Craig Counsell stands during the national anthem during the Cubs Spring Taining opener at Sloan Park in Mesa, Az. 02-23-2024
John Antonoff / For the Sun-Times
MESA, Ariz. – The Cubs’ 6-1 win against the Brewers on Wednesday marked manager Craig Counsell’s first game against Milwaukee since leaving to join their division rival this offseason. The spring training game was also Counsell’s first time managing against his longtime friend Pat Murphy.
Counsell and Murphy have known each other for well over three decades. Murphy was Counsell’s head coach at Notre Dame from 1989 to 1992.
“As a player, I took a ton from Pat,” Counsell said Wednesday morning, before heading over to American Family Fields of Phoenix. “I learned a lot. He was very hard on players, in a good way, that you expect kind of a college coach to be.
“I don’t know if I’d say he taught you to be mentally tough, but he certainly demanded that you were mentally tough. And what that does is, frankly, it gives people confidence after a while. And I think he’s really good at doing that for players.”
Counsell was drafted in 1992 by the Rockies in the 11th round of the MLB Draft and went on to put together a 16-year MLB career. Murphy took the head coaching job at Arizona State University a few years after Counsell’s senior season.
“We were great friends through his minor league and professional career, had more dinners,” Murphy told the Sun-Times. “Two dudes going to dinner – let’s think of all the topics when two dudes go to dinner. Ours was one: baseball. We’d sit there, five hours, whatever, we’d talk about baseball. It’s what it was, and we’d do it year in and year out, week in and week out.”
Eventually, Murphy left the college coaching ranks for professional baseball. In addition to minor-league coaching stints, he replaced then-Padres manager Bud Black on an interim basis midway through the 2015 season.
Counsell retired from playing and joined the Brewers front office in 2012 as a special assistant to the general manager. He was named field manager in May of 2015, when the Brewers fired Ron Roenicke.
Counsell hired Murphy as his bench coach the next season.
“No matter what was going on in my world or his world, we were just having a running baseball conversation,” Counsell said. “And you learn a lot about each other having those conversations. So, when we worked together, it felt really normal.”
After Counsell signed a record-setting five-year, $40 million contact with the Cubs this offseason, the Brewers named Murphy as his replacement.
Instead of standing together in the dugout on Wednesday, like they have for the past eight years, Counsell and Murphy stared out from opposite sides of the field.
Contributing: Steve Greenberg
Cubs 6, Brewers 1
Cubs lefty Jordan Wicks threw three shutout innings, in his second spring training start. He surrendered four hits and recorded two strikeouts. He upped his workload from the 1 ⅔ innings he pitched in the Cubs’ Cactus League opener against the White Sox last week.Reliever Brad Wieck, who underwent Tommy John surgery in July of 2022, threw a hitless inning. The lefty hasn’t played a game since 2021, when he underwent a heart procedure.Shortstop prospect Luis Vázquez led the Cubs (3-2) with two hits and two RBI. Outfield prospect Owen Caissie also recorded two hits.Cubs right-hander Keegan Thompson experienced some neck soreness, which pushed him back four or five days, manager Craig Counsell said. Thompson has yet to appear in a spring training game.On deck: Rockies at Cubs, 2:05 p.m. Wednesday, Mesa, Marquee, Dakota Hudson vs. Drew Smyly.