Charlie Manuel complained about Brad Lidge's working too hard at 2008 All-Star Game

Baseball managers have long memories, and aren't afraid to use them to tell stories.

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle had one of those moments Thursday, before the Pirates' game against the Tampa Bay Rays. While it's not quite clear why Hurdle spun a yarn about the All-Star Game, he certainly spun a good one, and the Post-Gazette's Stephen J. Nesbitt wrote it up word for word.

Back in 2008, Hurdle was the National League manager at the All-Star Game. The contest went 15 innings. You would think that would quite annoy the bench, given the need to spread pitchers out over all those frames. And at that point, the notorious 2002 All-Star Game tie was just six years old, and still relatively fresh in everyone's memory.

But Hurdle tried to do some advance planning, just in case it was needed. The day before the game, he persuaded coaches Bud Black and Lou Piniella to help lay out some ideas for what could happen.

Well, lo and behold, it did happen. Phillies closer Brad Lidge ended up warming up multiple times without taking the field, until finally arriving in the 15th inning.

Charlie Manuel watched all of this from home, or at least somewhere other than the ballpark. He apparently called someone who relayed a message to Hurdle in the dugout that Manuel was not pleased with how Lidge was being worked.

MLB had made it clear that the game could not end in a tie. Fortunately for the league office, Lidge went on to give up two hits, a walk and the sacrifice fly that drove in the winning run.

What if the game had remained tied, though? Who would have come in for Lidge after that?

According to Hurdle, it would have been New York Mets third baseman David Wright.

That, one suspects, might have cheered up Manuel.

Then again, maybe not, because the Phillies would have had home-field advantage in the World Series had the National League won the game – and you'd think putting Wright on the mound wouldn't have helped with that.

Here's the full story as Hurdle told it, and as Nesbitt reported it: