The Christophers: Christ Turned MLB Manager’s Life Around
- Editor
- Jun 9
- 3 min read
Tony Rossi,
Director of Communications,
The Christophers’
For 23 years, Clint Hurdle used Jesus like an ATM card, calling on Him when he needed help—and putting Him aside when things were going well. But as an alcoholic with two divorces under his belt, life was never truly “going well” for the Major League Baseball player who spent his career with the Royals, Mets, Reds, and Cardinals. In fact, it took until middle age for Hurdle to fully embrace the Christian faith that he had learned as a child. Since then, he has established a successful career as a manager with the Pirates and Rockies, learned unconditional love for his wife and children, and built an online following with his messages of faith and encouragement. Hurdle is now sharing his insights and experiences in the book “Hurdle-isms: Wit and Wisdom from a Lifetime in Baseball,” and we discussed it recently on “Christopher Closeup.”
Hurdle grew up attending Bible school with his two sisters, but he didn’t make an official profession of faith until his senior year in high school. The seeds of faith had been planted, but it took decades before they fully took root and blossomed. In the meantime, Clint started playing professional baseball and only calling on Jesus when he wanted something. One of the Hurdle-isms he shares in his book is, “The smallest package in the world is a person wrapped up in themself”—and there was a time when that applied to him. He went through two marriages and divorces, while also being an alcoholic.
Hurdle explained, “There’s two kinds of people in this world: those who are humble and those who are about to be…There was a time when I was full of myself…but I had my ego kicked out of me on the field from a talent base, from a marital base, from a relationship base…I had two DUIs about nine years apart…and then I had two divorces. I wasn’t fired from any jobs for that, but maybe I was less than what I could have been at the jobs I had. My life was chaotic…Everybody’s bottom is different, but when I hit that last bottom, I just knew that my life had become unmanageable…I actually made a list of things I needed to improve upon. On the top was, rededicate my life to Christ. The second was, get sober.”
And so, at 40+ years of age, Hurdle followed through on both those goals. He is now 26 years sober, and his faith sits at the center of his life—though the journey was not always easy. He admits that “surrendering” to God did not come naturally to him. He would often say to God, “Thy will be done, but can we do it my way?”
Hurdle reflected, “Once I laid it down and [was] thankful and grateful that I’m still alive, that I have an opportunity to be a better man today than I was yesterday and focused on serving others, things turned around…Not overnight, but the last 26 years, the things that have happened to me, I could never have [thought]…I’m going to be blessed this way…I’ve been married for 26 years. We have two wonderful children. I’ve managed two Major League teams for 17 years. My mom and dad have been a part of my journey. My two sisters are still…part of my journey…I’ve got a whole new group of friends that I never had before—and they’re much more consistent and cut from the same cloth now.”
For free copies of the Christopher News Note GUIDED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, write: The Christophers, 264 West 40th Street, Room 603, New York, NY 10018; or e-mail: mail@christophers.org