The scene was wild in last Friday’s championship parade in Milwaukee, attended by between 750,000 and one million people
What, you think Pat Casey had done enough in his storied career in the game of baseball?
How about adding a World Series championship to his resume?
The man who coached Oregon State to three College World Series titles was part of the instructional staff of the Milwaukee Brewers, who gave their city its first-ever World Series crown by beating the Tampa Bay Rays for Major League Baseball supremacy.
Casey, in his second full season working in player development under manager Pat Murphy, was in the Brewers’ dugout at times during the regular season and all through the playoffs.
During last Friday’s parade through the streets of Milwaukee, Casey rode on one of the double-decker buses that carried coaches and players past crowds estimated at between 750,000 and one million.
“There were an amazing amount of people,” Casey said Tuesday from his home in Corvallis. “Seemed like the whole state of Wisconsin was out there. Every block, the crowd got bigger and bigger.”
There were two buses — one with players, the other with coaches and administrative personnel — that covered the 2 1/2-mile parade route, ending at Henry Maier Festival Park, where a celebration rally was held. The Brewers hadn’t been to the World Series since 1982, and they had never popped the corks to toast a title afterward.
“The players went through the crowd a little bit,” Casey says. “I was glad to see the players reap (the benefits of) their hard work and enjoy it. It was a good time.”
Murphy got off a great line while being interviewed on stage during the rally.
“I had to pee as bad as anybody has had to pee,” he told the interviewer.
“Good job holding it together,” the interviewer responded.
“I didn’t say I held it together,” Murphy shot back with a grin.
The Casey contingent was considerable. Wife Susan attended Games 3 and 4 of the National League Championship Series in Los Angeles and was at Games 3 through 5 of the World Series in Tampa Bay. She flew from there to Milwaukee with Pat on the team plane and watched the parade from the streets.
Two of the Caseys’ sons, Brett and Joe, and son-in-law Alex McLean, along with grandson Carter, were in Milwaukee for the first two games of the World Series. Son Jonathan demurred, staying home in Corvallis with Tim Hennessey’s family.
“Jon said he had some Oregon State games he needed to be at,” Pat says. “But he flew out with Susan to Milwaukee for some games (during the regular season). He got to come down to the field before a game and held court with (Jacob) Misiorowski and (Jackson) Chourio and (Brice) Turang, and Murph was having a good time with it.”
Casey and Murphy, both 67, go way back. Casey coached at Oregon State from 1995-2018. Murphy coached at Arizona State from 1995-2009. Casey took six teams to the College World Series and won three of them. Murphy took four teams to Omaha but never won the big prize.
Along the way, the pair had many battles for Pac-10 supremacy, and a mutual respect developed between them. That is why Murphy asked Casey to help him evaluate talent and work with players in the farm system beginning midway through the 2024 season.
Casey had no specific duties through the playoffs, but there he was in uniform, seated behind Murphy in the dugout, quietly observing the action. Before and after games, there were conversations with Murphy and other members of the coaching staff. Presumably, Casey’s opinions were valued by those around him.
The fact that he was on baseball’s biggest stage doesn’t escape him.
“It is what it should be — baseball’s Super Bowl, the grand event,” Casey says. “It is such a long season, and when you get to the end, there are only two teams left. Everybody gets to celebrate it. Everybody gets to watch it. You have an enormous amount of coverage from the media. Instead of having two security guys, you have 10.
“Everything before the games is crazy. There are so many people, you can’t get in and out of the dugout. It’s really cool, but we are all there for one purpose — to win the World Series. To do that, you have to play the game. And once the game starts, it is just baseball.”
Casey says the major difference is that Murphy was the one at the controls, not him.
“There is that huge responsibility when you are in charge,” he says. “When I was in the (CWS), I felt like I was representing not just our program but Oregon State, the city of Corvallis and the state of Oregon. When you are not in that position — which I was not with the Brewers — you are much more relaxed to talk to a player, much more calm about situations.”
