinch: First off, I was ashamed that it happened on my watch, because I was the leader of that team. I knew the gravity of the mistakes we had made and what we had done to the game. I served a significant punishment. I wanted my kids to know that it was wrong. I wanted everybody in baseball to understand that I knew that it was wrong. It was the ultimate test -- that vulnerability that I was raised to appreciate. I felt like it was the right thing to do.

MLB.com: Is that your worst mistake in your 50 years?

Hinch: Yes, by a significant margin. Just because as a leader, I was in a position to make a better difference.

MLB.com: What is your best moment in your 50 years?

Hinch: The obvious answer is, you make your Major League debut. I get to be a Major League manager. I’ve been in so many positive positions, but becoming a girl dad was life-changing for me. I have two daughters, both born toward the end of the baseball schedule. My wife has done nothing but support our journey through the game. But becoming a dad gave me a whole new perspective. I feel like I have 26 sons every year on the team. But there is something about being a girl dad.

MLB.com: What’s the thing you like the most about it?

Hinch: They don’t associate me with anything that happens with baseball. I’m their dad, not the manager of a team. I’m not a Major League Baseball alumnus. I’m just dad. In these jobs where so much of your responsibility is external, probably the most internal gratitude I feel about my life is that I get to be a dad.

MLB.com: Education means a lot to you, even going back to when you were a teenager. You were drafted three times before you signed with Oakland. Why did you decide to stay at Stanford?

Hinch: The first time [I was drafted], I wanted to go to the best place both on the field and in the classroom, and that was Stanford. The decision to go to Stanford wasn’t that difficult. The decision to go back [the second time]; there were some pros and cons in different categories. I had the opportunity to graduate. That was really important to my family. I had a chance to play in the Olympics in our home country. … I look back, and it feels like a wise decision. It means more to me today than it probably did at the time. I just felt like it was the right thing to do.

MLB.com: You have a bachelor's degree in psychology. How do you bring that field into your baseball life?

Hinch: Baseball is predominately how you handle failure. Even the good hitters fail a ton. The ups and downs of performance is the essence of what I do now as a manager, as a coach. The human psychology is fascinating, because everybody is a little bit different. So, it’s not one-size-fits-all. You can’t handle every player the same way. You can’t assume that every player handles success and failure the same way. It’s an ongoing chase of perfection for how to bring the best performance out of your players. That is psychology.

MLB.com: Do you remember the first time you used psychology in baseball?

Hinch: It had to have been while I was getting my degree at Stanford, dealing with pitchers. They are the ones who have sort of the highest degree of psychology used. Nothing specific. It’s something that I work with every day in my current job.

MLB.com: For the first time since 2016, the Tigers are thinking playoffs. How do you feel about this team?

Hinch: I like this team. We have grown a lot. In the last couple of years, I love the support we get from the city. It’s an incredible fan base, and they have waited a long time to have a good team.

A lot of times as a manager, you focus solely on what it takes to win that day’s game and build winning habits, and we are starting to demonstrate that. We have a long way to go to be the best version of ourselves as a team. But the growth in the last couple of years and the direction this team is headed should make everybody optimistic that winning baseball is coming to Detroit.

MLB.com: How do you fix the current problems with the offense?

Hinch: The offense is built around really good hitters who are learning how to play at this level. We have sprinkled in a couple of veteran hitters, but for the most part, the middle of our order is built around young players. Young players bring a lot of different performance variance. There are going to be some highs, [and] there are going to be some lows. On the other side of it, it’s going to be a strong performance. I’ve seen that happen in teams that I’ve been on before, where you get to 800, 900, 1,000 at-bats, whatever it is. Things mature as an offense, and you look up, and the offense is a lot better. So, time is going to help. Experience is going to help. The more good pitches to hit we can get, the better this team is going to be.

MLB.com: You come from a new-school generation. But every time I see you, you always use the eye test, which is old school. How do those two generations work together?

Hinch: It’s a combination. One of the things I value is combining what I see [with] what I know. What I know, I can go research the data. Information, I can be progressive and understand kind of where the sport is going. But I think there is value in what I see on the field, when you watch players on the field, see human behavior. … That balance is where this sport is at its best. There are days in which information and progressive ideas should be at the forefront of every thought. But it also means there are days in which your intuition, feel and instincts need to be valued as well. I try my best to balance those two.

MLB.com: What's ahead for A.J. Hinch in the next 50 years?

Hinch: Oh, man. I hope more baseball, because I feel one of my joys in life is seeing the growth of people in different ways. I watched it as my kids grow into adults now. I watched it with players going from rookies to All-Stars. There is something about where I feel at home the most, and there are two places: One is in my house with my family, and the second is in the dugout with my players. So, hopefully, [there's] more winning ahead.