Looks Like It's Gonna Be Clint Hurdle

In yet another prediction that The Grandstander got wrong (see post of November 5), it is being reported that tomorrow the Pirates will announce that their new manager will NOT be Jeff Banister, but former Rockies skipper and current Rangers hitting coach, Clint Hurdle.

First, with apologies to Jeff Banister, who I am sure is a nice church-going man who loves his family, I am glad that he was not hired by the Pirates. If after 18 losing seasons, the team had gone within the organization to hire the new manager, well, how do you think that would have been perceived and received by the ticket buyers? We'd have been in for another off-season of Nutting-bashing, Coonelly and Huntington bashing, and they-only-care-about-fireworks-and bobbleheads letters to the editor, talk show calls, and blog posts. So, at least we won't have that going for us, which is nice.

As to Hurdle as Manager, we know the following:

• He was fired by the Rockies and replaced by Jim Tracy, who was fired by the Pirates. (hey, it has always been thus in baseball!).
• He will be getting a team with four good young position players around whom a winning team can be built, a capital-L Lousy pitching staff, and an ownership/management group with a track record of spending nothing to improve the team now.
• He has been heavily involved as a manager and as a hitting coach on teams that have played in two of the last four World Series. This puts him miles ahead of every Pirates manager since Chuck Tanner.
• As far as we know, when he will speak with the media and the public we will know that he is alive and breathing, which puts him miles ahead of John Russell.

We all knew that Russell had to go, and we all know that no manager is going to make these Pirates look like a contender in 2011, but going outside of the organization and hiring someone who has had some experience as a winning manager is a positive move, and I hope that everyone will give him a chance.

And speaking of Public Relations, how about the Pirates making this announcement on the day after the Steelers play the New England Patriots. The Pirates could be announcing the resurrection and hiring of John McGraw, and it would be a lesser story than Trai Essex straining a groin muscle in the game against the Pats. Welcome to Steelers Nation, Clint Hurdle!