The Brewers went 11-2 in the playoffs, coming from behind in games nine times to score victories. They took three of four from San Diego in the NL Division Series and swept the Dodgers in four games in the NLCS. Milwaukee won the first three games of the World Series and was in position for a sweep, leading 3-2 before the Rays came back to win 4-3 in the 12th inning.
“Had we won Game 4, we would have been the first team since the ’76 Reds to sweep the NLCS and World Series,” Casey says. “Before the San Diego series, Murph told the guys, ‘We gotta win 11 games. I don’t care how we do it.’ It was a great way to take the pressure off the guys. It was like, ‘We have been the best team in baseball. Let’s just do what we do when we need to do it.’ ”
The Brewers faced one of Casey’s own, Tampa Bay pitcher Drew Rasmussen, twice in the World Series. The former Oregon State ace — who appears destined to be runner-up to the Yankees’ Cam Schlitter for the American League Cy Young Award — lasted only 3 2/3 innings in Milwaukee’s 5-4 win in Game 2. Rasmussen was better in Game 5, yielding only two hits and one run with no walks and four strikeouts in four innings, but the Brewers wrapped up the Series with a 4-1 victory.
“Before the Series, I told Drew, ‘I’d be pissed at you if you didn’t want to cut my throat, and I know you’d be pissed at me for the same,’ ” Casey says with a chuckle. “After the hugs and kisses, it was, ‘Let’s go compete.’ He pitched really well the second time out on short days rest, going against a team that was absolutely locked in.”
The Brewers, located in the Majors’ smallest media market and with the 20th-largest payroll among the 30 teams in 2026 at $139 million, finished the regular season with an MLB-best 103-59 record. But many pundits tagged the team with the largest payroll, the Dodgers at $415 million, as favorites to win the NLCS and World Series.
“I never thought we weren’t going to win it,” Casey says. “And once we went 4-0 against the Dodgers, I knew we were the best team in baseball. Guys were confident. They played with an amazing amount of intensity but also were controlled and relaxed. They had a lot of things going for them in addition to being very good players.
“Hats off to the front office. It is impressive the players they have accumulated through different means — trades, free agency, the draft. Our international scouts have done an incredible job.”
Houston led the majors in home runs through the regular season with 226 home runs. Milwaukee was tied for 28th among the 30 teams with 154. The Brewers, however, led MLB in hits (1,422) and on-base percentage (.341), tied for the lead in batting average (.258), were second in walks (668) and fifth in stolen bases (162) and sacrifice bunts (37). During the playoffs, they hit .280 with a .350 OBP but with only three homers. There were only 14 extra-base hits out of their 51 safeties in the 13 games.
“There was this belief that you had to hit more home runs than anybody, that you can’t win with small ball,” Casey says. “In the end, you end up with two teams (in the World Series) that value things like base-running, bunting and defense.”
Murphy inherited a strong club when he took over for Craig Counsell after a 2023 season in which Milwaukee went 92-70 but lost in the NL wild card series. The Brewers went 93-69 and lost in the wild card series in 2024 and went 97-65 and lost in the NLCS last season before climbing the mountaintop this year.
It wasn’t like Murphy turned things around for a franchise that has averaged nearly 94 wins a year over the last nine seasons, making the playoffs eight times and winning the NL Central six times. But he was just what the Brewers needed to get them over the hump.
“His instincts are tremendous,” Casey says. “He is not afraid to make tough decisions. He doesn’t hesitate. He knows the game, he studies the game, he likes the game. I respect the fact that he can take the game and the player and the situation, circle them up and say, ‘This is the best thing to do in this situation.’
“And he is a tough guy, man. He is a fighter. You feel his presence in the dugout. That has rubbed off on our players. They played with an edge. They all got better. But it is not just Murph. His coaching staff is amazing. They are great coaches and really good people.”
