Ron Millard

Pat Murphy says he still wasn’t a good coach even after winning at Notre Dame and going to the College World Series at Arizona State because he was still making it about him instead of the players “You know, when you get to a spot in life when you’re a little bit older, you start to make it not about you. When I dropped my ego, which took a while, I wasn’t a good coach at Notre Dame. Even though we were winning games, I still wasn’t good. I didn’t know baseball, for one, and it was about me a little bit at the end.” “I started the right way. I loved Notre Dame, and I didn’t want to embarrass the university. I was working for $7,000 a year. I just wanted to be good and not embarrass them. We had a lot of success, but then it became about me.” “And then I got to ASU, and it became about me again. We won a lot and went to the World Series a lot, but I just wasn’t good. It took getting knocked on my ass a little bit. I had that NCAA thing, which was total bull, but it woke me up. My kids made a difference in my life, and you start to realize it ain’t about you. Honestly, it’s not about me.” “And whenever I started focusing on that, we came into last year and everything wrong happens. We trade Corbin. Woody’s out for the year. Devin’s out. We cut the budget $30 million. We’re going to suck. And again, I just kept saying, ‘It’s not about me. Make it about that young energy.’ And we had these young guys go out and make me look good. Hungry players, you remember when you guys were hungry in your career? Hungry players make the manager look good.” “And that’s exactly what happened. Now I got the credit for it. I’m still under construction. I’m not great. There are so many areas I suck in. But then you’re trying to find staff members to help you, trying to realize what you suck at.” “But the most important thing is love the player. When you really find the good in that dude, that’s it. The guy that’s hardest to love needs love the most. I’m at a point in life where it’s about them. And if you keep it about them…”