The Rusty George Podcast

Narrator: Welcome to Leading Simple with Rusty George. Our goal is to make following Jesus and leading others a bit more simple. Here's your host, Rusty George.

Rusty George: Welcome to Leading Simple. My name's Rusty George. Can I just say this? Let's go Royals? Oh my goodness. I cannot believe we get to have this conversation today. You know, when you watch sports, you find yourself arguing with the manager. You find yourself arguing with the coach. Why'd you do that? Why did this happen? All of that? Well, a few months ago, a friend of mine who's been on the podcast before, a great guy by the name of Mike Lynch. He just so happened to have on his show, a baseball coach named Ned Yost, who was the manager of the Kansas City Royals in 2014 and 15, when they went to the world series winning in 2015.

And I said, "Any chance you can make an introduction"? He said, absolutely. Ned is a great, great guy and a great Christian and his story of how he came to Christ and what Christ has done in his life and how he leveraged his relationship with Jesus in a leadership role is going to be inspiring to you. And I had a chance to ask him some of my questions about why'd you do this and what were you thinking here? And tell me about leading in a baseball dugout. I think you're gonna love this. I think you're gonna really enjoy, even if you don't care about baseball, I think you're gonna enjoy what Ned has to say.

Uh, this month we are sponsored by Growmentum. Couple of guys that are not Royal's fans, but they love baseball. Lee Coate and Kye Chung had lead a great organization called Growmentum, and you can find them at growmentumgroup.com. I'm telling you, this is an organization that helps your church. Not just work in it, but on it. And they help make it better. They help you define goals. They help you, uh, get those goals and they help you bring others along with you.

So, make sure that you check them out, go to growmentumgroup.com for more. All right, here we go. Batter up. Ned Yost.

Well Coach Yost, it's an honor to have you with us. You spent over 40 years in the major leagues as a player, a coach, and a world series winning manager with my beloved Kansas City Royals. You had a great gig working for Atlanta and I, what I, I want to know is I'm sure every manager wants to have their own club, but you were working at a, at a winner in Atlanta. And you had a friend named Dale Earnhardt that told you don't leave a winner for a loser, but that's exactly what you did. How'd you know, that that job was right for you?

Ned Yost: Well, that, that, that was a tough one there Rusty, you know, he, uh, we spent a lot of time together in the winter and we were, you know, he was racing when I was playing baseball.

And, uh, so, you know, I would talk to him a lot, but the time that we got to spent together, uh, was during the winter and, and it all evolved the outdoors. And we were hunting together in Texas and he, his contract was up and we were sitting on the back of a truck driving around, watching for deer. And he was telling me about, you know, he's trying to negotiate a new contract at that time.

He had his own race team. DEI had been in, in, uh, you know, been open for two or three or maybe even four years at that time. And. Uh, he was having trouble, you know, negotiating a contract. And I said, well, why don't you just go race for yourself? I mean, you got your team sitting right there. Why don't you go, go race for yourself?

And he goes, now we're not ready to win right now. And he looked at me, he goes, you know, you never leave a winner to go to a loser. You never do it. And I'm sitting there thinking to myself, well, if I'm ever gonna get an opportunity to manage in the big leagues, that's exactly what I'm gonna have to do.

And I told him, I said, well, you know, Dale, um, there's probably gonna come a time when I'm gonna have to leave the Atlanta Braves and go to a loser. And he goes, oh no, you're not, you're not, that's not gonna happen. He said, you stay right there. You never listen to me. Now he grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me over and goes, listen to me.

You never leave a loser, never leave a winner to go to a loser. Never do it. You don't ever do it. You stay with the Braves until Bobby's ready to retire. Uh, that being Bobby Cox, and then you take, you take over for him. And I said, Dale, that may be 10, 12 years. I don't, I can't, I can't wait that long, but I always knew that I felt like I had the ability if given the opportunity to take a loser and build it back into a winner.

And I tried to explain that to Dale. He didn't want to hear none of that. So, you know, when I went to Milwaukee, it was a very strange, it was a very strange situation. We had been, you know, with the brace for 12 straight years had won 12 straight division championships and been to the world series five times.

