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. For eight full seasons, Counsell and Murphy led the clubhouse during a time when the Brewers were one of baseball's most consistent winners.
The pair were asked about their unique relationship before their first encounter in 2015, questions that are going to be asked all over again Friday.
"I was awful to him," Murphy said then about their time at Notre Dame. "I was very, very hard on him. I thought he would never speak to me again."
"He's a friend," Counsell said. "He's been an important person for me in my baseball career. He was a person who made me mentally tough, because he challenges you a lot."
Counsell wasn't just blowing smoke. Murphy's Padres won the first game 13-5, but the Brewers ended up winning five of seven meetings over the past two months.
Nearly a decade later, Counsell is off to an excellent start with the Cubs, so far offering nothing but validation for Chicago's aggressive pursuit of him last fall. What might be a little more surprising is what's happened in Milwaukee, where the Murphy-led Brewers have kept on rolling.
But the impact of this move can be felt beyond the 2024 NL Central race: When a star manager like Counsell leaves a longtime job for new pastures, what does it mean -- for the manager, his replacement, the team he joins and the team he leaves behind?