The highlight of the Fall Meeting of the Pittsburgh SABR Chapter Meeting held yesterday at the Heinz History Center was the appearance of 2013 National League Manager of the Year Clint Hurdle. In his one hour talk and Q&A session, Hurdle was frank, honest, open and entertaining.
He was impressive in many ways, but perhaps most of all in the way he has become a part of the Pittsburgh community. He constantly made reference to the fact that he lives here and hears about the Pirates at parent-teacher conferences, when he gets his hair cut, and when he's at the Giant Eagle! He got a big laugh with the line, and I am paraphrasing, "when someone at the Giant Eagle says 'what's with Marte swinging at a pitch two feet out side and in the dirt for strike three?'...you think I didn't see that, too????"
He was also frank in discussing the team's collapses in 2011 ("we just weren't good enough") and 2012 ("we ran out of gas"), but he felt that he just KNEW that they were ready to bust loose in 2013, hence his call for 95 wins back in Spring Training. He also said that the team's biggest concern is an inconsistent offense going into 2014, and that "we'll find out" if A.J. Burnett either want to retire or pitch in Pittsburgh, but that he, Burnett, needs to make his decision soon so that the Pirates can make their plans accordingly. He also has high confidence in both Jeff Locke and Wandy Rodriguez to be key contributors next season. He also told a great story about a visit from one of his old managers and mentors, Whitey Herzog, in St. Louis prior to Game Two of the NLDS.
On a personal note, I can take some satisfaction when Clint told me that I was "crazy" for not being able to sleep on the night of the extra inning loss to the Reds in September, the "Jordy Mercer Game". The funny part of that discussion was how Hurdle said that it was interesting to him after that game how everyone was saying that the guy who no one liked all season, who everyone wanted too get rid of, Clint Barmes, should have been in there playing instead of Mercer!!!! Which proves, I guess, that Hurdle really does hear what Pirates fans are saying when he's in the Giant Eagle!
I was fortunate in that this was the second time in four days that I heard Hurdle speak at the Heinz History Center. On Wednesday, he was the featured co-speaker (Charlie Batch being the other) at the WPIAL Sportsmanship Summit. At that time, he addressed over 600 high school athletes on topics such as sportsmanship, teamwork, leadership, and trust.
They were two very different types of presentations delivered to two very different audiences, but I would say that Clint Hurdle hit it out of the park on both occasions.
Getting back to the SABR meeting, new Chapter Chair George Skornickel put together an interesting program. In addition to Hurdle, Dan Fox, the Pirates "Sabrmetrics Guy" (not his official title) gave a great presentation on how the team uses all of the advanced metrics and data available to them as they plot the course of the team, both day-by-day in season and into the future. Could have listened to him all day. There were also several other fascinating presentations on topics such as a new Willie Stargell biography, a history of Pirates exhibition games played in Reading, PA, and baseball stats keeping going back to the earliest days of the game, like pre-Civil War baseball.
Good stuff!!!
