The American Spectator : The Worst Job in America

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The Worst Job in America

By Aaron Goldstein on 11.16.10 @ 6:05AM

What could possess anyone to manage the Pittsburgh Pirates?

Being hired manager of a major league baseball team normally warrants a call for congratulations. However, in the case of Clint Hurdle, it might warrant a call of condolence.

You see, Clint Hurdle has just signed a three-year contract to manage the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Not only were the Pirates the worst team in the big leagues during the 2010 season, they have not enjoyed a winning season since 1992. Hurdle has just accepted the worst job in America. It's a job even Mike Rowe wouldn't want.

Of course, it wasn't always this way. During the 1970s the Bucs reached the playoffs six times and won two World Series title in 1971 and 1979. After a fallow period during the 1980s, the Pirates won three consecutive NL East titles between 1990 and 1992. But in the intervening two decades Pittsburgh has become the Siberia of major league baseball.

So why would Hurdle, who spent the 2010 season as the hitting coach with the American League champion Texas Rangers, abandon the warms environs of Arlington for what will likely be a harsh summer along the Allegheny River? Well, clearly Hurdle likes a challenge. But there are challenges and then there is miracle work.

In 2010, no Pirates starting pitcher won in double digits. The closest thing the Pirates had to an ace was Paul Maholm, who went 9-15 with a career high 5.10 ERA. Maholm hasn't exactly made anyone forget Doug Drabek. With the fewest saves in the National League, the Pirates bullpen provides little relief. Not surprisingly, the Bucs pitching staff had the NL's highest ERA.

Their offense wasn't much better. No Pirate batter hit over .300 and Pittsburgh's team batting average of .242 was the worst in the NL. They drew the second fewest walks in the NL and had the Senior Circuit's second worst on base percentage. The Pirates didn't hit for much power either. Only one player (Garrett Jones) hit more than 20 homeruns while the team slammed the third fewest homeruns in the NL. Needless to say, Clint Hurdle will have a lot of hurdles before him when the Pirates break for spring training camp in Bradenton, Florida, next February.

This isn't to say the Pirates are devoid of talent. Bucs centerfielder Andrew McCutchen is a five tool player who at the tender age of 24 is not only going to get better but might very well end up as one of the premier players in the game. Yet chances are he will probably fulfill that potential in another uniform.

Unlike John Russell, who sailed the Pirates ship for the past three seasons, Hurdle has enjoyed managerial success at the major league level. In 2007, he led the Colorado Rockies to the National League pennant and their first World Series appearance. But that success has to be put in its proper perspective. Prior to 2007, the Rockies had five straight losing seasons under Hurdle. After their stunning success in 2007, the Rockies regressed to a disappointing 74-88 record in 2008. The Rockies would dismiss Hurdle early in the 2009 campaign after a horrible 18-28 start. Hurdle was replaced by Jim Tracy. Lo and behold, the Rockies recaptured the magic of 2007 and went 74-42 the rest of the way earning the team its second NL Wild Card in three seasons.

Is Tracy a better manager than Hurdle? It's possible. But guess where Tracy managed in 2006 and 2007? That's right. He managed the Pirates and had two 90 plus loss seasons to show for it. After leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to the NL West title in 2004 did Tracy lose his baseball smarts when he arrived in Pittsburgh only to regain them in Denver? The answer is an emphatic no and the same is true for Hurdle. He wasn't a genius in 2007 nor was he a fool in 2009 and nor did he suddenly regain his genius when he joined the Rangers coaching staff in 2010.

A manager has a limited amount to do with whether his team wins or loses games. It obviously helps if the manager has the respect of the players under his stewardship. But to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, the managers who manage best manage least.

Yet in the case of the Pittsburgh Pirates, it seems there is very little the manager can do be it Clint Hurdle, Jim Tracy, or anyone else. Show me a team's management that makes poor draft picks and trades away what few good players they have for little in return and I'll show you a team that hasn't had a winning record since Bush was President. That would be George H.W. Bush.

I have no doubt Clint Hurdle has good intentions and will put his best foot forward in his new job. Yet we know all about good intentions and where they can take us. Unless the Pirates management works with Hurdle to put the best possible product on the field there is little chance he will fare better than his predecessors. Chances are Hurdle will walk a plank of hurdles of the Pirates management's own making. If that is the case, Hurdle could soon wish he had jumped ship.

About the Author

Aaron Goldstein writes from Boston, Massachusetts.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (20) | Leave a comment

Doctor_X| 11.16.10 @ 7:04AM

WELCOME to Pittsburgh

Home of Champions!

And the Pirates.

LarryK| 11.16.10 @ 2:46PM

Doctor_X,

That ain't right!

Accurate, bit it still ain't right!

Alan Brooks| 11.17.10 @ 1:37AM

"What could possess anyone to manage the Pittsburgh Pirates?"

the Devil?

diskojoe| 11.16.10 @ 8:12AM

Here's another reason why Mr. Hurdle is taking on the Pirates job:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/bl.....mlb-285598

Ken (Old Texican)| 11.16.10 @ 8:58AM

Art Howe was perhaps the last of the "coaches" in MLB in my opinion.
Nevertheless, I would rather watch a Little League
game.
By the time a young man reaches the Majors, all of his unique gifts are sanded off by successive "coaches", and he is nothing more than a clone or a ballerina.

I'm old enough to have watched a lot of the wild and crazy.....uniquely brilliant....players who did everything "wrong" but enjoyed unbounded success.
The problem is not with the "managements", but with absolutely STUPID scouts. They carry around a cookie cutter in their minds and absolutely cannot see many of the brilliant young "naturals" that are still out there in droves!

You cain't fix stupid.

Occam's Tool| 11.16.10 @ 5:35PM

Please keep in mind that the Old Texican, in his real identity, is one of the best baseball teachers in American history. But in his other identity, he wrote this:

Imagine an attack on America's energy industry by state sponsored terrorists. Then imagine a President who is a panderer to Islamists, and who takes himself more seriously than the Constitution. Then imagine a white knuckle ride that never lets up!

We know the second statement is true, and the third statement is a book describing the first, called Texas Said No!.

Texas Said No! grabs you by the throat by page 6, and then is LITERALLY unputdownable through the last page, where it ends all too soon. To tell any more would be to give away too much stuff, but if you liked The Last Centurion by John Ringo, you'll love this one, as it is very similar to Ringo's book, only stripped down without any padding, slamming through its talking points like the TCU defense on a roll. If you care about your country and the course it's taking, buy this book and put it next to America Alone on your shelf. It's that good, and that important.

It is published as an E-book. Check it out at www.texassaidno.com

canuckistani| 11.16.10 @ 9:00AM

Great stadium....lousy team. The fans deserve better owners.

Cromulent| 11.16.10 @ 9:28AM

I understand coaching the Pirates might be difficult, but worst job in America? Heck its not even the worst job in coaching. That would belong to whomever works for Donald Sterling. But then I guess it makes sense that a Pittsburgh fan has never heard of the NBA.

Occam's Tool| 11.16.10 @ 5:37PM

When I was at TCU, my sociology prof came into class one day shaking (the nicest Leftie I have ever met). We asked him what was wrong. He stated that he had just come back from the local pub where he ate his usual lunch, and ran into the man with the worst job in the world. It was far worse than being Manager of the Cubs or Pirates.

It was repossessing wheelchairs.

Syracuse| 11.16.10 @ 12:30PM

You forget or didnt know what role the Pirates management has in this whole mess. Every year, they routinely trade their best players, All Stars at that, for minor league players. Its gotten so bad Pittsburgh has been called the new farm system of the rich teams. And why does this occur? The Buc's management refuses to pay anything remotely near a decent contract to their top players, and instead ship them out to other teams (ie Jason Bay to Boston) for cheap minor leaguers.

The problem with this team isn't the environment or the players, it's the top brass who are SOLELY invested on making a buck unlike other teams, like my Yankees, who are committed to winning.

Thunder| 11.17.10 @ 2:58AM

So Octavio Dotel and Ryan Church were the team's best players last year?

It took a while for the token idiot post to show up. If you want to rehash everything you read in the Post Gazette, do it where no one with a brain can read it.

BooOrange| 11.20.10 @ 8:02PM

They trade players for cheap minor league players because they can't afford to go after big name free agents extend the contracts of guys like Jason Bay who are on the decline of their careers and are about to become vastly overpaid free agents.

The Pirates opened their books this year and it showed that over the last three years, the Pirates made about 30 million dollars TOTAL in profit, 20 million of which went to payback a loan that saved them for bankruptcy. Who do YOU sign for 10 million total over 3 years who turns this team into a contender? Seriously, do you think that overpaying for guys like Bay and Sanchez and Nady (how'd he do for your Yankees, by the way?) and bankrupting the franchise is an effective way to do anything? Instead, they spend that money on the draft and international free agents (I believe they have been either first or second in terms of money spent in those two areas since Huntington took over as GM) and get tons of cheap, young talent.

The Pirates trade for prospects because they're a small market team who literally can't afford to do anything else. Prospects (hopefully) become cheap young talent who can win ballgames. Their last GM was terrible and never tried actually rebuilding this way, instead doling out bad contracts to declining free agents and extending overrated players (like you recommend they do) but Neal Huntington knows what he's doing and this team is on the right track. They're not World Series contenders yet by any stretch, but they're not the joke franchise run by cheap owners you and the author of this article seem to think.

If you don't want to read this whole post, I'll just summarize by saying you're extremely wrong about pretty much every single thing you said. Enjoy watching the Yankees.

Kyle| 11.16.10 @ 12:39PM

I'll gladly manage the Pittsburgh Pirates!

Dean| 11.16.10 @ 1:50PM

Hurdle doesn't have it that bad. The worst job in sports is head coach of the Detroit Lions.

Rossignol| 11.16.10 @ 2:29PM

Well, the Lions have at least had a few bright spots in the last few decades. The Bucs set the record for most consectutive losing seasons in ANY sport last year. This year, their 18th of 'rebuilding', they barely reached the .333 mark (57-105).

It's not all bad though. Here in Pittsburgh, the Bucs provide an annual reliable source of dark humor. The home of the Pirates, PNC field, is one of the nicest baseball parks in the country. A good gameday outing with great seats always available and no additional worrisome pressure or stress of the team being in a pennant race...

Plus, we have the Steelers and the Penguins. And 'two outta three ain't bad.' We'll just keep on using the short, temperamental West PA summers for non-Pirates things. (Mostly road construction)

Dave| 11.16.10 @ 2:41PM

The Pittsburgh Pirates? Well, maybe it's just the "old school" in - but I figure "Pops and Roberto" gotta' be spinnin' over in the "on deck circle" ... as we speak.

Frankly, I don't even think Ernie Banks would want to "play two" with that club. Then again, the Cubbies can always use an extra "W" . Or two.

Oh, he-l ... PLAY BALL!

Pete| 11.16.10 @ 3:39PM

Think about the all star team you could put together with players cast off by the Pirates: Bonds, Bonilla, Drabek, Sid Bream, Aramis Ramirez, Sanchez and the list goes on and on. Hurdle did a good job in CO with lying cheapskate owners, so maybe he can work some magic in Pitt. And maybe he knows someone who can come and coach the Steelers.