Hurdle back at home with Rockies, teaching next generation

SCOTTSDAE, Ariz. -- Clint Hurdle, the Rockies’ new special assistant to general manager Bill Schmidt, wore not purple, but a blue windbreaker and slacks as he navigated the Minor League grounds at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in early March.

But no outfit can cover the Rockies purple that flows from Hurdle’s heart. He managed the team from 2002-09, following stints as a hitting coach at both the Major League and Minor League levels. First baseman Todd Helton was the face, but Hurdle was the booming voice of a Rockies team that rose from payroll-strapped strugglers to World Series participants in 2007.

His work is quieter now. Hurdle managed the Pirates from 2011-19 (securing playoff appearances from 2013-15) and retired from the game for a couple years, before Schmidt and Rockies owner Dick Monfort filled the organization’s Hurdle-size void.

“I’ve stayed in conversation with Dick for 14 years,” said Hurdle, 64. “We’ve never really separated and, truthfully, there’s a part of me that’s always been purple.

“Danny Montgomery [assistant general manager] said it best: ‘I don’t know where you’ve been, but it’s about time you got home.’”

Roaming among Minor Leaguers for the first two weeks of camp, he tried to control the booming voice. Still, his conversational tone can be heard clearly some 60 feet away.

One morning, he noted that outfielder Cade Harris, drafted in 2018, was wearing No. 64.

“Remind me to tell you about 64,” he said.

When time permitted, Hurdle relayed the story of scrawling a “64” on the daily lineup card in ’07 to honor a young athlete who inspired Hurdle and the Rockies – while fighting the cancer that would take his life.

Hurdle has stories and standbys, but he also realizes he has a new and different audience than the Major League clubs he has run.

“We have the playbook,” he said. “We ran the plays well. There are pages of the playbook that may have changed, but the playbook still works.

“We want to get them back in the mode of believing in the front of the jersey. They do represent a name on the back. It could be mom, dad, brother, sister, significant people in their life. When you take those two and combine them, it becomes special. And when you plant it in Denver, Colorado …”

Hurdle’s interview took place before four-time All-Star Kris Bryant signed a seven-year, $182 million deal with the Rockies and before third baseman Ryan McMahon took a six-year, $70 million contract. But his position stands: the right people believing can be powerful.

“If your dreams aren’t big enough to scare you, they’re probably not big enough,” Hurdle said. “I’ve learned from some very smart people over the years, men that have poured into me, women that have believed in me. And finding something for everyone to believe in together that’s bigger than themselves -- that’s a huge force multiplier.”

For now, Hurdle has returned to his Florida home to be with his family. But not long after the season starts, he’ll visit each Minor League affiliate, as well as the team’s complex in the Dominican Republic, make periodic trips to Denver and visit the Major League club on some East Coast trips.

Schmidt, who ran the Rockies' MLB Drafts when Hurdle was molding a winning team, has directed a full effort to deliver flesh-and-blood examples of winning times to the developing players. Helton, Carlos González, Jorge De La Rosa, Clint Barmes and Yorvit Torrealba also have been in camp. Like Hurdle when he was in town, they worked exclusively with Minor Leaguers.

And Hurdle is at peace with being part of an effort spearheaded by others.

Two years at home with his wife, Karla, two teenagers, Maddy and Christian, and at times his adult daughter, Ashley, and two dogs helped Hurdle learn to be a background voice, deep though it may be.

“They didn’t need a big voice anymore,” he said. “So I got some practice.

“I had a lot of time up front, and with that comes some good and some hard,” he added. “I’m in a position in life right now where I’m embracing the leading from the side, the leading from behind.”