When the Brewers visit Wrigley Field on Friday for their first meeting with the Cubs this season, the focus will be on the managers: Pat Murphy of Milwaukee and his one-time protégé, Craig Counsell of Chicago.
It won't be the first time they have squared off as managers, but it will be the first time they have met since Counsell left the Brewers for the Cubs during the offseason for a record-setting five-year, $40 million contract and Murphy, his bench coach, was promoted as his replacement.
Now, the two longtime friends are opponents — not just for one game, not just for a series but for a whole season, leading teams that don't like each other in mutual quests for the same thing: the National League Central crown.
On the scale of baseball reunions, the Counsell-Murphy pairing is historically unique. Some of that is because of their backstory — Murphy coached Counsell at Notre Dame, they faced off a handful of times as skippers in 2015 when Murphy was the interim manager of the Padres and the next year, Counsell hired Murphy in Milwaukee.