And we just came off a tough, uh, you know, uh, playoff loss. Uh, and Doug Melvin called and said, would you like to interview for the, the manager's job? And you know, that was intriguing to me because I had played in Milwaukee as a player. That's where I started my first four and a half years was in Milwaukee and went to the world series.

With the brewers in 1982. So, you know, that was an appealing, uh, you know, offer to me, the problem was that the team had lost 106 games, you know, that year. So, you know, I went and interviewed for the job, you know, ended up getting the job and I'll never forget, you know, before, uh, during my press conference, after the press conference, we went for a photo shoot and that was the first time I put the Brewer's uniform on and Dale had passed away, um, at that point and he was gone and I looked at that uniform and I looked at it in the mirror and I'm like, oh man, what am I getting into here? you know, and, and it just kept, you know, reverberating in my mind, you never leave a winner to go to a loser. Now I had a picture of Dale that I put up in my office and it was one of those pictures that no matter where you were, he was looking at you and you know, so I would walk in after a tough game and I would sit, you know, Down at my office, in my office chair, and I'd look up and he'd be staring at me.

Right? And I'd be just yelling at the picture. What are you looking at? I, what you said, what are you looking? But you know, it, I always felt that I had, if given the opportunity, the ability to take a loser and build it into a winner and you know, that was what was always, I could kind of fall back on. I always had the confidence that we could get that done.

And, um, you know, we were, we were almost there in, in Milwaukee and made it in Kansas city.

Rusty George: Well, I wanna ask you about that because I think that's a, that's a unique gift. Some guys can manage talent, but others can kind of build something out of, uh, raw talent. What do you think it takes to turn a loser into a winner? What were the things in your mind? You thought as I take this job, this is what has to be done.

Ned Yost: Well, patience is number one. Okay. I mean, and, and everybody buying in, uh, to what we're trying to do. And I always try to explain, you know, we've got small picture, which is winning today, and we got big picture, which is winning a championship tomorrow.

And my focus was this, my, my philosophy was this, that you're either competing for a championship or you're developing players to compete for a championship. So, you know, I think that when you break it down, you're never gonna win without talent. You have to have talent. And, and without, without that, you'll never win.

You're just kind of spinning your wheels. So what had happened, it happened the same way in Kansas city was Milwaukee had lost, um, for so many years that they always got great draft picks and, uh, you know, their number one picks are always picking in the top five in the nation. So they were getting quality.

College players, quality, young high school players and their talent level just increased dramatically over like a four, five year period. And it all kind of was starting to happen when I got there. Mm. And we had a, a group of kids that were all kind of coming together, uh, in a ball. And all of a sudden, you know, they won an, a ball.

They went to AA, they won a double a, they went to triple a and then they won in triple a. So, you know, by the time they graduated to the big leagues, um, that they were gonna be successful. Now, patience is the key. Uh, in all of this, you can't rush it. It's been my experience working, you know, with Bobby and, and Bobby always said that it takes a young, a group of young players, about two and a half years.

From the time they get to the big leagues two and a half years to figure it all out, uh, to gain the experience and to, uh, you know, get to the point where they can start to Excel. As a group. So, you know, I knew that once we got there that it was probably gonna take two and a half years of struggles for the them and they all struggle.

Mm-hmm, all those kids struggle for the first year, you know, again in the second year, but you know, at about that two and a half year mark boom, they took off and, and they were competing now for a championship and same thing happened. Same thing happened in Kansas city. We had a great group of young prospects.

They all came together at the two and a half year point, you know, I'm thinking, okay, we're gonna take off. And the two and a half year point was, uh, you know, the midway point, uh, and the all star break in, uh, 2013. And we were three games under 500 going into the last three games before the all star break.

And I'm thinking to myself, okay, here we go. We're gonna go in. We're gonna play the Yankees in Yankee stadium. We're gonna sweep them. We're gonna be 500 going into the break, and then we're gonna take off. Well, we went into Yankee stadium and we got swept . So we left out of there six games, uh, six games under 500, I'm thinking, well, maybe it'll take this group a little bit longer, but we came out of the all star break that year and we had the best record through 14, 13, the rest of 13 and 14.

