Rickie Weeks ready to bring same fired-up intensity he had as a Brewers player to coaching

Rickie Weeks hit 26 leadoff home runs in his time with the Milwaukee Brewers. 

He’s already got one as a member of the coaching staff.

The man who made a living from setting the tone from the jump for Brewers offenses for more than a decade as a player started off his coaching tenure in the same fashion.

As Weeks took the podium Thursday morning at American Family Field to be introduced as the Brewers associate manager, his first words were, “I’m back.” He went on to speak of his passion for the city of Milwaukee, of leadership through love and discipline, of the type of ballplayer they want wearing the Brewers uniform.

Then he wrapped his opening statement up with some passion.

“Let’s f------ go.” 

With what might have been the first F-bomb at an introductory press conference in franchise history, Weeks left no doubt as to whether or not he would bring the same level of intensity and fire to the dugout in Milwaukee as he did to the batter’s box for 11 years. 

“I’m ready for it,” Weeks said. “The biggest thing for me is the love and discipline. That’s what I do with my kids, too. I believe in that. Good players want to be coached and that’s how you got to go about doing it. There’s no sugarcoating. There’s no fluff. There’s just genuinely being there for them and genuinely wanting to help.”

Weeks sat directly to the right of a man who brings the same attitude to the game, newly-announced Brewers manager Pat Murphy. Together they will form a duo that is high on intensity.

“Love. Discipline,” Murphy said. “Sometimes it gets close and not everybody understands it. I know my kids don't always understand it. But love and discipline is what this is about and with that, I think you can accomplish some things and it still can be fun.”

Weeks, who spent the last two seasons working in the Brewers front office on the player development side, immediately is thrust into a position as Murphy’s right-hand man on a daily basis despite having no prior coaching experience. 

The Brewers’ hope is that Weeks’ pedigree as a player will command immediate respect from the players putting on the same jersey he did, his hard-nosed approach to the game will rub off and his experience on the player-development side can be used to instruct.

More:'I believe in love and discipline': Pat Murphy looks to make his mark on the Brewers

“With Rickie, it's somebody that walks in the door with instant credibility, somebody that's one of the best players in the history of our franchise,” Brewers general manager Matt Arnold said “Somebody that, when he walks in the door, has incredible leadership skills.” 

That’s why the placard sitting on the desk in front of weeks was labeled 'Associate Manager' rather than 'Bench Coach.' Ostensibly, Weeks’ job is quite similar to a typical bench coach’s, but the difference in title is purposeful.

“We wanted to establish up front that Rickie coming here is something that's going to have a major impact,” Murphy said. “Sometimes you can dissect titles in different ways, but he's going to have a huge role in molding and shaping the mindset of this group. I think that demands a bigger leadership title.” 

Weeks spent 12 years in the Brewers organization after being initially drafted second overall in the 2003 draft, earning an all-star appearance in 2011 and hitting 148 home runs overall. He closed out his career with single seasons spent in Seattle, Arizona and Tampa Bay before returning to work for the Brewers in 2021. 

“It’s a very good homecoming for me,” Weeks said. “Kids were born, basically raised on the baseball field and now being able to be here. I’m going to get a little emotional about it. Was I (always) coming this route? Who knows? 

“But I think from my standpoint, the passion behind it, the genuine (desire) to want to help, coming back to a city where I basically grew up, it really means a lot to me.” 

Weeks joked that he knew growing up he wanted to own a team but never had managing (or associate managing, for that matter) on his mind. He and Prince Fielder used to tell Craig Counsell – whose departure to the Cubs was the whole reason for the Brewers’ new hires – that Counsell would one day be a manager, Weeks would be bench coach and Fielder would be hitting coach. 

Now, two-thirds of that has come to fruition, even if coaching was well out of Weeks’ mind at the time. 

“I think always in the back of your mind, if you play the game at the highest level, there’s always an itch,” Weeks said. “Was I thinking about it a lot? Probably not. But I think the process was always the same. I was always trying to get better at my craft, evaluating, helping out staff do what I could and then go from there.”

From here, Murphy and Weeks will spend a couple of days putting their minds together, melding philosophies as they go over the roster and how they want to conduct a big-league club. Both are largely inexperienced in their current positions, even if they have countless years of other baseball experience between them. 

Will it work? That much is unclear still. But this much isn’t – Weeks certainly knew how to command a presence on Thursday and it’s not hard seeing that translating to where it actually matters in the clubhouse. 

For someone who knows all about leading off, that sure is a good start.