Christian Yelich jokingly refers to Murphy as “Patches,” as in Patches O’Houlihan, who takes over as coach for the team. A yellow “O’Houlihan” jersey even hangs in Murphy’s office at American Family Field. “He tells you how it is,” Yelich said. “When you play for Murph, you’re never wondering how he feels about you or what he thinks -- the good and bad. He’ll tell you if you're doing something really well and he'll also tell you if you're doing something that needs to stop. That doesn't happen as much in sports now days; you kind of have to decipher things on your own. There’s none of that here. What you see is what you get.”
Murphy’s persona isn’t a character of what he thinks a big league manager should be. For better or worse, it’s just him. So far, it’s been enough to keep the Brewers in the hunt despite the adversity.