Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell, second from right, talks with Milwaukee Brewers' coaches before ... [+]
It was just another day at the office for Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell, even if that office is 90 miles away from the one he occupied for nearly nine years.
Friday marked the first meeting between Counsell and his former employer, the Milwaukee Brewers, who enjoyed an unprecedented run of success — four playoff appearances in six seasons including three division titles — under his guidance before shocking his hometown by jumping to the arch-rival Cubs when his contract expired last fall.
Those hoping for some kind of emotional, nostalgic reunion or even some sort of grudge match are out of luck. Heck, Counsell wouldn't even take the bait when a Chicago reporter asked if he looked at the Brewers as an enemy now.
"Nobody's an enemy," Counsell said Friday morning before the series opener. "This is just a baseball competition. You're just trying to beat the other guy. That's what we're here to do and we have fun doing it. The competition is fun. It's fun trying to beat the other guy. That's what we're wired to do."
Fallen Idol
Counsell's decision to bolt for the Cubs last fall goes far beyond baseball itself. Brewers fans felt a kinship with him due to his long connection to both the franchise and city itself. He grew up in the Milwaukee suburb of Whitefish Bay and spent much of his childhood roaming old Milwaukee County Stadium where his father worked in the Brewers' front office.
He'd already logged eight big league seasons won a pair of World Series rings when he returned home as part of a six-player package the Diamondbacks gave up to obtain first baseman Richie Sexson in December 2003.
After playing one season in his hometown, Counsell went back to Arizona for two years then returned to Milwaukee again, where he spent the last five years of his career and helped the team to its first playoff appearances since 1982.
Counsell retired after the 2011 season and moved into Milwaukee's front office then took over as manager in May 2005 when the team fired Ron Roenicke.
The team played up Counsell's Milwaukee ties with a now-infamous video in which Counsell proclaimed he was "born a Brewer." He knew he'd be viewed as a traitor when he took the job in Chicago but insisted that any ill feelings this weekend were nothing more than outside noise.
"Look, we're just trying to win a baseball game," Counsell said. "This is a good baseball team. I think you spend most of your time trying to figure out how to beat the team. There are people there that I have really good relationships with. You miss the people, for sure. When you see people that you've spent a lot of time with and you miss them, that's kind of what brings the emotion to it."
While there were a good number of Brewers fans on-hand Friday afternoon, Counsell won't have to wait long to see what kind of reception he gets upon returning to Milwaukee. The teams meet again at the end of the month for a four-game series at American Family Field.
"It'll be interesting," Counsell said.
High Stakes
Beyond the obvious storyline, the series is significant from a purely competitive standpoint. The Brewers arrived in Chicago leading the NL Central Division, one game ahead of the Cubs.
They left town Sunday night tied for first place after dropping the final two games of the series and while that wasn't the outcome anyone had hoped for, Murphy was able to find some positives to take away from the weekend.
“We (had) a great opportunity here to come down (and play) in this environment. Yesterday, it felt like (the atmosphere) was as playoff-like as it can and these young players have never felt that. We had six guys in the lineup with less than a year of Major League service yesterday and then we pitched a bunch of guys with less than a year of service — all but one, I think. Only four players of the 14 or 15 who played have (more than) a year of major league service. So to be in this environment, with these fans and in this ballpark, what a great experience."
That experience is likely to come in handy. There's still way too many games left to play for the Brewers to even think about the playoffs, a cursory glance at the rest of the division suggests that at the very least, they and the Cubs could find themselves locked in a battle down the stretch and it's not out of the realm of possibility that both teams could make the postseason and even face off against each other.
