For Love of the Game

Today's blog post was written by David Thornton, a senior business major and a member of the Notre Dame Track and Field Team.  David is a student in Social Foundations of Coaching, a course taught by Play Like a Champion Today co-founders Clark Power and Kristin Sheehan.

Recently, professional athletes have filled the sports world with negative news stories dealing with bullying, unhappy free agents asking for more and more money, and criminal actions off the field. Being an athlete myself, I have to ask what the heck is going on? Have we all lost sight of why we play the games we do? Growing up, my father showed my brothers and I a great movie called For Love of the Game. It starred Kevin Costner and it followed him through the different stages of his professional baseball career. Ultimately, it’s a love story; a love story about him and the two loves of his life – Kelly Preston (the actress in the movie) and baseball. My father always taught us to never lose sight of the fact that the sports we play are just games, and that it’s crucial to never lose sight of that fact. You must love what you do. 

Now you may be wondering where in the world I’m going with this story, but I assure you that I do have a point. Kevin Costner deals with a lot of ups and downs throughout the movie and at times it seems as though he may never play the game that he loves again. However, he perseveres and in the end pitches the game of his life that proves that the game you love can love you back. In a similar way, current Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle has dealt with many challenges throughout his life and career and has found a way to recover and become the idealized version of what a coach should be. 

Clint Hurdle had a rough professional baseball career as a player, and through different life events became an alcoholic. He would end up having only a one season of note - batting .294 for the 1980 American League champion Royals, then going 5-for-12 in the World Series, but, other than that, he became known mostly for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He played for the Mets in 1985, one year before they won the World Series, and was then picked up by the Cardinals in 1986, one year after St. Louis reached the World Series. He was then traded back to the Mets in 1987, the same year the Cardinals returned to the World Series. 

He was always a year late or a dollar short, he even spent the 1981 players' strike bartending, and his career batting average through 10 seasons was a middling .259 to go with 32 home runs and two divorces. 

He turned his life around, bit by bit, but the first step was going to manage in the minor leagues. Hurdle was quoted in a recent conversation, "These are the questions a 17-year-old going to pro ball has about their manager," Hurdle says. "'Can I trust him? Does he trust me? Can he make me better? Does he care about me?' My goal was to get those questions answered under my watch. Because then their skill set will come out. They won't let you coach 'em up until they trust you." That is exactly what we have been learning in class and Hurdle has been putting this into practice. There must be a mutual trust and connection between players and coaches. Hurdle’s players ran through walls, not stop signs at third base for him. He would act macho with the snide players and thoughtful with the sensitive ones. He coached the mind as much as he coached baseball.

He went to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and did his best to get his life back together. He began sending daily emails to his players and staff with motivational quotes and sayings that acted as a daily reminder that he was there for them and that they were in this thing together – as a team. People begin to deeply appreciate these emails, and to-date over 1000 people see Hurdle’s emails daily due to the widespread sharing of them. An example of one of these emails: 

These were simple messages, but they had an overwhelming power and effect on Hurdle’s players and staff.

In an era of sports where the game is no longer loved for its true meaning and purpose, Clint Hurdle has attempted to find the happiness in the game of baseball and spread it to everyone around him. He believes in his players, and his players believe in him. There is a trust there that cannot be put into words, and that is the true purpose of being a coach. Clint Hurdle is molding his players into better people by taking the negative experiences from his life and learning from them. There is a reason that the Pittsburgh Pirates had there best season in my lifetime this past year, and that reason is Clint Hurdle. Don’t be surprised if you see a World Series title go to the city of Pittsburgh in the next few years. If you stick it out long enough, give 100% of your body and mind, and truly believe in the game you love, the game can love you back.