Former big leaguers come to Cooperstown to support Pathfinder Village

“The annual clinic with the former elite players has grown each year,” said Pathfinder’s President and Chief Executive Officer Paul C. Landers. “There’s a real affinity between these men who have played baseball at its most competitive level, and Pathfinder’s residents, who show the same love and commitment to the game.”

Hurdle, an outfielder for 10 seasons (1977-83, 1985-87) spent mostly with the Kansas City Royals before embarking on a managerial career that included stints with the Colorado Rockies (2002-09) and Pittsburgh Pirates (2011-19), has been involved in this particular event all three years.

“It’s just a special day,” Hurdle said. “We get to bring a lot of joy and a lot of smiles to the residents of Pathfinder Village and give them a piece of something that we’ve had a part of our lives for so long. It doesn’t get much better than that.

“We don’t work with them as much as we just let them have fun. We want them to have fun. We want them engaged. We want them to do something they probably don’t do any other time of the year. We haven’t had an event where as an instructor, it doesn’t grab your heart. We appreciate their effort to participate in each station and the joy they get from doing it well. The common joke I use with the former players is don’t be caught off guard if some infield dust gets in your eyes while you’re out there – they might water up a little bit.”

Hurdle’s involvement in this cause began with longtime White Sox scout John Tumminia and his non-profit called “Baseball Miracles.”

“I was on the board and we were looking for an opportunity to impact and influence an area. John’s vision was to go somewhere in a community that was maybe underserved. Just create some baseball fans and some joy in their life. And after COVID we found this opportunity through Pathfinder,” Hurdle said. “And it just organically kind of happened. I reached out to the people at the Hall of Fame. I reached out to the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association. And the three of us got together and we just made it happen.”

Hurdle’s interest in helping others is directly connected to his daughter Madison, who was diagnosed with Prader-Willi Syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects about one out of every 15,000 children at birth.

“It’s remarkable. It really is,” Bayliss said. “And I didn’t know what to expect coming into it last year. And then to see the pure joy and elation on the faces of the people here. It feels great to know that you’ve had a part in putting that out there for them.”

Bayliss’ experienced his own form of elation when he and his family visited the Hall of Fame the day before.

“I’ve been there before, but it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve been there. It’s actually something my wife said to me when we were done touring is that it reminds you how much of a fan of baseball you actually are. Sometimes you kind of forget,” Bayliss said. “I got done playing and you go into the ‘quote-unquote’ real world and all of a sudden you’re walking through the exhibits and the Plaque Gallery and you’re hit so emotionally. It hits you that baseball is just so integrated into your life. It’s remarkable in that sense.”

Hurdle’s career got off to an incredible start when, at the age of 20 and only a handful of big-league games under his belt, he appeared on the cover of the March 20, 1978, issue of Sports Illustrated with the headline, “This Year’s Phenom.”