MLB WORLD SERIES: RAYS VS BREWERS

October 27, 2026

Pat Murphy

Tropicana Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Pregame 4 Press Conference

Q. Your son Kai took a break from his job in Mexican winter baseball to be here with you at the World Series. Will you go see him if his team wins at the Caribbean Series?

PAT MURPHY: No question about it. I'm going to go to some games anyways. I think it's a privilege to play in the Mexican Pacific League. It's a privilege to play winter ball. But he wanted to be here for this World Series, I wanted him here. So the GM and the manager said it was okay for him to leave.

He misses it, but he's getting his workouts every day. Yeah, it's great. It's a great thrill to have your family here.

Q. Go there in February with him?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, absolutely.

Q. We've talked to you about the fans here and everything, but also for the staff and the front office and the scouting, feels like every arm of this machine is here right now. What does that mean for you to have the opportunity to win the World Series with everybody that impacts this team around?

PAT MURPHY: I think it's just about the Brewers, it's about the city of Milwaukee, it's about the state of Wisconsin all coming together. We all play a role. It's wonderful to all be together. Hopefully we continue to play well enough to win.

Q. Last night with Jackson's four hits plus his stolen base, the only other guy to do that before turning 23 in a World Series game was Ty Cobb. How does it make you feel like a manager?

PAT MURPHY: My dad was named after Ty Cobb.

Q. That's awesome. How does it make you feel as a manager to hear about your players doing stuff and then hear the only other one to do that was and then you in fill in the blank with some all-time great?

PAT MURPHY: I don't take that all in. I don't realize sometimes. But I know Jack Jack, and I love the guy. It's a privilege to be a little part of his career. It's just a privilege. I'll be able to say someday when I'm very, very old that, hey, you know what, I know Jack Jack. That's a great thing to see these players come and mature and become believers in themselves and then make other people realize they're one of the best in the game.

It's a great thrill. It really is. I don't think about the thing you guys talk about like what happened last night, it's a record, it's this, it's the only other player to ever do this. I look at Jack Jack had four good at-bats and was really ticked off in his fifth at-bat that he got called for the checked swing. I didn't see if it was or wasn't.

The bottom line is that mentality to have that fifth at-bat, even though we were winning by ten runs, to mean just as much as the other at-bats, that tells you something.

Q. You just mentioned the state of Wisconsin, and you do often, and you don't always hear that from a manager of a team in your position where everything is often so focused on your city. When did you first think about this as a statewide team? Can you tell that story?

PAT MURPHY: I can. Last off-season, I went on like a five city -- Sophia was part of it. Where's my other guy? Is he in here? Who's the other guy? Lance. Where's he at? Lance is playing hooky.

Anyways, they did it with me. We did this tour of like stopping at different cities, staying over in Eau Claire, Lacrosse, the Dells, Green Bay, Wausau, and we spoke at these theaters and met the fans and spoke. I sat up there and did whatever, whatever this is called.

You just realize like, oh, my God, 1,200 people show up to -- I'm like, hey, is there a movie playing later? What do you guys show up for?

But they love the Brewers. We had a riot with it. It was really, really fun. I Face-Timed Sal almost every time, and I'd catch him off guard. He'd be somewhere, coming out of the shower or something, and it would be great. He'd have a towel around him. Where are you at? Hey, a couple people want to say hi to you, and I'd turn it around.

You realize in the state of Wisconsin a lot of Brewers fans don't get to come to the games all the time. To me, that's incredible.

Q. You mentioned that you are always under construction. I'm curious, was there ever a point in your career --

PAT MURPHY: You're noticing that? You picked that up, like, hey, this guy is under construction?

Q. I'm curious, was there ever a point in your career where you felt like you did have it all figured out?

PAT MURPHY: Not even close, man. Not even close. That's just not -- I think we all can say that, right? Like we're all just under construction. We're all trying to get better. We're all trying to figure things out, how we can be more effective, how we can be better at -- better dad, better brother, better son. We're all trying to figure that out.

No, when it comes to my professional career, the coaching thing, man, that's real. There's a lot there. I love the profession now. But nobody trains you to be it. No one trains you to be a coach. You're just bestowed, you're a coach, because you played a little bit or whatever. You get interviewed, and now you have a job.

