Quotes from Hurdle press conference

Jenifer Langosch/MLB.com

As I write the full stories for the main website, here are some raw quotes from general manager Neal Huntington and new manager Clint Hurdle at today’s press conference.

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Huntington

• “We identified Clint early on in our process. At the end of the process, we had two gentleman we felt very strongly about. We’ve heard tremendous things about Clint as we did our due diligence behind the scenes, talking to probably about 30 people about the man.”
• “He’s a tremendous man. He has the ability to help young men grow up and mature and be ready to take the next step, yet he’s also a person that can relate to veteran players and help them get better. He believes in being unified. He believes in cohesion. He believes in a lot of the same things we believe in.”
• On putting staff in place: “Clint and I have engaged in multiple dialogues about the staff and identified some candidates that we feel strongly about together. We’d like to work as quickly as we can to put the staff in place, but we have to make sure it’s the right staff.”
• On whether Jeff Banister will return to organization: “Jeff has done some unbelievable things for this organization. He has made an impact, and it’s certainly our hope that he will make an impact for us going forward.”
• On questions Hurdle asked during his interview: “It was more about the players we have in the system and do we have some financial flexibility to go forward and make the right decisions going forward. We talked very openly about where we are, where we plan to go and how we plan to get there. Obviously, he was comfortable.
• On interview: “We had been told that he was going to be a remarkable interviewee just because of the presence and the intelligence and the passion. But the alignment of where he is philosophically and where we are philosophically was a terrific fit right away.”

Hurdle

• “As I revisit my childhood years and watching the Pittsburgh Pirates during those days, I always gravitated to the leadership in the dugout, and the three men that I watched were Danny Murtaugh, Billy Virdon and Chuck Tanner.”
• “It’s a wonderful and perfect fit for myself. It’s the right decision, the right organization with the right people at the right time. I’ve always enjoyed my time in Pittsburgh. A challenge? Oh, it’s there. An opportunity? It’s there. But it’s a city that has predicated hard work and a blue-collar mentality, perseverance that has been real and an ability to overcome and grind through it. Perseverance has been a part of my life and my career. I asked my wife to marry me twice.”
• “I have been on the front end of these press conferences. I have been on the back end of these press conferences. The one thing I’m respectful of are the men who have come before me. You watch a press conference and the guy saying, ‘We’re going to do this and we’re going to do that’ and I think if you replay the tape, the guy before him said the same things.”
• “I know where the Pirates organization has been. I know the road that it has traveled. I know where it is now and I know where we want to go.”
• “I was asked some really tough questions, and I believe that I asked some very tough questions. I was extremely appreciative of the way the men defended the fort. They defended the work that had been done and the process that is in place.
  It’s an exciting opportunity for me to be a small part of a group of people already in place to restore the legacy and tradition of the Pittsburgh Pirates. We’re going to roll up our sleeves as soon as I get done with this.”
• “I’m all in. This wasn’t about taking a job because it was a sure thing. This was about taking an opportunity that felt sure. And if fit right. I felt comfortable with the people that I was going to be getting after the job with.”
• “I’m not going to shy away from talking about a championship. I really don’t care what people think. In 2002, I had kids in my neighborhood getting beat up wearing Rockies jerseys. Those kids don’t get beat up wearing Rockies jerseys anymore.
  I’m going to be upfront. I’m proud to be a Pirate. We’re not going to back down from anybody. We’re going to show up, and we’re going to play. Our focus is going to be on a commitment of excellence that is unique and that is real. We’re going to hold ourselves to a very high degree of accountability and responsibility.”
• On whether he had reservations about interviewing for this job: “I had some questions. They did their homework on me extensively and I did my homework on them. I was humbled that an organization actually thought enough about me to actually engage me in an interview. I just wanted to make sure that everybody was in. There was no doubt at the end of the day that these guys are passionate about what they feel. After my conversations with these men, there were no reservations whatsoever.
• On what questions he asked: “I was not concerned so much about the 15 prior seasons. I wanted to know the position they had taken from day one since they got here.”
• On how close this team is to winning: “To put a time capsule on it, I don’t know. Give me a little more time to think. I know this — players develop at their own pace. You always want them to develop at the top at the same time, but that’s not always the case.
  There are a lot of similarities (from ’07) to the situation that I’m walking into right here. You have a young nucleus of good players that grow up together, they learn together, they stumble together, they fight together and through it all, they emerge as champions together. In Colorado, it took us a while to get there.”
• “We’re always going to feel like we’re closer than a lot of people think. We’ve got to pitch. If you want to build a championship, you have to pitch and you have to field 27 outs. I also spent some time in Colorado where we sent three or four guys to the All-Star Game and finished in third or fourth place. That’s not championship baseball.”
• On putting together staff: “One of the things that I’ve always found interesting is sometimes when managers are hired, they’ll bring in six or seven guys with them. It’s a huge part for me to make sure that there are people internally that are available that we keep in place or that we promote from within. I think it sends a huge message to our player development program. I think it helps to develop some continuity. There is some familiarity there that I don’t have. I think there are some in-house candidates that we’re definitely having some very serious conversations about. And there are a couple people that I’d like to bring in that I have ties to and that I can trust and that I think can be a very good fit for the Pirates organization.”
• “This is eventually going to turn. There is not a doubt in my mind that this is eventually going to turn. I wanted to get on board now because I believe this is the time it’s going to start turning.”

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