First Brewer hype video is out: “Don’t. Be. Shocked.”

LET’S F——– GOOOOOOOO!

You know what’s amazing? Fax machines. How the hell does that work?

You know what else is amazing? The fact that we all thought that Craig Counsell was the perfect manager for this franchise. His dad worked for the team, he was a bat boy for the ’82 team, grew up in the state, played for the Brewers (twice) and then got promoted to manager when Ron Roenicke was canned at the beginning of 2015. Perfect story, right? How could it get better than that for one of the smallest markets in the sport?

And, hey, you know what? He was pretty damn good. Yeah he puckered in big games in the playoffs, looked like a boy who lost his dog when things went wrong on the field, and said the word ‘um’ in his postgame pressers like he was playing the Super Troopers ‘meow’ game, but his teams won a lot and we were generally happy as a fan base.

But, as it turns out, the PERFECT guy to manage this franchise was standing next to Counsell the entire time. We all thought he was going to be a stopgap manager when he was hired after Counsell took his ball and went to a different school, but from the moment he delivered his first speech to the team in the spring of 2024, you could feel the vibes shift. This straight shooting, ball-busting, career baseball man with a ton of life experience was the exact fit this franchise needed all along. The players love him, the fanbase loves him, and now it feels like we don’t want the stopgap to end. Every single video I see of him talking to the team gets me fired up!

You know what it’s like? One of those movies where a male lead and a female lead realize that everything they wanted was right in front of them. Like When Harry Met Sally. Except instead of being late 80’s Meg Ryan, Pat Murphy is a 67-year old dude with pancakes and quesadillas in his pocket.

PS: The Brewers have hit the over on their wins projection EVERY season since 2016, with the exception of 2020. They fell short in that prorated pandemic season by a game. Which I don’t think we can even count. I’m not taking any season that lasted 60 games with cardboard cutout fans in the stands seriously. The over/under this year is as high as it’s been in the last decade: 84.5. Generally they’ve been between 78-82.5 the last few years, and have hit the over with room to spare. Even with all of the trades and roster turnover, I think they’re going to figure out a way to get around 90 wins like they always seem to do, but 84.5 leaves a little less room to maneuver.

Double PS: I still took it, obviously.