But what's your real job? What's behind it? And that goes on forever trying to become somewhat efficient at it. To be honest, you correct yourself all the time or you think of situations you could have been better at or you could have -- it's constant. It's all-encompassing. It's not just managing the game. It's not. There's so much more to it.

It comes down to people, I think.

Q. You demand a lot of the players on a day-to-day basis. How do you think they've been able to sustain what the postseason requires of them, like for this type of stretch, and has any of this surprised you of what they've done?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, yeah. Just how consistently relentless they've been. That has not surprised me, but I'm just like wow. I'm amazed by them. That part's been great.

This game deals you a lot of different cards, and you've got to respond. The team that plays the best doesn't necessarily win. We've got a lot to accomplish still.

Q. What do you love about coaching and managing? You've made it your life's work for decades now. What do you love about it?

PAT MURPHY: It's a life work that allows to you have close interaction with other people that you may be able to have an impact on, or better yet, they have an impact on you. It's a great opportunity for you to grow, and it's a great opportunity to maybe help somebody else. You never really know, right?

Well, I coached this guy, so that means I helped him? Or he just was a really good player and I just happened to be there? How do we know? There's no measurable, you know? Is your record your measurable? I don't think so. What is your measurable?

The thing that I love about it is you get up every day with the opportunity to impact, the opportunity to learn from somebody, to have somebody impact you. We're in a great environment. You talk about athletics, team sports. There's nothing better, man, than rowing the boat with other people in it, man. These individual sports, I respect the heck out of them, but you notice they have teams of people around them, and most greats give the credit to the teams around them.

I just think what can be accomplished in our little sport -- I'm not saying sport is the most important thing in life. I think about people that do real jobs that are making a difference in the world. But I'm blessed enough to do this job in sports and be able to live this life having the opportunity to meet so many incredible people.

Yeah, it's a privilege. It really is a privilege to do a job. And I look at it as a responsibility, but a life work. It's just what I do. I've never known anything different. I tell people I've never had a real job. I bet I have had a couple real jobs, but when you're young, when you're in high school or college or whatever. Really after that, I never really had a real job.

I'm just thankful that I found something that is so great. It's great.

Q. During this postseason run, has there been one person that's reached out to you that surprised you the most, outside Springsteen? But is there a childhood friend, teacher, anybody that's stuck out?

PAT MURPHY: To mention anybody's name would be unfair to so many. I've had so many people reach out in the last three years, to be honest with you. In particular, it's been so incredible to have the opportunity to -- sitting with Jeter, a guy I recruited and hadn't talked to him since, I think, 1991 or something like that. To sit with him and really get to know him. You know, stuff like that. It's just, yeah, incredible.

Q. Murph, what do you like about Dustin May being in this position and taking the mound for you tonight?

PAT MURPHY: Dustin has thrown the ball well. He's more of a veteran than the rest of our rookies, but that doesn't assure you anything. I think he's throwing the ball well. I think he'll rise to the occasion.

Q. Mark Attanasio said the other day that you guys have had a conversation that someday you'd all look back on this as the good old days. I wonder what's your level of awareness that moments like this resonate through the years with so many people, both people involved and just people who are fans just rooting for this team and the memories that brings?

PAT MURPHY: Ask me that question again, Jason, because I got lost in the thought of it all.

Q. Mark said that you guys have had a conversation that someday you'd look back on this as the good old days.

PAT MURPHY: It will all seem funny. That's Springsteen.

Q. But it will seem like more, because I don't know how -- what your level of awareness is of the way moments like this resonate with people through the years. Not just the people who are participating, but the people who are watching, rooting, and you're making memories for them.

PAT MURPHY: I believe that's part of our job, that's part of our service. This is a job of service. Part of impacting others. It doesn't mean we have the biggest impact in their life or it's all that serious, but it's a joyful memory or a sad memory for many, many people.

That's part of our responsibility not to force and try to create that. Just do your job the right way and you will have that impact.

Not me personally, but what's going on with the group, that makes you smile inside knowing that so many people care and they hang on this. That's the whole thing about the state of Wisconsin and the city of Milwaukee. It's like these people really identify. It's something. They're hard-working people, a lot of them, and this is what they do in life. They do their job, and then they follow their sports teams.

