Tim_VanVooren's Blog

Opening Day 2008.  It is a big deal, unless you are the manager.  Ned Yost sees it as 1 of 162 equally big deals in a regular season.  Tom Trebelhorn and Phil Garner were Brewers managers who earned some political capital by engaging in small talk and trying to win over members of the media and then by extension, the fans.  Davey Lopes was never into that part of the job at all.  Ultimately all of those guys were done in by what happened on the field, but the length of their tenures was tied in some ways to their personal popularity, or lack thereof.  Just before doing an interview with Yost at the Winter Warmup in 2007, I asked him whether he enjoyed the promotional aspects of his job at all or if they were merely part of the deal.  He made it clear they are merely part of the deal.  No apologies, no animosity, just straight to the point.  I think you have to respect that part of  Yost.  He comes off as terse at times, and doesn't seem to care.  In that respect, he is fortunate to be managing this team now because what happens on the field is infinitely more important than it used to be for this franchise.  If he produces a winner, there will be plenty of popularity for everyone to go around.  If he doesn't, he will have done it his way.  Last season, you could tell on the night of the big 1982 reunion celebration that he was worried about what the crowd reaction to him would be (it was positive and he was demonstrably relieved), but otherwise he is a true competitior who is out for winning games and not necessarily for winning friends.  For him, every game is a big deal.