Charming, cantankerous Pat Murphy at age 67 leads Brewers to first World Series title
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Pat Murphy was rushed from the ballpark six years ago, stricken with a heart attack.
"This ambulance driver was like, `Sir, can I have your next of kin?'" the Milwaukee Brewers manager recalled. “I'm like, Bro, next of kin? I’m not going anywhere.'"
On Wednesday night he was leaving the ballpark a World Series champion.
Charming, cantankerous, inquisitive and endearing, this barrel-chested baseball lifer has rebounded from an NCAA scandal two decades ago and then his medical emergency, leading the Brewers to a five-game World Series win over the Tampa Bay Rays and their first title.
“It’s an iron-sharpens-iron mentality, and you’ve got to be able to take the punches when he gives them to you,” Milwaukee outfielder Garrett Mitchell said.
A month shy of his 68th birthday, Murphy could soon become the first person to win a Manager of the Year award in three straight seasons. At times he sounds like a cranky grandfather, relishing his unhip demeanor.
"I’m not on social media, Twizzler or Instacart, whatever,” he quipped.
He’s been married three times and has four kids: daughter Keli (40), who is married to former major leaguer Pedro Alvarez; and sons Kai (26), a Padres minor league outfielder, Austin (11) and Jaxon (7).
He encourages young players by showing confidence, but also can be stern — he pulled Cooper Pratt and William Contreras from games this year for not running hard.
“When it’s time to send some tough love, it looks like he’s pretty good at that, too,” Brewers owner Mark Attanasio said.
Murphy demands accountability from players and owner alike. When he became Milwaukee's bench coach in 2016, he instituted “The Check Game.” A player, staffer and even Attanasio gets a check on a white board when saying anything displaying ego as opposed to selflessness.
“When anybody draws attention to themselves,” Murphy said. “Mark Attanasio wears a big Brewers logo on his private plane, I’m like: `You want everybody to know you’re the Brewers' owner? That’s a check.' It's in good fun.”
President of Baseball Operations Matt Arnold is the two-time reigning champion.
“He’s the most humble man around, but I just like to give him a hard time,” Murphy said.
The manager gathers his youngest children and their friends around him for postgame news conferences. His answers to media questions this month have included digressions on the history of neckties, his two Bruce Springsteen tattoos and a FaceTime call with The Boss last week.
He refuses to shake hands with players during foul-line introductions, calling that tradition "happy horse manure."
“I think it’s kind of cool that everybody pumps him on the chest going down the line rather than high-fiving,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.
When a reporter addressed him as Mr. Murphy rather than Pat or Murph, he responded: “Now I feel like I’m back in Catholic school, substitute teaching.”
Asked about Springsteen, a perturbed Murphy asked the media group: “Can he be fined for a stupid question?”
When a Brewers communications official turned down an interview with Chris Russo, Murphy overruled him as soon as he found out and immediately FaceTimed the sports-media personality.
Murphy pitched 11 complete games and also caught and played infield and outfield at Florida Atlantic in 1981 and ‘82. He remembers being called for a balk at the University of Miami’s Mark Light Field, slamming the ball in frustration and it bouncing up and knocking off his cap.
Bypassed in the amateur draft, Murphy signed a minor league contract with San Francisco but had a shoulder injury and was released without playing in a game for the Giants.
He went 1-5 with a 5.50 ERA in six starts and 22 relief appearances for San Diego's Class-A Salem affiliate in 1983, played for Sydney in Australia the following year and finished with Tri-Cities in the independent Northwest League, going 6-5 over 24 games in 1985 and '86 — as a player-manager the final year.
Murphy started his coaching career at Division III Maryville in 1983, was a Florida Atlantic assistant for two seasons and became head coach at Division III Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges in 1986-87. While at the Division III schools, he also was a football assistant.
One late night during that time, he was driving in suburban Los Angeles when he saw someone in a sports car who had a breakdown. Turned out, it was longtime big leaguer Mike Scioscia.
“Guy’s got a suit on, heavyset guy. Didn’t recognize him. I said, `Hey, man, can I help you?” Murphy recalled.
They drove in Murphy's jeep to his office.
“I said, `What do you do?' He goes, `I work for the Dodgers.' I go, `Oh, what do you do?' He goes, `I catch.' I feel like a total fool," Murphy remembered. “I gave him a ride home that night and got his car fixed, and we became friends ever since.”
Murphy moved up to Notre Dame (1988-94) and Arizona State (1995-2009), losing 21-14 to Southern California in the 1998 College World Series final. He won exactly 1,000 college games, earning the nickname “Black Hat Pat” for his intensity.
But he resigned from the Sun Devils during an NCAA investigation, and the organization in December 2010 issued him a one-year penalty of restriction on college coaching activities, saying he had “failed to promote an atmosphere for compliance for his lack of oversight and disregard of NCAA rules.”
“I was a college coach forever, and then I had this huge injustice happen, and I thought, why me?, and feel sorry for myself and all that. My ego was involved a great deal more than it should,” he said this month.
Murphy, who also had managed the Netherlands in the 2000 Olympics, joined the Padres as a special assistant in 2010. He managed farm teams at Class A Eugene (2011-12), Triple-A Tucson (2013) and Triple-A El Paso (2014-15).
“I look at that segment in my life as crucial to try to bounce back and rebuild things and go through what I went through, all the time raising my son by myself,” Murphy said.
He became the Padres' interim manager when Bud Black was fired in June 2015 and led San Diego to a 42-54 record.
Murphy was hired as the Brewers' bench coach in October 2015 by manager Craig Counsell, who had played for him at Notre Dame. Murphy held that job through 2023 — missing much of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season following a heart attack that Aug. 1 during a workout at American Family Field in Milwaukee — and was promoted to manager in November 2023 when Counsell left to manage the Chicago Cubs.
“The thing that I love about it is you get up every day with the opportunity to impact, the opportunity to learn from somebody, to have somebody impact you," Murphy said. “You talk about athletics, team sports. There’s nothing better, man, than rowing the boat with other people in it.”
Murphy has never given himself a check mark.
“I’m the check master,” he said.
And he realizes losing the Arizona State job set him on the path toward a World Series championship.
“When you have your priorities focused on your kids and your life and then realizing that this position isn’t about you, it’s about others and it has to be or all bets are off, that realization just frees you up,” he said. “I don’t know if I’m any good. I just know I have to get better. I know I’m under construction, and I’ve enjoyed the construction project. It feels like it never gets done, though.”
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