Bob Lutz: It’s time to give Ned Yost a pat on the back for a job well done

The Kansas City Royals have improved every year since Ned Yost took over the team as manager 35 games into the 2010 season.

That simple, irrefutable fact is sure to make the anti-Yost crowd grit their teeth to keep from saying some things that shouldn’t be said in front of children.

This is a manager who inspired a new word — “Yosted” — to describe the head-scratching that ensued after some of his strategic moves.

Yost guided the Royals to the World Series last season, according to his detractors, the way Jonas Grumby, aka “The Skipper,” guided the USS Minnow. The Royals’ ship just happened to end up in a better place.

And this season, Kansas City has been the American League’s best team and enters the postseason as the No. 1 seed with home-field advantage throughout, starting Thursday night with Game 1 of the AL Division Series against the Houston Astros.

Yet there are many KC fans who would like to throw out Yost, convinced he’s just bumbling along while his team makes him look good.

Oh, sure, some have come around to Yost and his sometimes-not-by-the-book ways. They appreciate his candor and acknowledge the way he’s gone about creating a cohesive clubhouse and a team that pulls together.

But his strategy drives them nuts.

To which I say, join the club. I call it the “The Manager Doesn’t Have a Clue” club and it has millions of members across the country.

Baseball is scrutinized like no other sport because it involves more strategy and managerial decisions than any other. Many of the decisions are easy, like bunting with the pitcher when runners are on first and second and there’s nobody out.

If you follow a baseball team closely, chances are you find yourself at odds with the manager once every game or so. OK, every inning or so.

It’s easy and fun to play along in a baseball game and we all think of ourselves as potential managers, don’t we? I know, for example, that I could have won a couple more World Series than Tony La Russa was able to win with the St. Louis Cardinals during his 16 seasons as manager.

Never mind that La Russa and the Cardinals did win two World Series during his time in St. Louis or that last year he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. There are things I would have done differently. Done better. I’m sure of it.

Except I’m delusional, a malady that runs deep among baseball fans.

There are millions of New York Yankees fans who are irate with manager Joe Girardi because the Yankees were beaten 3-0 in the American League wild-card game by Houston on Tuesday night.

Girardi, they scream, is a bum. But it’s hard to win when you don’t score.

Mike Matheny replaced La Russa with the Cardinals in 2012 and has led St. Louis to the NLCS his first three seasons. The Cards are in the playoffs again.

Yet Matheny hasn’t been embraced by many St. Louis fans. They chastised him during the Cardinals’ loss to San Francisco in the NLCS last season and are convinced he’ll blunder his way to another defeat this postseason.

The day-to-day emotions of baseball are to blame for our madness. Every game is on television. Every game is dissected in social media. Every naysayer has a voice and it’s more shrill than those in support, who are quietly satisfied with success even with some bumps in the road.

Many want to scream their disgust from the highest mountain. And that’s where managers like Yost get trapped. He has been the dugout boss during the most successful Royals run in three decades. For some, though, it’s not enough.

He’s not trusted, not appreciated, not valued. Any guy off the street could do his job, critics say.

What is a manager’s job, anyway? Strategy is but a small part, I suspect. Managing people is the biggest challenge. I wouldn’t want to try keeping 25 players – more like 40-45 with the way rosters fluctuate these days – content for six months.

Bad can go to worse in a big hurry if a manager isn’t careful. A cohesive clubhouse is at the top of every skipper’s wish list, I’m sure.

Has Yost not built trust? Has he not built cohesion?

Since the Royals started winning big, the criticism of Yost has subsided some.

Some.

But it’s still there. People still wake up in the morning hating Yost and they go to bed feeling the same way. He’s not seen as a reason for the Royals’ success, but as an impediment the players overcome.

I go back to La Russa. After the Cardinals won the World Series four years ago, thanks in large part to a miraculous Game 6 win over Texas, there were those who rejoiced that he was finally retiring.

Which proves, once again, that baseball makes us crazy.

This story was originally published October 7, 2015 at 3:48 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: It’s time to give Ned Yost a pat on the back for a job well done."