Pat Murphy becomes the first Brewer manager to win Manager of the Year.

^Felt like a good time to run this video back from Spring Training 2024. We blogged about it then, and we’ll use it now 9 months later as Pat Murphy becomes the first Brewer manager to win Manager of the Year.

Because I think that video was the first moment where I thought, ‘oh, okay!’ Up until that point most Brewer fans were still stunned that the guy who was ‘Born a Brewer’ turned coat and went to Chicago for more money, more payroll, and fewer wins. It made sense in the moment to go with Murphy. He had been Counsell’s bench coach, the players were familiar with him, he presented stability in an unstable time for the franchise.

But up until the above video, I sort of though, ‘okay, Murphy for a season or two, then give it to Rickie Weeks, or find your guy for the long term.’ I guess I *STUPIDLY* thought of Murphy as a stop-gap manager.

When I saw that spring training speech, though, something about his confidence, his demeanor, his tone of voice, had me starting to believe that maybe something special could happen this season.

And what a season it turned into. Yeah it ended with us getting our hearts ripped out in the playoffs again, but given the payroll, given the injuries, given trading your Cy Young caliber pitcher before the season started, winning 93 games and another NL Central division championship was not something I saw in the cards.

And given all that this team overcame to go WAY over on the over/under season win projection (75!), it would have been a CRIME if Murphy didn’t win this award. The Lufthansa Heist of the baseball award season. He got 27 of the 30 first place votes, basically a runaway winner.

Now you start to wonder if Murphy is the long term manager of this team. Got to be, right? He signed a 3-year deal before last season, but I think I’d already be thinking about an extension before the season starts, or shortly after it does. I know a lot is made of Murph’s age, but he’s 65 not 95. And this is baseball we’re talking about! Dusty Baker won a World Series at 73, Jack McKeon led the Marlins to a title at 71 and returned to coach them when he was 80! Going way back in the time machine, we had Connie Mac as a manager at 87 years old:

Casey Stengel at 77:

And Sparky Anderson at 37:

Just kidding, Spark was 46 in this photo.

You get the point, more than any other sport baseball has seen it’s fair share of ‘old’ managers.

But congrats to Murph, from my perspective he was a joy to cover. Always honest in his postgame, personable, a dry/biting sense of humor you would expect from a lifelong baseball man.

PS: T-RATS FROM THE TOP ROPE!

Double PS: Imagine trying to explain to Casey Stengel or Connie Mac winning percentages, analytics, sabermetrics, OPS, etc. They might slap the taste out of your mouth.