Brewers vs. Cubs NLDS matchup brings a heavy Fighting Irish flavor

A high-stakes MLB managerial rivalry will add more fuel Saturday when a couple of long-time friends, coaching cohorts, and former notable Fighting Irish baseballers open their NL Divisional Playoff Series on opposite benches for the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago Cubs. 

In a tale of two cities and coaches situated only about 90 miles apart, second-year Brewers manager Pat Murphy previously coached second-year Cubs manager Craig Counsell at Notre Dame from 1989-92 — when the former was the Irish manager and the latter was a budding star Irish infielder.  

The two men stayed in touch, but took separate career paths for about 25 years until they finally reconnected on the diamond again in 2016 when Counsell — then the second-year Brewers manager — hired Murphy as a bench coach, where the two successfully worked together for eight seasons.

Everything changed for both men in 2023 when Counsell, 55, unexpectedly left his post in Milwaukee to take the Cubs managerial job. 

Shortly after Counsell left the Brew City — much to the bitterness of the Brewers faithful — Murphy, 66, was promoted to manager, and immediately won the 2024 NL Central title with a 93-69 record to earn NL Manager of the Year honors in his first season on the job. 

A rivalry was born. 

And now, two years into their new gigs, these two friendly foes not only spent all of this season competing atop the NL Central standings, but now they’ll reunite tomorrow (2:08 p.m. EST, TBS) in a NL final-four playoff series that will carry deep Fighting Irish ties, and bring plenty of boo birds for Counsell when he returns to his old digs inside American Family Field to open this best-of-5 series. 

A tough series to predict, the Cubs went 7-6 against the Brewers this season, slightly outscoring Milwaukee 60-56.

Forever friends

A 35-year-old tale shared countless times by both parties, the roots of this relationship awkwardly sprouted in 1989 when Murphy was the Notre Dame manager, and Counsell was a spindly 18-year-old college freshman, trying to secure a starting spot on the Irish infield.

Murphy became so upset with Counsell following a string of fielding errors, the Irish skipper summoned his shortstop back to his position following practice for some “hotshot” fielding work.

One of those screaming grounders took a bad up, bounced up and broke Counsell’s nose.

Undeterred, Counsell snapped his dislocated nose back into place, stopped the bleeding, returned to his position, and said, “hit me some more.”

Remarkably, this snapshot in time impacted Murphy more than Counsell.

“I was awful on [Counsell]. I was very, very hard on him,” Murphy recalled. “I was a young coach. I was 27 years old myself. And though we won a lot of games, I wasn’t always appropriate. I wasn’t always the best leader. I needed to back off.”

Counsell steadily improved at Notre Dame under Murphy’s guidance and became the 11th-round draft pick of the Colorado Rockies in 1992. Counsell ended up playing 16 seasons in the majors and won two World Series championships (Marlins, 1997; Diamondbacks, 2001), and the 2001 NLCS MVP, before becoming the longest-tenured and winningest manager in Brewers history with 707 victories from 2015-23. 

And now, after working together on the Brewers’ bench from 2016-23, these two friends turned coaching rivals still share the deepest respect and appreciation for one another. 

“[The relationship] has changed in that we’re competitors instead of teammates,” Counsell said in August before a series against each other. “I think during competitive times, it’s different. But it stays the same when we’re off game times. We’re friends.”

And for Murphy?

“Craig and I will be close forever. I respect him. I love him. I love his family,” he said. “I know people would love to have us get in a fight and have a back-and-forth between the Cubs and us, and maybe that will happen. But we’ll still always be friends. [Counsell] has done a lot for my life, and I’m very grateful for the friendship.”