Okay, here’s a rewrite of the provided article, aiming for a more conversational and human tone, while retaining the core information and flow:
The Brewers’ second-year manager sums up his life pretty simply: “My whole life is my kids and my job.”
- Pat Murphy stepped into the Brewers’ managerial role after Craig Counsell, his close friend, left after the 2023 season.
- At 66, Murphy’s got a wide range of kids – from a six-year-old all the way up to 39!
- He admits he “thought the time had passed” for him to ever get a shot at managing in MLB.
MILWAUKEE – It’s the morning after a big win, and Pat Murphy is in his Milwaukee Brewers office, a big mug of coffee in hand, ready to talk.
He’s the kind of guy who makes you feel welcome right away, eager to show off the personal photos that decorate his office. If you really want to know about Pat Murphy – the 66-year-old former boxer, the guy with three marriages behind him, a bunch of kids from 6 to 39, and the son of an alcoholic who almost went down the same path – well, grab a seat, because he’s got a story to tell.
Fresh off celebrating their emotional National League Division Series victory against their rival Chicago Cubs – even poking fun by waving an “L” flag during the team photo, Murphy can still smell the remnants of champagne in the hallway.
But he didn’t touch a drop. No champagne, no beer – he steered clear of it all.
“When I used to drink,” Murphy says, “I wanted to either fight or [expletive].”
“Both of them lead to bad things.”
Murphy isn’t joking. He’s serious.
“Drinking is everywhere in this game,” Murphy says during a long-ranging interview. “But I can’t. I watched the disease kill my dad. I watched it kill Bobby Welch. It’s just too personal.
“I don’t care if people drink and laugh at me for a while, but I can go out and hang with you and you’ll think I’m drinking.”
Growing up in Syracuse, New York, Murphy spent his youth fighting, drinking, and playing sports, without a clear path in sight. He still finds it a little surreal that he’s now the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers.
He jokes that he couldn’t even manage his own personal life, so how was he going to lead a major-league team?
It took until he was 64 for the opportunity to arrive, and it only happened after his close friend, Craig Counsell, left, a move that still stings for some Brewers fans and staff.
Funny enough, Murphy was actually headed to the Cubs himself, to rejoin Counsell as his bench coach. They had already talked, negotiations had begun, and he expected to spend another five years in that role.
He made it clear to the Brewers that he wouldn’t stay as a bench coach under a new manager. During the General Manager Meetings in Arizona, the Brewers called him, made no promises, but scheduled an interview, telling him to come over from his home in Chandler.
“I remember sitting there for two hours with all these (expletive) nerds in the room,” Murphy says. “And they were an hour late to begin with. I think they were interviewing Don Mattingly or something. I mean, I didn’t even get a drink or a cracker. I’m like ‘guys, what the (expletive)? What the (expletive) do you want me to tell you. You already know me, right?’
“I’ve been here eight (expletive) years, I need an answer pretty soon.”
Pat Murphy ‘thought the time had passed’
It’s turned out to be a pretty smart move by the Brewers, maybe their best since bringing on Bob Uecker. They’ve cut payroll and traded away some of their best players, but they’ve still managed to win back-to-back NL Central titles. They won more games than anyone else in baseball this season, and they’re now in the National League Championship Series, facing the powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers.
“The Average Joes,” Murphy says, “aren’t Average (expletive) Joes anymore.
“We pulled it off.”
In what might be their biggest postseason victory since 1982, the Brewers knocked off their rivals and celebrated long into the night. They even played the “Go, Cubs Go” song three times, singing louder each time.
“That song can get so damn annoying,” Murphy says, “especially playing them 13 times a year. It was just a great night. I’ve had some great moments in uniform, but that might have been the biggest one considering the rivalry, and having my three boys there (Kai, 25, a minor-league outfielder in the Padres organization; Austin, 10, a fifth-grader; Jaxon, 6, who’s in first grade). I wish my daughter (Kelli) was here, because that would have made it perfect.”
Kelli, married to former All-Star Pedro Alvarez, has promised to be there if they make it to the World Series.
It might be a long shot now that they’ve lost the first two games of the NLCS in Milwaukee, with Game 3 at Dodger Stadium. But hey, they’ve been surprising people all year, so why stop now?
The Brewers don’t have the deep pockets of the Dodgers, their payroll is more than $250 million less. They don’t have the star power, the Dodgers boast four MVPs and two Cy Young winners.
It’s so uneven that Murphy even texted Andrew Friedman, President of Baseball Operations for the Dodgers, playfully asking him to have his players wear gloves on their opposite hands to level the playing field – or Murphy would make something up to blackmail him.
