The Milwaukee Brewers have ways of
keeping players from getting too full of themselves.
Those in the Brewers organization insist there is no classified formula for their success, but the answer might be best summed up in an internal game the organization plays called the "Check Game."
"It started in the coach's room," Brewers manager Pat Murphy told ESPN recently. "To remind us, it's not about us. It's about the team. Anyone is fair game."
The rules of the Check Game are simple. If you talk about your own accolades, you get a check. If you try to defend yourself, that's a check. If you pass on blame to someone else, that might be a check as well.
"And if you bitch about a check, you get a bigger check," Murphy said with a smile.
"[General manager] Matt Arnold was a two-time defending champion. If he said something about a player like, 'We drafted him in Tampa,' that was a check."
It's not privilege shaming. It's a tradition a generational player might not buy into. It works as a team-building activity.
The point of the game exemplifies the concerted effort across the organization to align the different departments, so every voice is heard and valued -- and the game makes it clear to everyone that making the team better is more important than who gets the credit.
"The Check Game is a really important game inside the clubhouse and the culture and the ecosystem of the team," Brewers play-by-play announcer Brian Anderson said. "It's a little bit of a borderline shaming game, so if you're in it for yourself, you're going to get a check and you're going to be on that board.
"No one wants to be on that board."
The way baseball works, it might be the bottom of the order that
has to start the rally and bring the top of the order up to bat, and thinking of yourself as that Little League kid remembering to protect the plate with two strikes and make the pitcher pitch to you gets you on base more effectively than trying to be what you're not.
The Brewers can go toe-to-toe with the $300 million powerhouses at the top of the National League standings because instead of trying to compete dollar for dollar, they've created the kind of unique environment that the Check Game fosters. It's a vibe that feels more like the atmosphere in a college locker room than what you would expect in a professional clubhouse.
As you make your way through American Family Field on game day, you come to understand that notion when you hear the team's manager, known simply as Murph throughout Milwaukee, refer to his first- and second-year players as "freshmen" and "sophomores."
Murphy, 66, coached 22 years at the collegiate ranks, first at Notre Dame and then Arizona State, and old habits die hard.
"We joke around with each other and say that it's Milwaukee Community College just because that's how we play the game and that's the kind of guys we have," Christian Yelich said. "And Murph's the manager and there's a lot more talks about fundamentals and baserunning and little details of a game that you might hear in college."
Murphy waves off any talk that his team performs fundamentals better than most. He even gets text messages about his club's ability to do the little things from friends -- but he won't take the bait and risk receiving a check in the game he helped cultivate.
"I don't think we have a secret sauce, and I don't think we do things that much better than anyone else," he said. "We've got a great group that competes. We're under construction. We're not setting limits on what we can do. How do we get better today? That's the emphasis. That will always be the emphasis."
So
this season has gone. "After
making history at Yankee Stadium for a number of the wrong reasons,
the Milwaukee Brewers won their home opening series." You don't give up on the season after a week, you
steal a lot of bases on Easter Sunday, you
cash in on the George Webb promotion, and you better not let up once you're the first team into the playoffs. Maybe mentioning the playoffs too loudly gets you a check.
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