We had the be we had the best record in anybody in baseball. So, uh, you know, it, it just took off and, and here we go.

Rusty George: I remember it well, okay. So as you, you talk about patience, which obviously is so huge, but communication is such a huge part of it as well. And I, you know, I watch managers just in the dugout talking to their players and communicating with them, but you've got, you have a wide range of ages. You've got egos that are being managed. You have contracts and ex- contract extensions players are trying to get emotions, ethnic backgrounds, language barriers, generational gaps. H, how do you, as a manager, uh, communicate across all of that, obviously you have to take different tactics, but were there some tactics that worked with some players and not others?

Ned Yost: Well, well, it was, uh, you know, it was a different, a bit of a learning experience for me because when I came up in the big leagues, back in the eighties, the managers didn't really communicate a whole lot. You know, the, most of the communication and most of the development was done by your teammates. The older guys, the veteran guys would help the younger guys.

And as the younger guy, uh, you know, if you said something, it was like, Hey, shut up, Rick, we'll let you know if we want you to say something, you know, and that was, that was kind of the mentality. And if you messed up, the manager would scream and yell at you and you just kind of, you know, took it like a man and, and tried not to get screamed at again.

And, uh, you know, I found out later. During my manager managerial career, that the it's a different generation that these kids have grown up differently than I grew up. You know, I'd get up in the morning and eat breakfast and I'd go find my friends and we would play baseball and we would run around till dark.

And then we would come home. These kids, you know, grew up in an age with video games, with cell phones and, you know, a totally different, uh, a totally different generation, uh, of, of, of kids. So, you know, I think you, the ways that you communicated was still in firm manner, but never yelling and screaming. Mm.

And what I found and I, which is amazing. I think most people don't really understand this, but what I found that, um, you'll have a group of guys and yes, they have egos and yes, they're making millions and millions of dollars and yes, they're a diverse group, but they all seek structure. Discipline and organization, huh?

That's what they want. That's what they crave. And if you, if you provide that form, they fall right in behind you and follow you wherever you want. 'em to go. Now for me, I, I think my structure was that, you know, being the manager, I wanted my coaches. So you have a infield coach, outfield coach batting coach pitching coach, you know, first base coach, third base coach.

You had all these different, different coaches, but I wanted my coaches to have a relationship with their players. I wanted my outfield coach to have a, a relationship with his outfielders. I wanted my infield coach to have a relationship with his infielders. So I never, ever corrected a player about his play, unless it was a lack of hustle issue, then I would bring him in my office and we would talk about it.

But if he made an error, if he, you know, if he threw to the wrong base, I would always go to the coach. And I would say, look, let's clean this up. Alright, this kid here let's, let's, let's make sure that this doesn't happen again. That way the coach will go to the player with that relationship. And he doesn't hear two messages because I don't know what the coach has been teaching these kids.

And I, I sure don't want to create confusion by saying something opposite that one of my coaches had said. So I would always go to my coach pitching coach, hitting coach. I would always go and, and, and discuss what I needed to discuss with them. And then let them take. To their players, because I, I felt like that relationship was really, really important.

So for me, I think it was more the discipline side of it. It was more the structure side of it. You know, I always wanted to be very, very organized. I wanted our guys to walk in and know exactly what they were doing from the second. They got there to the time that they left. So, you know, that they could fall- fall, right you know, in step with what we were doing. And you know, our guys, uh, I learned that from Bobby cuz you watch Bobby Cox manage, you know, chipper Jones and all these hall of Famers, Greg Maddox and Tommy Gladin. And they loved him because he provided all that form that he always communicated with them always had their back, uh, and, and always created that discipline and structure.

Uh, you know, it was a fantastic lesson and a great experience to, to draw upon, uh, when you had your own team.

Rusty George: Okay. So that, that is brilliant. I, I never thought about just the discipline side of things. And I would imagine that they thrive in that because then they don't have to worry about some of those details.

But one of the things I was impressed about with what you did with the Royals, and I, I don't think I even realized how much of an issue this was until I read Dayton Moore's book, the general manager of the Royals More Than a Season. And he talked about how you guys worked together to change the culture, because there does become a culture of losing and the Royals had lost a lot.

