Freyja_C

Pat Murphy will not shake your hand. Not at introductions, not before a World Series game, not once in ten years. The starters come down the line with a hand out and he stares straight through them and keeps walking. "I call introductions happy horse manure." So the Milwaukee Brewers quit trying and started hitting him instead. Orlando Arcia, back when he played there, got him in the chest hard enough that he nearly went over backward. Christian Yelich gets him too, except Murphy watches for that one now. Andrew Vaughn showed up not knowing any of this and went in for a real one. Got nothing. And some of them forget every single time and stick the hand out again anyway. "I think we all get a kick out of it." That is Aaron Ashby, who has not given up a run in this postseason. Here is why that line of men smacking a 68 year old on his way past is worth more than a laugh. August 1, 2020. Miller Park. The game against St. Louis had been called off over a COVID outbreak, so the Brewers just worked out instead. Afterward Murphy could not get a breath. His jaw ached. His hands went numb. The athletic trainer, Rafael Freitas, walked him over to the team doctor, Mark Niedfeldt, who happened to be at the ballpark that day and would not have been on a normal one. Niedfeldt took his blood pressure and told him to call an ambulance. By the time the paramedics got through the door he was in full cardiac arrest. They gave him morphine and asked him who his next of kin was. He was 61 years old. "I realized then I might be in some trouble." They operated. He was back with the team before that season ended. He has not had a scare since. And here is what he took out of it, which is not about baseball at all. "It's about them. That's my priority in life and this other stuff is just baseball." He was talking about his sons. Be straight about the connection, because there is less of one than you want there to be. He was already skipping the line years before 2020. He would tell you the two things have nothing to do with each other and he would probably be right. But he is two time Manager of the Year, he is in a World Series, and six years ago a doctor who was only in the building by accident is the reason he is standing on that foul line at all. A man who will not let anybody shake his hand, and a whole roster that found another way to put their hands on him on the way past