Brewers manager Pat Murphy's former college players say his MLB success hasn't surprised them

MILWAUKEE (AP) — As they watch manager Pat Murphy lead the Milwaukee Brewers to their first World Series since 1982, the guys who played for him at Notre Dame and Arizona State can’t help but feel nostalgic.

Murphy celebrated Milwaukee’s NL Championship Series sweep by saying the Los Angeles Dodgers had Hall of Famers but his team had gamers. The theme wasn’t much different from pep talks he gave his college teams.

“It’s kind of déjà vu,” said Cory Mee, who played for Murphy at Notre Dame from 1989-92. “I’ve heard this before.”

Murphy won exactly 1,000 games during a college coaching career that included stops at Maryville (Tennessee) and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (California) before longer stints at Notre Dame (1988-94) and Arizona State (1995-2009). He now is on baseball’s biggest stage as the Brewers face the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series starting Friday.

He may have tempered his approach since making a cold call to then-Notre Dame athletic director Gene Corrigan and talking his way into the Fighting Irish coaching job at the age of 28.

But his knack for getting players to believe remains as strong as ever.

“Watching him with these Brewers, it struck me that he’s got a formula,” said Mike Moshier, who played for Notre Dame from 1986-89. “His algorithm is the same now as it was 40 years ago.”

That formula includes playing strong fundamentals, creating belief, outworking opponents, keeping everything fun and preparing for any obstacle.

“He does a really good job of explaining the expectation of how we’re going to respond, what toughness and discipline look like, to be able to respond to tough moments,” said Brett Wallace, who played for Murphy at Arizona State and again in the minor leagues and with the San Diego Padres.

There’s perhaps no greater example than the “mud chart” Murphy designed to help Notre Dame’s 1989 team earn an elusive NCAA Tournament berth.

Notre Dame was in a double-elimination Midwestern Collegiate Conference tournament seeking the league’s automatic NCAA bid. The Irish fell 16-15 to Detroit and dropped into the losers’ bracket, so their season would end unless they won five straight games.

Constant rain delays meant the last four of those games would take place in a span of 22 hours. One began at 1:30 a.m. and ended after 4 a.m.

Murphy designed a chart including a square for each of the 45 innings separating Notre Dame from its goal. Murphy figured the Irish needed to win or tie just about every inning. Whenever Notre Dame did that, he’d put a mud smudge in the corresponding square.

“It was posted in the dugout,” Mee said. “Every inning, he just stuck his hand in the dirt, put some water on it and put a thumbprint on it.”

Notre Dame won those five games to earn its first NCAA bid since 1970. Murphy went 318-116-1 at Notre Dame, which had been .500 or below each of the five years before his arrival.

“People would ask me after I was done playing baseball, who was the best manager I’d ever played for, expecting someone in the big leagues,” said Dan Peltier, a Notre Dame outfielder from 1987-89 who played three seasons in the majors. “I’d say right away it was Pat Murphy. I knew his style of managing would translate well into the big leagues as long as he had the right group of guys.”

Murphy is now a two-time NL manager of the year with a reputation for getting the best out of his players. This season, he has removed both three-time All-Star William Contreras and rookie Cooper Pratt from games because he didn’t believe they sufficiently hustled.

He took that to another level during his college years.

Former Notre Dame outfielder Mike Rotkis recalled a 28-10 loss at Western Michigan in Murphy’s debut season. When the Irish returned to campus, Murphy had them do sprints.

“It was like the scene in ‘Miracle,’“ Rotkis said, referring to the Kurt Russell movie about the 1980 U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team. “I can’t go anymore, you’re trying to run as fast as you can and you’re barely walking, you can barely lift your leg. He’s like, ‘All right, that was an embarrassment. Don’t let it happen again,’ and walked out.”

Murphy made practices so intense that games didn’t seem as tough.

“He didn’t accept anything but the best from you,” former Notre Dame pitcher Chris Michalak said. “It wasn’t easy, but games were easy after practice. The games became fun.”

Earlier this postseason, Murphy noted a motivational ploy he attempted involving Craig Counsell, who played for Notre Dame from 1989-92 and later became Murphy’s boss as manager in Milwaukee.

Murphy believed Counsell was too shy and needed to emerge as a leader, so he told the infielder to shout “Mine!” while taking ground balls during workouts.

“There would be this shortstop out there yelling ‘Mine!’ for every ground ball, and people would be like, ‘What the hell was that?'" Murphy said. “But I was trying to bring it out of him, and he wanted to kill me.

“That was a mistake. He did just fine without yelling ‘Mine!' for ground balls.”

Murphy also pulled occasional pranks. Moshier remembers when the team stopped at a fast-food restaurant on a road trip and Murphy yelled for everyone to get back to the bus.

“The minute everyone got out of the restaurant, he sneaked in to get his order first,” Moshier said. “That’s classic Murph."

Murphy eventually left for Arizona State and went 629-284-1 with four College World Series appearances, including a runner-up finish in 1998.

His Arizona State tenure ended bitterly when he resigned amid an NCAA investigation. He entered the pro ranks and managed in San Diego’s farm system before going 42-54 as the Padres’ interim manager in 2015 following Bud Black’s dismissal.

When the Padres opted against keeping him beyond that season, Murphy became a bench coach for Counsell, Milwaukee’s manager at the time. Murphy got promoted when Counsell left for the Chicago Cubs after the 2023 season.

After working alongside Murphy for so long and now competing with him, Counsell understands why his college coach's approach has worked so well in the big leagues.

“It’s authentic," Counsell said last month before a Cubs-Brewers game. "That’s the No. 1 thing. It’s just who he is. That’s his authentic style. That’s how he’s coached. You’ve got to be yourself, and that’s what he’s doing.”

Many of Murphy’s former college players keep in touch with him. They notice how he has matured. Murphy turns 68 next month, and he survived a heart attack in 2020.

His style remains similar, but he’s smoothed his edges.

“He was terrifying (at Notre Dame) because he was unpredictable,” Moshier said. “You’d either get the funny, comic, sarcastic Murph, which was great. Or you’d get this really serious, really demanding, critical Murph. And you never knew which you were going to get, so he always kept you a little bit on edge.

“But I’ve seen him change over the years. Just interacting with him the last 10 years, I think his ego has been sort of softened a bit. He’s a bit more grateful for the opportunities that he’s had.”

Wallace has a unique perspective after playing for him in college, in Triple-A and again with the Padres.

“The way you lead a group of 16- to 21-year-olds is different from the way you lead a group of minor leaguers and a group of big leaguers,” Wallace said. “He learned along the way how to be authentic, how to be himself and how to communicate with a group of people. The biggest thing about Murphy is he’s genuine and really authentically himself.”

Wallace now works with college players as California’s hitting coach. Mee is an assistant coach at Mount St. Mary’s and Michalak is a longtime coach in the minors. All carry Murphy’s lessons into their own coaching.

Moshier has established a leadership development company and says his years with Murphy help him in the workplace as far as valuing candor and knowing when to have tough conversations.

They’re watching their former coach with pride.

“He’s the most complex, interesting, talented guy I know — super complex guy,” Moshier said. “But you’d want to go to war with him.”

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