The Milwaukee Brewers’ NLDS win over the Chicago Cubs carried a little extra satisfaction for their fiery manager, Pat Murphy. After celebrating one of the franchise’s most emotional postseason triumphs, Murphy reflected on how close he once came to switching sides. Before taking the Brewers job that would redefine his career, he nearly followed Craig Counsell to Chicago.
Now, with the Brewers on top and the Cubs sent home, Murphy’s behind-the-scenes story has taken on a new layer of irony. The wild tale, complete with NSFW flair, has become part of Brewers folklore, a reminder of how different things could have been.
As baseball fate would have it, everything hinged on timing. Murphy had already spoken with the Cubs organization after Counsell’s shocking exit. He expected to spend another five years as Counsell’s bench coach. Yet the Brewers still hadn’t offered him the managerial job, leaving him caught between loyalty and opportunity. During the General Manager Meetings in Scottsdale, Arizona, he decided it was time to make a stand.
“I told them, ‘If you’re not going to make me manager, I’m gone,’” Murphy said. The Brewers responded by asking him to come in for a formal interview at the Omni Resort. He drove from his home in Chandler, Arizona, unaware the meeting would test his patience, and his mouth.
“I remember sitting there for two hours with all these (expletive) nerds in the room,” the Brewers skipper recalled. “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?’”
That fiery honesty may have sealed his fate, in the best possible way. “I’ve been here eight (expletive) years. I need an answer pretty soon,” he told them. Soon after, the Brewers made it official.
Now, after taking down the Cubs in the NLDS and advancing in October, Pat Murphy’s mic-drop story carries even more weight. It captures everything that defines the Brewers, confident, gritty, and never afraid to swing back when challenged.
