'He's a special one': Milwaukee's own Craig Counsell breaks the Brewers franchise record for most wins by a manager

NEW YORK – After inching toward the franchise record for wins by a manager for a painstakingly slow couple of weeks, Craig Counsell now stands alone in Milwaukee Brewers history.

With the Brewers' 10-2 win over the New York Mets on Wednesday night at Citi Field, Counsell won his 564th game as the team’s manager, surpassing the record previously held by Phil Garner, who managed the team from 1992-99.

And, for someone who grew up, played for and now still lives in Milwaukee, he was honored by his players in the most fitting of fashion.

"We took Couns into a beer shower," Brewers shortstop Willy Adames said.

Counsell, whose .526 winning percentage is also the best mark of anyone to manage at least 300 games with the Brewers, is rarely one to talk much about himself in a media setting. Asking him questions about his successes as a player or manager is often met with a reluctant answer.

But as he sat at his desk in his office in the visitor's clubhouse in New York, Counsell, hair drenched and providing odorous evidence of the suds-soaking he had received minutes prior, offered plenty of reflections on his career.

Much of it was centered on the many people Counsell credited for helping him get to this point.

The players. Team principal owner Mark Attanasio. Former general manager Doug Melvin, who hired Counsell. President of baseball operations David Stearns. Karl Mueller, who as the director of baseball research taught Counsell following his retirement as a player about the numbers of the game and how to understand and analyze the data from a management side.

"It's the people, the people in the organization of kind of what we've put together," Counsell said. "I think when you get to the goal of sustaining a good baseball team, in our market, some people think you can't do it. And the fact that we've been able to do it, I think is a tribute to a lot of people, the players first and then a lot of people around them that have helped the players be in a position to succeed."

BOX SCORE: Brewers 10, Mets 2

The win came with little stress after a stretch of two-plus weeks where not much went right for the Brewers.

Luis Urias drove in a pair of runs with a first-inning single, then an eruption for seven runs all with two outs in the fifth staked Milwaukee out to a 10-1 lead. With Corbin Burnes, who went six innings and allowed two runs while striking out eight, on the mound, nothing more would be needed.

Counsell was three wins away from breaking the record following a doubleheader sweep of the Chicago Cubs on May 30, but the Brewers have since been mired in a slump, losing 11 of their last 13 games before exploding offensively against the Mets.

"Obviously wish we did it a little bit sooner, it was a little bit longer than we expected it to be, but that’s part of the season," Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich said. "Even during that stretch, he’s been the same guy, just positive everyday and gives us the opportunity to win."

Under Counsell, the Brewers have made the postseason as many times (four) as they had combined in 44 seasons prior to him taking over.

Milwaukee reached the playoffs for the first time with Counsell as manager in 2018, coming to within one game of the World Series after winning the National League Central. The Brewers qualified as a Wild Card team the next two seasons before winning the division again in 2022.

When Counsell was named the replacement for Ron Roenicke and managed his first game on May 4, 2015, he had no managerial or big-league coaching experience.

To the Brewers brass, that didn’t matter; he simply was the right fit for Milwaukee.

Counsell grew up at County Stadium when his father, John, worked for the Brewers from 1979-87. He graduated from Whitefish Bay High School, where he currently resides with his family, and spent six seasons as a player with the Brewers during his 16-year career in which he won two World Series.

"There's some good things about being inexperienced, because you just go forward a little bit," Counsell said. "But then I think the experience of it also makes you better because you make mistakes. That's how you get better at this. There's mistakes made. There's situations you handled better and you hope you just continue to get better at that because the game and people throw things at you."

Melvin was the general manager responsible for hiring Counsell, but Stearns, his successor, has a similar admiration for Counsell.

“Craig’s really smart, and so he’s able to combine his intellect with the experience of playing the game and being around the game his entire life,” Stearns said. “I think when you combine those two elements it’s going to lead to really strong decisions, and that’s what we’ve seen.”

The Brewers clubhouse was full of players willing to share about Counsell following Wednesday night's win. There was no shortage of thoughts offered up from a bevy of players, but perhaps the first seven words of a 90-second answer from Yelich sum up the consensus feeling aptly.

"He’s awesome," Yelich said. "They’re not all like him."

Most crucial to Counsell’s success is his ability to form relationships with his players. Ask around the Brewers clubhouse and time and time again you will hear the refrain of how well he relates and how much the players value it.

Something seemingly as simple letting his players give him a beer shower, shortstop Willy Adames said, spoke volumes.

"That was really, really dope from him," Adames said. "That tells you what kind of person and manager he is. Not a lot of managers are going to do that, just jump in the cart and get a beer shower from the players. For me, that was really, really impressive and special that he did that. I really respect that."

In his postgame comments in front of the team and Counsell, with clubhouse doors still closed, Stearns spoke about how Counsell's desire to stay in the game and manage following a lengthy playing career when he could have simply put his feet up is indicative of his passion for the future of the game and its players.

"He could be doing anything else," Burnes said. "He had a great MLB career. He could be at home sitting on his couch but he wants to be here, helping out the city and helping us get wins, so that's awesome."

Said Yelich: "He’s a special one, man, he really is. We’re fortunate to have him here for however long he wants to do this."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Craig Counsell sets the Brewers franchise record for manager wins