Hadn't been to the playoffs since 85 and you get there, what are the things you have to do to change the culture? And I loved how, uh, Dayton talked about, you were looking for people that had critical eyes, but not critical spirits. You were changing the locker room. You were changing all the people that were employed there.

So as somebody who's building a culture. What, what, what are you trying to do to weed out this culture of accepting, losing versus we're gonna be a winner?

Ned Yost: Well, that, that's a great question. And I, I think it, it starts with, um, you know, I've thought about, I've thought about that a lot, and this is, it's a very difficult, it's a very difficult thing to do, because if I can explain this, right, you know, a major league baseball team, no matter who you are, no matter what team you are, your fan base expects you to win, that's it.

And if you don't win it, it's, that's all they expect you to do. They don't look at the variables. And again, we talked earlier about, um, or earlier about, you know, if you don't have talent, You're you're not gonna win and winning was everything that was important to them. Well, to me, uh, my focus was okay, I've got a group of young players.

My job is to take these kids, give them every bit of experience, give 'em every opportunity to fail and do it in a positive fashion so that when they get to the point where they can compete for a championship, they're gonna have all those experiences, uh, in, in their back pocket to draw upon. Hmm. So for me, it didn't make any sense that if we, the difference between winning 65 and 68 games, that didn't matter to me.

I, I didn't care. So we had situations where our fan base, uh, you know, they would get a little upset because I wouldn't pinch it for a guy or they'd get a little upset, uh, because I wouldn't defend for a guy. And I tried to explain to him. It doesn't matter to me right now. And I don't care if we win right now, but what I wanna stay focused on is that these kids get the most experience and these crucial situations so that when it does count, they're gonna be ready.

Now, if I pinch hit for this guy, with the bases loaded and two out in, in the eighth inning, now what happens when there's two outs in the, in, in the basis loaded and we're competing for a championship, how's he gonna know how to handle those situations? And, you know, I think Alce Escabar was a tremendous example of that.

It's like, why don't you pinch it for him? He can't hit these situations. And I'm like, well, you know, as long as I'm managing, he's gonna hit in these situations, uh, you know, he needs this experience. And then sure enough, in 2015, he was the, you know, he was the, uh, American league championship series MVP mm-hmm , you know, the same thing went with JJ Hardy in, in Kansas city, in, in Milwaukee.

My owner, Mark Enio came in one day. He was very frustrated with the fact that I was still playing JJ, who was a young 22, 23 year old shirt. Stop hitting one 70. And he walked in. He goes, how much longer are you gonna play a short stop that hits one 70. And I'm like, well, you know, Mark, as long as I'm here, I'm gonna play him every single day.

And that's just the way it's gonna, that's just the way it's gonna be. Well, luckily for me, JJ ended up hitting about two 40, the end of the year, and then came back the next year, made the all star team with 25 homers and hit 2 75. And I'm like, see if you give them the opportunity to fail, they're gonna be, uh, you know, more successful in the long run.

And when you need them to have that experience, they're gonna have it. So with that being said, it's a very difficult game to play. It's a game that's built around failure. I mean, you, you, you make seven outs to, to, uh, three hits and you're a great player. You're hitting 300. So I think what you do to change the culture is that you get your group of guys and you get 'em to firmly believe in where you're taking them.

And this is where we're going. This is how we're gonna get there. Now, what is your job as a player? Your job is to show up every. And work as hard as you can and give me your best effort every single day. That's it. That's all I'm gonna ask from you is that when you step on that field or when you walk through that clubhouse door, that you're gonna, you're gonna give your best effort every single day in everything that you do and practice and batting practice, and then in the game.

So on a given day, your best effort may be a four for four. Mm. You know, with five RBIS on a given day, your best effort may be an old for four, with three strikeouts. But if you can walk yourself into the bathroom at the end of the day, look yourself in the mirror and know in your heart that you gave your best effort.

