Clint Hurdle Is Just Content to Be a Role Player With the Mets

Clint Hurdle sat in front of his locker, a magazine rolled up in his hands.

It was a copy of Sports Illustrated’s 1985 baseball issue, the one with his New York Mets teammate, pitcher Dwight Gooden, on the cover.

Seven years ago, in the spring of 1978, Hurdle could well have been sitting in much the same position, in a different locker room, holding the same magazine, with his own picture on the front cover.

That was a long time ago for Hurdle, both in years and mind--from phenom to benchwarmer.

“You can draw all kinds of comparisons,” Hurdle says. “But the fact remains, it’s going to be a lot easier for some of these guys to put up with it because they have tons more talent than I ever had.”

Hurdle hadn’t even made the major league roster of the Kansas City Royals when he became a cover boy in the spring of 1978. It was a time of wide-eyed optimism for the 20-year-old outfielder who was told he had the baseball world at his feet.

“I believed what I was told,” Hurdle says. And that simply was that he couldn’t fail.

It was small consolation to him when he did.

He played with the Royals in 1978 but spent the better part of 1979 in the minors. In 1980, he was the Royals regular right fielder, hitting .294 in 130 games with 10 homers and 60 runs batted in as Kansas City won the American League pennant.

“I started in right field for a World Series ballclub,” Hurdle says. “Next year, everything fell apart. There was the strike. I got hurt. I was separated, divorced. I realized the vanity of the game, how quickly you can have the plug pulled on you.”

Suffering with a back injury, Hurdle played in only 28 games for the Royals in 1981. By 1982, he was with the Cincinnati Reds’ organization, spending most of his time with Triple-A Indianapolis. He joined the Mets’ organization in 1983, playing 139 games at Tidewater of the International League for Manager Davey Johnson, who now manages the New York club.

Now, at age 27, Hurdle looks back on his long road of return to the major leagues and wishes he could have understood then what he knows now.

“It’s too bad nobody can hand you maturity,” he says. “But I had listened to too much of the buildup, too much of the hype. I thought it would all just happen.”

When Hurdle came to Tidewater, Johnson said he he saw “a great competitor with a tremendous arm and very strong. He could play the outfield and first base, and he had good hands. I said to him, ‘You’re going to be a good third baseman.”’

In 1983, Hurdle learned how to play third. “I was no Gold Glove, but I was adequate,” he says.

At the end of the ’83 season, Hurdle played 13 games with the Mets, hitting .182. In 1984, the Mets brought Johnson up to manage the big league club and made the deal that brought Ray Knight from Houston. With Hubie Brooks and Knight at third, Hurdle spent another year in the minors.

“There was a big need in the organization to have a player who could play all positions and catch,” Johnson says. “I told Clint that as big as he was and as good an arm as he had, if he would go behind the dish, he would become an invaluable player on the club.”

Hurdle decided to give it one more try.

“I had already decided I was never going to be a superstar,” Hurdle says. “I was going to be a part-timer, and I would build on that. . . . I knew Davey was being honest with me. I knew the organization was serious, that they weren’t playing ring-around-the-rosie with me.

“I was no golden boy. I had to start over.”

So, Hurdle spent the 1984 season learning how to catch, and Johnson says he “could be a No. 1 catcher on a lot of clubs.” He couldn’t be a No. 1 catcher on a club that had just acquired Gary Carter, as the Mets had done.

“I can now play left field, right field, third base, first base and catcher,” Hurdle says. “It wasn’t only Davey that wanted me then. There are only a handfull of guys who can play the corners and catch.

“I took a look at the total picture, and it was kind of crazy. Here I was 27 years old, and I had to ask myself, is this what I really want. I knew I didn’t want to be a Triple A player the rest of my life. I knew the only way back to the major leagues was to pull off this catching thing. That’s what pulled it all together.

“I can back up five guys. I’ve got a pretty good chance to play.”

He knows that if the Mets are a winning club, he will have a chance to contribute.

“Any team that wins, all 25 guys come into play,” Hurdle says. “If we win, I’ll be called upon to do something somewhere along the line to help.”

For one thing, Hurdle could help some of the Mets’ young players through his experience.

“There aren’t many guys in this clubhouse that can have something happen to them that hasn’t already happened to me,” Hurdle says. “I’m going to stay ready. I’m happy to be here. Just being here is the biggest accomplishment I’ve pulled off in my career.”

Hurdle, who was born in Michigan but grew up in Merritt Island, Fla., has put the glamour days behind him. Buried are the dreams and images of stardom.

“I would take a lot of abuse before at the ballparks,” Hurdle remembers. “Now, I’m the underdog. People say, ‘Hey, you can make it.’ Yeah, where were those guys two years ago when nobody thought I could make it? I’ve never felt better about myself. . . .

“You get dealt a hand, and you play it. I’ve had more fun the last two seasons in the minor leagues than ever before, even 1980. It’s like being back to my school days. I have a bad day, forget it. I can’t wait for tomorrow.”