BASEBALL'S HARD-KNOCK LIVES REDEEMED.

Milwaukee sports reporter Bob Nightengale sits down with Milwaukee Brewer manager Pat Murphy.

Pat Murphy arrives to his Milwaukee Brewers office with a large mug of coffee, notebook in his hand, and a soul to bare.

He warmly welcomes you, proudly talks about the personal photographs and pictures in his office, and if you truly want to know about the 66-year-old former boxer with three failed legal marriages, kids ranging from 39 to 6, the son of an alcoholic father who nearly spiraled down the same path, well, pull up a chair and listen.

The life stories of baseball's greats often include that hardscrabble existence.  The Scholastic Book Service Babe Ruth Story paperback opens "I was a bad kid.  I say that without pride."  Fifty years ago, the Brewers drafted Darrell Porter, who ultimately won a World Series with the Cardinals in 1982, and there are echoes of his story in Mr Murphy's recollections.

He didn’t have a single drink, or even a sip of the Korbel Brut champagne or Budweiser that were wildly sprayed in their clubhouse, avoiding all of the temptations of alcohol.

“When I used to drink," Murphy says, “I wanted to either fight or (expletive).

“Both of them lead to bad things."

Murphy doesn’t laugh. Doesn’t even smile. But facts are facts.

“Drinking is everywhere in this game," Murphy says during his wide-ranging 90-minute interview with USA TODAY Sports. “But I can’t. I watched the disease kill my dad. I watched it kill (former Oakland Athletics All-Star pitcher) Bobby Welch. It’s just too personal.

“I don’t care if people drink and laugh at me for awhile, but I can go out and hang with you and you’ll think I’m drinking."

There's much more in the article, dear reader.  I'll leave you with this.

Murphy, who grew up in Syracuse, N.Y., and fought, drank and played sports having no idea what he was going to do with his life, still has trouble believing he’s the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers.

He couldn’t even manage his personal life, so how in the world was he going to lead a major-league team?

Scroll over, read the rest, reflect on your blessings, or contemplate what there might be in baseball that often brings out the excellence in people who might otherwise be down and out.  And sometimes the perspective to recognize that when a mentor takes an offer from a competing team, it's business.