“I usually don’t laugh out loud when I get something funny in a text message,” Friedman said. “But with Patty – that’s what I call him – I’d say 80% of the time I do.”
Like the very first message Murphy sent Friedman after he was hired back in December.
“Andy, look at you grinding deep in the weeds to find those hidden gems,” Murphy said. “Ohtani, Yamamoto, it’s similar to us with signing Collin Rea and Joe Ross. Also, need to apologize for announcing [Eric] Haase on the same day as Ohtani.”
Murphy is used to being the underdog. After going 42-54 as the interim manager of the Padres in 2015, nobody expected him to manage again in the big leagues. He interviewed three times and nearly got the Mets job before they hired Carlos Beltran and then Luis Rojas. He was on the Rangers’ short list before they went with Chris Woodward. The Orioles asked for permission to talk to him before ultimately hiring Brandon Hyde.
Now, he’s on track to join Bobby Cox as the only managers to win consecutive National League Manager of the Year awards, leading the Brewers to 190 wins and back-to-back division titles, all while cutting payroll by about $40 million.
“There were times when I thought the time had passed,” Murphy says. “We had so much success and I wasn’t getting that many interviews. I had people telling me, ‘Yeah, you’re too old.’ I heard that I’m hard to work with and things like that.
“I didn’t lose hope, but I thought about going back to college to coach.”
‘Friends beyond the game’ with Craig Counsell
Back when Murphy was coaching at Notre Dame, he met a scrawny freshman from Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin named Craig Counsell.
“I was tough on him, really inappropriately tough,” Murphy says, “but I was inappropriate on everybody. I was a football coach, you know what I mean. My mentality was just to (expletive) bury guys, make them understand, brainwash them if you will. By the time Counsell was a junior and senior, he knew I had great respect for him because of the way he went about it.”
Next thing he knew, Murphy was helping Counsell negotiate his $5,000 signing bonus with the Rockies, and they became best friends. Counsell joined the Brewers front office in 2012 after his playing career, and Murphy moved on to Arizona State, leading the Sun Devils to four College World Series appearances, before an NCAA investigation forced him to resign. He joined the Padres, managed in the minor leagues and then became the interim manager in 2015, and then Counsell, who was hired as manager of the Brewers midseason, brought Murphy on as bench coach.
“I was supposed to mentor him but he ended up teaching me the big leagues style, how the game is played up here,” Murphy says. “He doesn’t know he did that, but being in that position, I was forced to learn. He did a ton more for me than I ever did for him.”
That’s why Murphy winces about Counsell being vilified in Milwaukee. Counsell is booed by the fans at every opportunity, while certain members of the Brewers organization still refuse to talk to him, angry he would leave them for their hated rivals.
“I hate that,” Murphy says. “If you know him and his family, they love Milwaukee.
“Couns wouldn’t talk to opposing players every much, but if there was a kid from Milwaukee, he’d be talking to him. He loved Milwaukee. And any high school basketball player that came to the game, he’d talk to them. That’s what pains me.”
After the Brewers beat the Cubs in Game 5, Counsell was waiting in the hall for Murphy. He hugged Murphy and his son, Kai, wishing them the best throughout October.
“I mean, we’re friends beyond the game,” Murphy says. “That will never stop. We’re not acquaintances; we’re real friends. His kids and [wife] Michelle are important to me. My kids are important to him.”
For Murphy, it’s all about the kids. He can come across as tough, swear a lot, and tell off-color jokes, but at the end of the day, family means everything.
As competitive as he is, as much as he wants to win, nothing is more important than his family. He’s raised Kai since he was three years old. His 10- and 6-year-old sons spend summers with him in Milwaukee and winters in Phoenix, even joining him at postgame press conferences – his 10-year-old, Austin, answered questions at a press briefing at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.
“I’ve got to be honest,” he says, “I don’t do this to try to look good. I’m not trying to look good, because parenting is really hard coaching. That’s what it’s about for me.
“My whole life is my kids and my job and it’s always been that way.”
If he wasn’t devoted to parenthood, well, he wouldn’t have been married three times.
He got married the first time because his girlfriend was pregnant, they had his 39-year-old daughter, Kelli.
He got married the second time because his girlfriend was pregnant and they had his 25-year-old son, Kai, who he raised since he was three.
“So back in the day, when you got a woman pregnant and had a kid, you got married,” Murphy says. “You needed to give the baby a name.”
The only wedding that was planned ended after seven years. They met while she was in a work-release program for alcohol and drug problems. Murphy visited her in jail, they hit it off, and got married soon after she was released.
“I had people stand up at the wedding with two volunteers from the 7-11,” Murphy says, “I paid them $150 bucks apiece.”
