Brewers manager Pat Murphy and Rays manager Kevin Cash will lead their squads through the 2026 World Series beginning Friday, with both teams vying for the first title in their franchise’s history. But did you know these two skippers have actually faced off in the World Series once already?
OK -- we’re cheating a little bit with that phrasing. They haven’t met in the MLB World Series before, with the 2026 Brewers reaching the Fall Classic for the first time in 44 years. Murphy has worked only for the Brewers and Padres since entering the big league ranks in 2010, and San Diego hasn’t appeared in the World Series since 1998.
But Murphy was a longtime college head coach before making the jump to MLB, manning the bench for Notre Dame and Arizona State. His ‘98 Arizona State squad reached the College World Series as the No. 6 seed, where they had a first-round meeting with No. 3-seeded Florida State.
On the FSU roster was … sophomore first baseman Kevin Cash.
Though Cash was 0-for-5 on the day, his Seminoles and Murphy’s Sun Devils played an absolute thriller. Arizona State wound up victorious, 11-10, behind a go-ahead three-run seventh inning. It looked a bit like what you might expect from the Brewers or Rays in this year’s World Series: balls in play to all fields, tough at-bats and speed on the bases.
Murphy and Arizona State then went all the way to the championship game, where they lost in another barnburner to USC, 21-14. Cash, after another College World Series trip in 1999, signed with the Blue Jays as an undrafted free agent and eventually made his MLB debut in 2002.
Now, these two will again sit in opposite dugouts with a championship on the line. The circumstances are only slightly different.