A conversation about hype: what it feels like to get it, what it costs, and who you are when it moves on. In March 1978, Sports Illustrated put a twenty-year-old Clint Hurdle on its cover and named him “This Year’s Phenom” before he had played a full big-league season. The career that followed was a good one by any sane standard, ten seasons and a World Series, but it never matched the cover, and for years Clint carried the gap between the two. Then came the longer story: a manager who won a pennant nobody saw coming, broke the longest losing streak in North American professional sports, and became known across baseball for building people up one day at a time. This session is for the kid who just got ranked, showcased, or labeled, and for the parents reading the rankings. The label is not the story. The response is.

Clint Hurdle: What I learned when they called me the next big thing.