To have the Brewers come through -- it's a seven-month process. If you count Spring Training, it's more than that. The amount of time and effort and money and everything they put into it as a family rooting for the Brewers. Like my grandfather did or great-grandfather, all that kind of stuff, it resonates with you. You realize, wow. You think of Uecker being part of the tape in their head when it comes to baseball. We all have that memory.

So to be part of that, yeah, it kind of feels good. Also you got to stay in the now. You got to let that stuff happen. All those things, those outside things, you've got to let them happen. Someday we'll look back on it, and we'll be like, wow, it's pretty neat.

Or maybe better, my children will look back on it and be like, hey, dad was kind of cool. That was kind of cool. How come I never knew that? That kind of thing.

So, yeah, I feel that a little bit, but I don't let it affect today. I'm just trying to be in the now today.

Q. Yesterday somebody asked you about coaching football, and you said it would be great. If you go back, how much did you draw from --

PAT MURPHY: Do we play today? Do we have a game today? We're talking about the craziest shit in here.

Q. I think you lead that.

PAT MURPHY: Oh, touché. I like that.

Q. From the time you got to visit and spend around Lou Holtz or Barry at Notre Dame, how much does that draw into what you do in baseball?

PAT MURPHY: They were great teachers for me. Being a guy that loved football, loved Notre Dame football, Lou treated me like a son. He let me sit in on his meetings. I came to every practice when people couldn't. He talked to me, let me in on -- I watched, I read, I watched what he did and how he did it, methodical. I watched him treat people. I watched him handle staff.

Barry, the same way. Barry would come up in my office -- we laughed about it the other day. He'd come up in my office, it could have been close to midnight, and he'd stick his shoes up on my desk and rant and rave about this week's game plan versus whoever. It was wonderful to get his insight.

Very different than Lou. Lou was more a father-type figure to me back then and just really teaching me more by example. Barry would sit with me as a peer.

I just heard from Lou's son Skip yesterday, and we talked about a few times we'd have -- he'd bring a six-pack of Diet Coke up to my office, and we'd sit there drinking caffeinated drinks until 1:00 in the morning. Yeah, it was just unbelievable.

The whole football coaching thing is a real thing. It's a real thing. Having to coach that sport really has an impact on a lot of other of your coaching ways. It really does. I haven't dissected it, but you guys bring it up enough that I probably should.

Q. Six years ago you suffered a heart attack. Now you're one game away from the title. Did you acquire a new perspective from that moment? If not, what's changed about you from that?

PAT MURPHY: The heart attack? I swore I wasn't having a heart attack. The ambulance driver, wherever he is, the ambulance driver out there that was in the back of the ambulance that day, I apologize.

(Laughter).

It's the first time I've apologized on the record because he was telling me --

Q. That's true.

PAT MURPHY: Ever? For anything? For that incident.

No. This ambulance driver was like, sir, can I have your next of kin?

I'm like, bro, next of kin? I'm not going anywhere. You don't need to know my next of kin. Okay?

Would you like to donate your organs?

I'm like are you shitting me? Did you just ask me that?

So I don't know about you -- I showed him pictures of my kids. I don't know about you, but I ain't going anywhere. Just chill down on that thing.

He was like dead serious. He was like super ripping my shirt off. They're sticking stuff on me. I was making them laugh.

Our trainer was there, Scott Barringer at the time, and he was white as a ghost. He didn't know what to think. I'm just joking with the guy like what are we doing here?

Then I got in the room, and all these people are lined up with these white coats on and gloves. And I'm like -- I said, you people are way too serious right now. Whatever you got going on, let's chill out a little bit. This is going to be fine. I'm doing good.

That's the last I remember. I think they shot something in my IV, and that was it.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if it changed me at all. It always does when you think about the seriousness of when you're raising kids, you know what I mean? I got two young ones so I can't go anywhere yet. When those two young ones are at a little better stage, I can shut the curtain.

The perspective is always there. Remember, man you were dust and to dust you shall return. All us Catholics we've heard that. I actually might get that as a tattoo. What do you think?

I was thinking about getting a tattoo for the season, and that could be a good one. 2026, remember, man, you're dust and to dust you shall return.