Pirates' Hurdle managing team despite painful hip

The longer the Pittsburgh Pirates' season runs, the more pain manager Clint Hurdle will have to deal with. 

The pain isn't the emotional kind that any skipper endures over the course of a 162-game season, but rather the pain brought on by a long-overdue hip replacement that the 57-year-old cannot undergo until season's end. 

With the Pirates - winners of seven of their last eight - holding a comfortable 3 1/2 game lead in the second wild card, Hurdle will have to put up with the agony for the time being. 

"The experts I've come across," Hurdle told MLB.com, "I talked to them a while ago. I said, 'So where I'm at right now ... how many people have you ever had with a hip in this situation? How much more can I push through without having the operation?' They said, 'Well, nobody. You should have had the operation two months ago the way this thing has progressed.' "

With 12 years of managerial experience under his belt, Hurdle has had just three winning seasons and a pair of postseason trips, so the pain will have to take a back seat for now.