(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Pat Murphy won't return as Manager of San Diego Padres
Nederlands
 SAN DIEGO, California (USA) -
The San Diego Padres has reported that interim-Manager Pat Murphy will not return in the same capacity next year.
The announcement was made by Executive Vice President/General Manager A.J. Peller shortly after a 6-3 loss at the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday (October 4), the last game of the regular season.
Pat Murphy was named interim-Manager on June 16, succeeding Bud Black, who was dismissed.
Before being promoted to Manager of the Major League-team, Murphy was the Manager of El Paso Chihuahuas, the Triple-A team of the Padres.
...While preparing for the semi-final of the 2013 World Baseball Classic...
...the Netherlands Baseball Team played an exhibition game against...
...a Minor League-selection of the San Diego Padres, led by Pat Murphy...
...Here, Murphy is joined by Robert Eenhoorn, Rob Cordemans and...
...Hensley Meulens, who played for him during the 2000 Olympic Games...
...During the WBC, Meulens was Manager, Eenhoorn was his Assistant...
...and Cordemans again was one of the Orange-pitchers...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In 1987, Pat Murphy was the Manager of the Netherlands National Baseball.
Back then, he led the Orange squad to the European Championship-title in Barcelona (Spain).
With this title, the Dutch Team also qualified for participation in the demonstration tournament of the Olympic Games the next year in Seoul (Korea).
Murphy was asked to lead the Dutch Team again during the Olympics, but he was unavailable.
At that time, Murphy had just finished his first season as Head Coach of the baseball-team of the University of Notre Dame and was preparing for his second.
However, in 2000, Murphy did get another chance of leading the Dutch Team during an Olympic Games.
In that year, it was possible for him to return in an Orange uniform and then guided the Dutch Team in Sydney (Australia).
During that event, the Dutch Team registered a historic victory when it handed Cuba its first Olympic loss ever, winning 4-2, thanks to a double by Hensley Meulens, who will be the Dutch Team Manager during the upcoming Premier12.
During the 1987 European Championship, the webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News was in Spain covering the event.
Back then, I had a daily interview with Murphy for a diary, which was published in Double Play Magazine.
During the tournament, Murphy showed his involvement in the team and competitiveness.
During each game, Murphy was energetic, he was standing in front of the dug-out, encouraging the players on the field.
The players loved to play for him and it showed, as the Dutch Team defeated Italy in the best-of-five for the European title, including a big 16-1 win in the final game.
After playing baseball himself at Florida Atlantic University (catcher/infield/pitcher), Pat Murphy turned professional in 1982 and played four seasons in the minor leagues for the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres.
Murphy then turned to coaching and as very successful at Notre Dame.
He led the Fighting Irish in 1988-1994, winning 318 games and led the team to the NCAA Regionals in 1992, 1993 and 1994.
Pat Murphy then was the Head Coach of the Sun Devils, the baseball-team of Arizona State University.
Again, he was very successful, as the team won the Pac-10 Conference title in 2000, 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Murphy led the team to the postseason eleven times and he became the youngest collegiate coach to reach 500 career victories.
He led ASU to 629 victories and the College World Series four times.
In February 2010, Murphy was hired as Special Assistant for Baseball Operations at the San Diego Padres.
In 2011-2012, he was the Manager of the its Single-A team.
Murphy promoted and was the Manager of the Padres' AAA-team since 2013.
In May of this year, the Milwaukee Brewers wanted Murphy to be part of the coaching-staff of Craig Counsell, who was just appointed Manager of the Major League-team, but the Padres refused.
Counsell had played for Murphy at Notre Dame.
On June 16, Murphy was named Interim-Manager of the Padres, replacing Bud Black.
The Padres finished the season with a 74-88 record, but lost 21 of their final 31 games.
During Murphy's tenure, the Padres were 42-54.
Regarding his stay with the big league Padres, whom he took in mid-season, instead of the beginning of a season, it was reported that Murphy recently had said: ,,I don't think I got a chance to be me.
I didn't get to set the tone the way that I wanted to do it.
I'm grateful for the opportunity to have experienced this, but at the same time, the competitor in me wishes that I could have had more impact at a deeper level in how we play, the mentality.''
(October 5)
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