Pat Murphy Is STILL Processing Winning the Brewers’ 1st World Series

Pat Murphy just managed the Milwaukee Brewers to the first World Series title in franchise history. Asked by Rich whether he's had a chance to soak it in yet, Murphy wasn't sure.

"I'm not sure totally," Murphy said on The Rich Eisen Show. "I feel the support from the city, from the community, from the whole state. Everybody reaching out in the baseball world. I just feel really super grateful."

His description of the job was refreshingly plain. "You just keep your head down and you do what you do. It's not that fancy. It's not that complex," he said. "But you look up and you realize how many people were impacted."

"It Isn't About Me"

Rich, after slipping in a "land of hopes and dreams" riff that Murphy happily played along with, pressed him on what it meant personally after such a long journey. Murphy wouldn't take the bait.

"I'm thankful because it isn't about me," he said. "It's about the Milwaukee Brewers. It's about those guys that participated, man, and they played as a team and they did things nobody predicted they could do. And that's fun to have a front row seat and watch that."

A Team of Destiny, Eventually

When did Murphy know he had a championship team? Not early. In a National League with the Dodgers, Padres and Cubs, "you really don't forecast any of that. You're just trying to get to the next stop. You're trying to win tonight."

The feeling arrived late. "When we got to Tampa and things were rolling, and then we win the first two games, you're like, this is a team of destiny," Murphy said. "It was a different guy every night." His approach at that point: "Just stay out of the way, bro, and let it happen."

There was no single moment in spring or summer when he knew. The Brewers never had more than a five-game winning streak or more than a four-game losing streak. They had "so many holes," Murphy said, and "the whole pitching staff was rookies," with innings limits and no idea what to expect. "They just kept showing up. And then when one guy went down, somebody else would step up that nobody's ever heard of."

Managing William Contreras

Rich asked about catcher William Contreras, and Murphy was candid. "He is a great player," Murphy said. "Not the easiest guy to cohabitate with." Contreras, he said, is "not inviting you over for a snack," and that's part of who he is.

"You have to learn to love that," Murphy said. He repeated a line he always uses, that the guys who are toughest to love are the ones who need it most. "He's one of those guys. So we found ways to love him, and he responded in a huge way."

Rich, who noted that baseball calls its leader a manager rather than a coach, asked for an example. Murphy pointed to the very public moment when Contreras didn't run out a ground ball against Philadelphia after the Brewers had clinched the division. Turner bobbled it and still had time to throw him out. The next time up, Murphy pinch hit for him.

"He wasn't happy, but the team understood," Murphy said. In the next game, Contreras hit a routine grounder to short and dove into first base. "That was our communication," Murphy said. "Me taking him out, like, 'Hey, you gave me no choice.' And the second part of it, he dove into first saying, 'OK, you want me to play like this? Fine.' We didn't have to say anything to each other."

Murphy's reaction in the dugout? "I smiled. I was just like, 'That's beautiful, William.'"

Rich pointed to Contreras winning the MVP, and to a social media post during the World Series joking that baseball should replace the ABS system with Contreras.

Swing at Strikes

Rich asked if there's an art to teaching a lineup to constantly put the ball in play. Murphy said it starts with a commitment. "This isn't just hitting. This is offense," he said. "One of the ways to beat teams is to take balls and swing at strikes. And when you swing at strikes, you've got a better chance to put it in play."

He used a golf analogy. "You go to the golf course with a lot of different clubs in your bag. You don't always have to hit the driver," Murphy said. "Sometimes you take out the sand wedge, and that's an opposite field ground ball the other way."

The Journeyman Who Will Be "a Rich, Rich Man"

The player he's proudest of? "Bauers would be the easy one," Murphy said, calling him a journeyman who came to camp the spring before last without a contract and had to make the team. "He's just kind of reidentified for himself who he is as a player," Murphy said. "Look at the year he had. He's going to be a rich, rich man."

Rich had heard Murphy say as much on a hot mic. Murphy owned it, sort of. "I regret that information getting out there, but it was in jest. It was in jest."