LOS ANGELES -- A national audience is getting to know some of Brewers manager Pat Murphy’s quirks as Milwaukee pushes deeper into the postseason, including his habit of having any unfamiliar faces introduce themselves at the start of press conferences, and the occasional presence on the dais of the two youngest of his four children, 10-year-old Austin and 6-year-old Jaxon.
Austin joined dad under the lights at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday’s workout day and listened to questions about the Brewers’ pitching plan for Thursday's Game 3 of the NLCS (Jose Quintana at some point, but perhaps not a start), the availability of Quinn Priester after an abbreviated outing in Game 1 (he’s available as soon as Game 3, Murphy said, and certainly for Game 4 on Friday) and the quiet postseason so far for Brewers star Christian Yelich (“He’ll respond, he always does.”).
Then, an Associated Press reporter asked Austin a question.
AP: Austin, everybody hears your dad talking all the time, so based on your inside knowledge of the Brewers, what do they have to do to get out of this 2-0 deficit they're facing?
Austin: Just stick with it and keep battling through it. I think they can do it. Yeah, I believe they can do it.
AP: What makes you believe?
Austin: Well, the guys responded back really good when they started the season 0-4. Those games were not good. But then they responded with the best record in baseball. So I believe they can do it.
Sitting next to him, dad beamed.
“Thank you for asking that,” he told the AP reporter.
Murphy's note from the heart
Pat Murphy figures his players have heard his voice so much by now, it was better to put his thoughts in writing as they try to make a comeback from a 2-0 deficit in the best-of-seven NLCS.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noticed a note from the 66-year-old Brewers skipper at players’ lockers at Dodger Stadium for Wednesday’s workout ahead of Game 3. It was a message of encouragement for a team facing long odds, historically speaking, and a reminder that the Brewers have been bucking expectations all year long.
“Did you read it?” Murphy asked the reporter, Curt Hogg, who had noticed the note. “Well, if you read it, it's encouraging and it's from the heart. It's like, you speak to them and sometimes your words, your voice, they've heard it so much for the last nine months.
“Sometimes it's better to not use your voice and just jot down a little something simple that they can read in 30 seconds. Yeah, it's from the heart. It's like, ‘Hey, greatness is formed from stuff like this.’ This is more of an opportunity than anybody knows. If I was to tell this group after our 0-4 start with the worst run differential in baseball history, if I was to tell them, ‘Hey, you're four games from the World Series,’ you'd take it.
“Whatever that mountain is, we'll take it. Now let's get to work. Whatever has happened in the past has happened in the past. Let's roll. This is the best group to go through it with because they've had a special fiber all year long, so I'm pretty confident.”
No respect
Murphy is a lifelong fan of boxing, so he immediately recognized former champ Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the team hotel on Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles and was dared to make an introduction.
“You always know somebody that knows somebody,” a member of Murphy’s entourage told him.
“So I go, ‘Watch this,’” Murphy said.
He indeed did know somebody who knew Mayweather, the uncle of one of Murphy’s former players at Arizona State who works in a gym that Mayweather frequents. Murphy ran the name by one of Mayweather’s handlers and the whole group lit up with recognition.
Then someone -- Murphy didn’t specify whether it was Mayweather -- noticed Murphy’s young sons with him and asked if he was in town coaching Little League baseball.
“Yeah, sort of,” Murphy joked in response.