Bruce Springsteen is like ‘church’ for Pat Murphy
Murphy never needed much to be happy. He boxed at Billy Harris’ Boxing Club in Syracuse, winning a couple tournaments as a kid and getting into about 20-25 fights total.
“I mean, I won a lot, but I wasn’t very good,’’ he says. “I kind of picked the targets that I wanted to fight. Football, basketball, baseball, that was my life. But I loved sparring, and boxing was just something that I was better than all the kids in my neighborhood.
“So I went to the gym where they’d bring in these kids from work-release programs and they wanted to kill me. I just wanted to fight and win. They wanted to kill. When you start getting into the ring with guys that are desperate, I knew this wasn’t a sport for me.”
Murphy laughs, sits back, and looks around his office. Pictures are on his desk, his walls, his coffee table, and even on his body, if you count the tattoos. He looks at the eight pictures on his right every day, each one an inspiration.
There’s Satchel Paige wearing a Kansas City Monarchs jersey: “This is competing with freedom. Doing the right thing, playing against adversity.”
Mariano Rivera tipping his cap: “Humility”
Jackie Robinson sliding home: “Fighting for diversity.”
Muhammad Ali standing over Joe Frazier: “Iconic, with a bigger picture in mind.”
Bob Welch pitching for the Oakland Athletics: “Friendship. My closest friend in the world, addiction got him, too.”
Ty Cobb sliding home with spikes up: “Relentless and ruthless.”
Roberto Clemente sliding with his hands up in the air: “What he meant for giving.”
Derek Jeter rounding the bases: “Ultimate teammate. It wasn’t about talent, it was about teammate. A winner.”
“I picked those pictures up,” Murphy says, “because those people remind me of that.’’
There are dozens more pictures of his family, former Brewers greats, and four pictures alone of Uecker, the Hall of Fame broadcaster everyone reveres in the clubhouse.
“We would sit right there on the couch, do these pre-game interviews for three minutes,” Murphy says, “and then just talk for an hour. He loved the players, and they loved him back. He wanted to be in that clubhouse every day.
“He was a Hall of Famer, but he didn’t act like a Hall of Famer. He didn’t act like he was better than you. He was just Bob.
“That’s why I got this.”
Murphy pulls up his sweatshirt sleeve to reveal a tattoo of Uecker’s uniform patch.
“That’s how much he meant to me, to all of us,” Murphy says.
So, why get the tattoo now?
“I was waiting,” he says, “for a special time.”
His office also has pictures and a book featuring Bruce Springsteen, and Murphy has ink on his arm and his back in tribute of Springsteen, including the words “no retreat, no surrender.”
Murphy listens to Springsteen almost every day, having seen him in concert 10-15 times, though he also loves old R&B or soul. The Temptations and Bill Withers are always good choices.
But it’s Springsteen’s lyrics that calm him, almost like “The Boss” is speaking directly to him.
“It was 1980,” Murphy says. “I was seeing a girl, and her brother was in love with Springsteen. We were in Hollywood, Florida. Now, his music wasn’t really my cup of tea. I grew on all Black music. But I went to this rock-and-roll concert because of this girl.
“When I saw the show, I go ‘it’s OK’ but this guy has just played for five (expletive) hours. He did like eight curtain calls. He kept coming back. I’m like, ‘this is incredible.'”
When Murphy became the Notre Dame coach, one of his players convinced him to go to another Springsteen concert. He started listening to the lyrics, loving “halfway to heaven but only a mile out of hell.”
“So I start listening more, and more, and more, and I got hooked,” Murphy. “Now, it’s all I play in my car. I’m in a different mode when I listen to it. … It’s not even like music to me. It’s more like church. That’s why I got the ‘no retreat, no surrender’ on my arm. I’ve got ‘The Boss,’ tattooed on my back.
“He’s just different. … I’ve had chances to meet him backstage, but I didn’t want to meet him like that. I want him to just sit and let me (talk) with him for 10 minutes.”
Murphy read an inspirational note to his players Wednesday, reminding them that they were obliterated the first four games of the season, losing by a combined score of 47-15 to the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals, then turned around and won more games than any team in baseball.
“This is more an opportunity than anyone knows,” Murphy said Wednesday. “If I was to tell this group after their 0-4 starts with the worst run differential in baseball history, ‘Hey, you’re four games from the World Series,’ you’d take it.
“Whatever that mountain is, we’ll take it. Whatever has happened in the past, has happened in the past. … There’s a lot of reason to doubt. There’s a lot of daunting scenarios out there. But it’s not time to think, complain or explain.
“It’s time to go.”
Murphy has never stopped going his entire life.
He sure ain’t about to stop now.
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