William Contreras won the World Series MVP Award. Milwaukee’s veteran catcher hit .381 in the Series, .373 in the playoffs, and won two-thirds of his ABS challenges, catching every inning of the postseason.
“He picked the right time to play his very best,” Casey says. “He was elite through the playoffs — offensively, defensively, and the challenges were big. They changed some at-bats. He was blocking the ball so well. He was really good for the entire stretch. He is competitive as hell. Our pitching was dominant, and he was such a part of that. He controlled the ABS system. Everything you want out of a catcher, he did for the entire playoffs.”
Cooper Pratt could have claimed the MVP Award, too. The Brewers’ rookie shortstop, who had a record six straight hits in the final two games, batted .421 in the Series and .354 in the playoffs. Pratt, Milwaukee’s sixth-round pick in the 2023 draft, didn’t make his MLB debut until mid-June.
“A 22-year-old kid thrown into the middle of the lineup at mid-season for a club that was winning — that was a tough situation to be in,” Casey says. “He handled it. Offensively, nobody was expecting him to do what he did. Coop is an amazing young man.”
Through the playoffs, Milwaukee’s pitching was lights out, with a 1.86 ERA in the postseason and a 1.98 mark in the Series. Ace Jacob Misiorowski, the presumed NL Cy Young winner, threw a record 154 pitches of 100 mph or faster in the postseason, including 38 in the Series opener. Closer Aaron Ashby set a major-league record with 18 scoreless innings in nine post-season appearances, yielding only five hits with three walks and 20 strikeouts.
“At Oregon State, my mindset was, I don’t want to talk to my starter until the eighth inning when we are ahead 2-0,” Casey says. “It is a lot different with the Brewers. We have such a blend of dominant left-handed pitching out of the bullpen. All of the starters are outstanding, but there is no need to go long innings with them. Ashby is a first-class guy, and his stuff was unhittable.”
Was there a player who became a favorite of Casey’s through the season?
“I really liked being around all the guys, but I had a special place in my heart for (center fielder) Garrett Mitchell,” Casey says. “He is type-1 diabetic, and he knew Jonathan was, too. They communicated. He told me after one game, ‘Tell Jon I hit that homer for him.’ And (right fielder) Sal Frelick’s favorite player growing up was (former Beaver outfielder) Jacoby Ellsbury. That was cool.”
The Brewers fit perfectly with both the family and blue-collar mentality that Casey embraced during his time at Oregon State.
“They really were a team,” he says. “It was so refreshing to feel the camaraderie. It reminded me a lot of my collegiate times. They bonded. They rallied together. They fought for one another. It’s a cliche, but they were really doing it.
“They faced Cy Young winner after Cy Young winner in LA. They never flinched. It was impressive. Like Murph says, give the credit where it’s due — the players. They bought into what we asked of them when we started spring training. We said, ‘We need to do it differently. We are not coming out there with Dodger or Yankee talent. We are coming with good players, but we have to do it together and take advantage of the little things that other teams won’t take advantage of.’ It was good being part of all of that.”
Pat Casey congratulates Cooper Pratt after his go-ahead solo homer in the top of the 12th inning of Game 4 to give Milwaukee a 3-2 lead. Tampa Bay back with two runs in the bottom of the 12th to win 4-3 and extend the World Series
Casey was bombarded with well-wishes from calls and texts from friends and admirers throughout Oregon during the Brewers’ playoff run.
“I am thankful for all the people who reached out, very appreciative of Beaver Nation,” he says. “I was given an amazing opportunity and love that I got to be the baseball coach at Oregon State. I am forever grateful.”
What will Casey do for an encore? If there is no lockout in 2027 — a colossal “if” — does he plan to be back with Milwaukee?
“That’s up to the Brewers,” he says. “I would assume that I will do the same thing next season. My wife would never allow me not to do something. She’ll say, ‘Hey, when are you leaving again?’
“All I know is, I will sit back and chill for awhile, kick back a little bit. It has been such a great run. The Brewers treat everybody well. It is a first-class organization.”
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