'Nobody's an enemy': Craig Counsell faces the Brewers for the first time Friday

CHICAGO -- At long last, the reunion between Craig Counsell and the Milwaukee Brewers is a tangible thing.

Roughly six months after bolting town to manage the Chicago Cubs, Counsell was calling the shots against his former team for the first time Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field.

"Look, we're just trying to win a baseball game," Counsell said beforehand. "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."

At the top of that list, of course, is Counsell's former bench coach and longtime mentor Pat Murphy, who was named as his charge's successor about a week after Counsell departed last November.

The two were as close as can be when they were on the same side.

Now, however, the relationship has changed out of necessity.

"It's funny. Pat and I don't talk that much anymore," said Counsell, the Brewers' all-time winning manager. "And it's because, as a manager, the main thing you're thinking about is, 'How do I make my group (better)?' The thing that consumes you all the time is your team and making your team better, and Pat and I just aren't going to have that conversation right now.

"So, we'll have conversation about our kids and stuff like that but the thing that's consuming us during the season is how do we make our teams better? Pat and I aren't going to have that conversation."

In a somewhat ironic twist, Murphy was in Chicago but unable to manage the Brewers as he served the second game of a two-game suspension he was levied by Major League Baseball on Wednesday. He was ejected from Monday's and Tuesday's games against the Tampa Bay Rays, prompting the discipline.

"They had a pretty strange sequence of games," Counsell said when asked about having to wait an extra game to match wits against Murphy. "Some crazy stuff happened, for sure."

Taking Murphy's place Wednesday and Friday was associate manager Rickie Weeks, a former teammate of Counsell's with the Brewers. Many have pegged Weeks as Murphy's eventual replacement whenever the job opens up again in Milwaukee.

"Absolutely. For sure," Counsell said when asked if he ever saw Weeks becoming a manager when they played together. Two of their other ex-teammates in Milwaukee, Gabe Kapler and Mark Kotsay, also have managed games in the majors with Kotsay currently calling the shots for the Oakland A's.

"I think Rickie's always had a presence to him that absolutely makes you think he's for sure qualified to do this."

Counsell's Cubs entered Friday with a 19-13 record, leaving them one game behind the first-place Brewers (19-11) in the National League's Central Division standings.

They, like the Brewers, have been hammered by injuries with starters Justin Steele, Kyle Hendricks and Jordan Wicks, relievers Julian Merryweather and Drew Smyly and outfielders Cody Bellinger and Seiya Suzuki all on the IL.

"They're playing well," Counsell said of the Brewers. "Offensively, they've done a really good job scoring runs. That's probably what you'd take notice of most. There's a lot of new faces, for sure. But they're doing a really good job scoring runs."

Counsell was asked about the teams' rivalry, which entering Friday had seen the Brewers holding a 216-214 lead in the all-time series.

"It went through a couple different almost eras, really," he said. "The Cubs were kind of the class of the National League for a couple years and you were dealing with a really good team. That changed a little bit. But it's in the division, it's a team you're competing against and it's a team you're trying to beat. That's how you think about it more than anything."

More: Despite Craig Counsell's departure to Cubs, there's no hard feelings from Brewers players

Murphy pointed to the value these types of games will have for many of the young players on the Brewers roster.

"I think it’s important. I think it’s great to go through. Big series like this, whether some of it is blown out of proportion or not, it doesn’t matter," he said. "I think it’s great for the game. It’s great for young players like we have. Think of the guys we have on the field today: (Tyler) Black, Oliver Dunn, (Jackson) Chourio could be in at some point, even (Brice) Turang and all these new players.

"What a great thing. What an awesome thing. I think this only helps. It gives you an opportunity to say, ‘Can I handle the emotion? Can I handle all that about the game? And for young people, that’s critical."

While the fans certainly are taking the games personally -- particularly on the Milwaukee side, based on all the social media vitriol that has been aimed at Counsell since he departed -- both managers are viewing this new chapter of Brewers-Cubs through a different lens.

"Nobody's an enemy," Counsell said. "This is just 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."

Added Murphy: "I think the players know what’s going on. I don’t think there’s a bitterness or animosity toward anyone. I think it’s guys want to compete in a big game. There will be a lot of people going nuts. Everybody wants to be a part of that stuff. You want to be in it and try to maintain your poise and be able to play effectively."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'Nobody's an enemy': Craig Counsell faces Brewers for the first time