The Pirates Golden Tongue: 13 Early Season Clint Hurdle-isms

When the Pittsburgh Pirates brought Clint Hurdle to town

as their new skipper most fans were excited.  Hurdle is a quote machine.  We’ve been tweeting a few including the great one today he asked Pirates announcer Greg Brown during the Clint Hurdle Show.

He asked Greg Brown what he said after the Pirates victory last night.  Brown replied “Raise the Jolly Roger?”  Hurdle challenged Brown to find out who Roger was and ask him why he was jolly.

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After the series against the Florida Marlins, in which the Bucs were swept and dominated  21-5, Hurdle inspired us to document his awesomeness. It was an awful showing by the young Pirates hitters as they struck out 30 times and were shut out in the first two ballgames.

I think the only thing we got out of it were hotel points and flying miles, so, we look to do better at home.

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Hurdle described Nationals veteran pitcher Livian Hernandez as follows:

He’s got a slow heartbeat out there.  He’s like the big guy at the company picnic who drinks all the beer and wins all the trophies.

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We lost track of who Hurdle was describing in this gem.  It doesn’t matter does it?

You look at the fastball delivery and the slider delivery and their release points and sometimes there are inconsistencies there — there were a couple of games where he had a Wiffle Ball slider.

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After Chris Resop got out of a jam he inherited from Jeff Karstens against the Nationals.  Hurdle blessed us with this:

Nobody scratched him.

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This one isn’t a dazzler, but we haven’t heard him be so up front with his players:

If you leave balls up in the strike zone like that, more often than not, they’re going to end up in the seats.

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Hurdle broke out the straight up mentality early in the year after some shoddy Pirates fielding:

Those were Pedro’s balls, they are going to become [Ronny] Cedeno’s balls if Pedro can’t take ownership of them. Any time the catcher has to leave the dirt and go 20 feet out in the grass, he does not need to be making that…

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We’re looking to win ballgames.  This is not a league where you try hard, this league you’ve got to do good.

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When an opposing pitcher throws the ball well, fields their position, maybe gets the jersey dirty and hits the ball, Hurdle uses a cool phrase.

He Little Leagued us.

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Hurdle is a realist.

We were 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position, so that didn’t help…

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In regard to the waiver pickup Brandon Dick Wood, Hurdle got to use one of his favorie phrases–the world barreled.

It’s a fresh start.  We are going to extend him every opportunity to get as much as he can get. He seems to be very excited. We want him to focus on one thing – being comfortable in the box and barreling the ball. Nothing else

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Hurdle was accused of sending Andrew McCutchen into the on-deck circle when the pitcher was due up in an extra inning game during the Pirates first homestand .  It might have tricked Rockies Manager Jim Tracey into pitching to Jose Tabata who walked off the Rox, sending the Pirates faithful home in literally the middle of the night.

When directly asked if that was intent, Hurdle slyly responded:

No, come on, why would we do that?

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Smart ass doesn’t escape the 14K tongue:

When Hurdle was told that Ohlendorf felt he pitched better, Hurdle had this to say:

Well, that’s good, because that’s what he’s been saying all spring

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