Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (7) is awarded the Silver Slugger award before the home opener against the Minnesota Twins on Monday, March 30, 2026, in Kansas City.
The visiting manager’s office inside Kauffman Stadium has a small desk, a private bathroom and some seriously cool artwork on the walls.
That includes framed poster-size images of baseball cards. All are former managers, including Orioles legends Frank Robinson and Earl Weaver, the Twins’ Tom Kelly, Joe Torre when he was with the Braves, and Toronto’s Cito Gaston.
Two regular-sized baseball cards sat on that desk Friday afternoon. Both featured Royals star Bobby Witt Jr.
It seems Brewers manager Pat Murphy’s youngest sons, Jaxon and Austin, are big fans of Witt.
“My kids love him,” Murphy said. “My 7-year old, the only thing he wants is there’s an $800 picture of Bobby Witt in one of these card stores. A signed picture. (I say,) ‘Jaxon, I can get you something signed by Bobby Witt.’ No, I want that one.’”
Jaxon may have to be content with a signed baseball card. Or possibly an autographed bat.
Murphy is an admirer of Witt, too.
“Their shortstop, for me, is the best example in baseball of a winning player,” Murphy said. “He’s some kind of special and it’s partial, because I’m close with his dad and I knew the kid when he was 9 years old.
“But to see the way he represents our game, that’s the guy you want to promote your game. He just does it right.”
Witt’s father played for the Diamondbacks in 2001 when Arizona’s pitching coach was Bob Welch, a close friend of Murphy. That’s how Murphy got to know Witt Jr.
Murphy said Witt was a tremendous athlete as a kid, in both baseball and football.
The Brewers play the Royals in a three-game series this weekend, but after leaving Kansas City, Milwaukee will long be talking about Witt.
Well, Witt the turtle.
You may remember Murphy from last year, when he produced a pancake from his pocket during an interview with Apple TV broadcaster Tricia Whitaker.
Murphy on Friday pulled out a turtle while talking with Whitaker.
“I’ve got a special guest that I wanted you to meet,” Murphy said. “This is Bobby Jr., in honor of my friend Bobby Witt and his son, Bobby Jr. I didn’t want to pull out pancakes so here we are. Now we’ve got pocket turtles.”
Whitaker wrote on X that Murphy paid a Royals clubhouse attendant $500 to get the turtle. It was a, uh, gift for Whitaker, but she can’t take it on a plane, so Bobby Jr. will remain with the Brewers players.
“After the canceled game, the players were with it in the clubhouse, feeding it all sorts of vegetables,” she wrote.
“The turtle is living the highlife.”
This story was originally published April 4, 2026 at 1:45 PM.
The Kansas City Star
From covering the World Series to the World Cup, Pete Grathoff has done a little bit of everything since joining The Kansas City Star in 1997.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com ’
