Just as their dad did, Brady and Jack Counsell are starring on same high school diamond
Craig Counsell had a 16-year career as a major-league baseball player, recording more than 1,200 hits. He won two World Series and scored the winning run in Game 7 in 1997. He finished his career with his hometown Milwaukee Brewers, reaching the postseason twice. Since then, he has managed the team to within one game of a World Series appearance.
The best moment baseball has ever provided him, though?
That came tucked away on a back field behind John Long Middle School in Grafton, Wisconsin last Monday.
On that afternoon, Counsell, big-league uniform left hanging in the clubhouse 25 miles south at American Family Field, looked on with his wife Michelle as their two sons, Brady and Jack, hit atop the lineup and formed the double play combination for the varsity team at his alma mater, Whitefish Bay (Wisconsin) High School.
It was the first time the Brewers manager, who almost always is on the road or has a game that conflicts with his sons' high school games, got to watch a full game in person with both his boys in the varsity lineup.
“Watching them play second base and shortstop and hit first and second on the same team, it’s better than anything that’s ever happened here at work,” Counsell said. “It’s a thrill. I can’t describe how big of a thrill that is.”
That Brady, a senior, and Jack, a sophomore, are excelling for one of the area’s top teams — the Blue Dukes won 11 straight games to open the season before a loss Saturday — comes as little surprise. They grew up around the game, running around clubhouses during the latter stages of their dad’s playing career and then following him around after he became manager of the Brewers in 2015.
“It’s always been my favorite sport,” Brady said. “My dad is obviously happy with whatever I choose to do, so I think baseball just came naturally with my dad and being around it all the time.”
Both are slick-fielding infielders with a sound, patient approach at the plate – albeit with noticeably more traditional batting stances than their father's — but it’s their natural baseball acumen that sets them apart.
“(Brady and Jack) remind me so much of each other from when they were both sophomores from just knowing the game and understanding all the little things,” Whitefish Bay head coach Jay Wojcinski said. “They obviously learned from one of the best and learned how to do it the right away. I think Craig has a lot to do with that.”
Both have an OPS of over 1.100 at the season’s halfway point, setting the table for an offense that has scored in double digits in all but three of the first 12 games.
Brady, a Minnesota recruit, sports an OPS over 1.300 and has driven in 18 runs in 13 games. His development at the plate is a significant reason he has turned himself into a Division I recruit. A smaller, wiry player as a starter on varsity while an underclassmen, he has grown to 6-foot-2 and added weight, helping him lace the ball to all fields with authority this spring.
“Physically, he’s come a long way quickly,” Craig said. “He’s kind of a late bloomer in terms of his physical maturity, that’s first. Second, he’s just driving the baseball, really driving the baseball. He’s hitting it far and hitting it hard.”
Said Brady: “I’d say my strengths are high baseball IQ, for sure. I think I’m good on defense, my hands work well and then offensively I’ve developed a lot more. The power is starting to come, the strength and trying to stay middle and hit line drives.”
Even without a high school season in 2020, Brady was able to fly onto the radar of college coaches with an impressive showing with his select team, Hitters Baseball, which has also produced the likes of Jarred Kelenic, Gavin Lux, AJ Vukovich and Alex Binelas. He committed to Minnesota last August and has since also signed to play for the Willmar Stingers of the collegiate wood-bat Northwoods League this summer.
“When he was a freshman you could see all the tools were there,” Wojcinksi said. “But he was 5-foot-5, 5-foot-6. He’s grown seven or eight inches since then. You knew everything was already there except for the size, so once he got that, there was nothing on the baseball field that he can’t do.”
As a sophomore, Jack is still in the early stages of development. But having an advanced approach at the plate and excelling as the leadoff hitter on one of the state’s top teams isn’t a bad start.
Plus, the younger brother has adopted his older brother’s work ethic.
“They’ve got to want to do this,” Craig said. “And they do. That’s the biggest thing through any of this is you’re watching your kids try to find their passion. If they find something they’re passionate about, then the work and stuff that comes after that. They’ve found something they’re passionate about and, to them, it’s not work at that point any more.”
The Counsell boys take it as both a thrill and challenge to play on the field where their dad’s retired number, 19, is displayed on the outfield fence.
“There’s kind of a name to live up to, especially playing in Whitefish Bay, especially on this team,” Brady said. “It makes me want to work harder and show that I’m here to stay and that I’m a great player.”
While there is an unavoidable association that comes along playing baseball with the last name Counsell in Milwaukee — of which Brady says “you just have to ignore it almost sometimes” — Craig makes an effort to avoid any comparisons.
“He’s his own guy for sure,” Craig said of Brady. “He’s done this through a bunch of hard work just like all the kids that get to this place. He’s his own player. I don’t do (comparison) at all. I think that’s a bad thing to do and a mistake. He’s gotta carve his own path.”
Brady and Jack have learned countless lessons about baseball from being around their dad and in big league clubhouses, but one stands out as most crucial.
“I’d say definitely the mental side is one of the more important things in baseball,” Brady said. “You can have a bad day but once you get off the diamond, flush it. That’s the biggest thing he’s taught me.”
At home in Whitefish Bay, baseball is a talking point but typically not for long. A lot of the discussion centers on the Blue Dukes games or the big storylines in MLB, from Shohei Ohtani’s two-way brilliance or another dazzling outing by Freddy Peralta.
“Usually no more than 10 minutes,” Brady said. “Especially if they lose, then you don’t talk about it at all.”
Seeing their dad’s ability to go home and not linger on whatever happened in the game that day has had a profound impact on Brady’s and Jack’s ability to go about their games like seasoned veterans. It’s just one of many valuable lessons they have picked up from being in a baseball family.
By simply playing side-by-side, the boys have returned the favor, and then some.