You take a shower, you go home, get a good night's sleep, and you'd be ready to come back the next day, because that's all you can ask out of a player. I, I would sit them down and say, look, have you ever looked at your contract? And they're going well, you know? Yeah. And I said, what does your contract. Well, I don't know my co your contract simply states that we're gonna pay you X amount of dollars depending on your production, right?

It can be anywhere from $750,000 a year to 20 million a year. But if you're making $20 million a year, if you read down in that contract, does it say that you had to hit 300, that you had to drive in 150 runs that you had to strike out 200 people that you had to win 20 games that you had to have an era of under two?

No, it doesn't state that anywhere. What the contract simply states is we're gonna pay you X amount of dollars for your very best effort every day. Mm. And that's the bottom line. And once these kids started to understand, uh, how to get to where they were going was by showing up, giving their best effort.

Now, all of a sudden they understood. That, Hey, if I went oh, for four today, it's not so crushing. You know, that I have, I just had a bad day. And, uh, you know, through time, these guys continued to develop and continued to develop and we continued to teach 'em the game we continued to teach. 'em how to win.

They continued to, to fail in some of these situations and then a little bit more and more and more, uh, they started having more success, more success, more confidence till they got to the point where they just took off. And, uh, you know, nothing, no nothing or anybody could stop. 'em that's

Rusty George: Such an interesting insight about right sizing expectations. I, I wonder for a, you know, in a, in the sports world, many of us think, well, you gotta win a championship or it's, or it's a failure, but you're thinking about it as you're either competing for a championship or you're getting better. So that one day you can, how do you right size that in players' minds to say, Hey, we may not win it all this year, but we're gonna get better every single day.

I'm thinking about the business out there. That's not gonna be Google tomorrow or Amazon, but they're gonna do well. How do you right. Size expectations yet still provide it. Uh, you know, it's still motivation for people to keep working hard.

Ned Yost: Yeah. Uh, you know, I think again, you have to sell where you're going and you have to sit him down and you've got to explain it to him.

And it's constantly got to be explained to him that, Hey, this is where we're headed. If, if you continue to, to go in this fashion, look, you're gonna be fine. I remember Mike Maass was hitting one 50 and he kept, you know, stay in his mind. How much longer is he gonna play me? How much longer is he gonna play me?

How much longer is he gonna play me? And I said, As long as you can handle hitting one 50 mentally, you're gonna play every day. So don't worry about it. Mm. You know, don't worry about it. You're gonna be fine. Just show up every single day. And of course he was an integral part to, you know, our success once he figured out, uh, you know, that it does take time, but, you know, I think more than anything else, you have to be able to have the patience so that they're seeing it, they're watching and they wanna know, all right.

Do, if you are saying that this is the way we're gonna do it. And if we give your best effort, And we go through a losing streak. Are you gonna lose your mind? Are you going to, are you gonna, uh, you know, scream and yell at us and get frustrated and, and, and, and lose sight of the fact of, of where we're going.

And for me, I made a point for that never to happen ever. And we would, I think some of the greatest impact that we had on our young players is we would be going through, uh, a real tough time where we'd lose like eight outta 10 mm-hmm , or we'd lose 10 outta 12 or something like that. And I would get 'em all together after the game, and it'd be a tough game and I'd, you know, walk in and I'd tell 'em okay, everybody get up and come over here.

And they would all get up. And I said, get closer. We'd kind of get in a circle, right? Because I didn't wanna scream and yell. I wanted him all to hear me. I wanted to stay calm. And I said, look, we've lost 10 out 12. And I said, but I wanna tell you guys something. I am so. So proud of the way you guys are going about your business.

You guys are showing up every single day, you're working your tails off. It's not working out for us right now, but trust me, it will continue doing what you're doing. You're gonna be fine. And you know, here they come in expecting to get yelled at. And now their leadership, uh, group and coaches and managers are telling 'em, yeah, we've lost 10 out of 12, but they're proud of us about the way that we're going about it.

So again, it took that pressure off them. They knew where they were going. They knew where they were headed because we constantly, constantly bombarded them with, you know, what was gonna happen in the future. You just keep plugging away, keep giving your best effort. You know, your fans are gonna be behind you 100%.

They don't like people that get frustrated and, and, and dog it on the field. They like guys, even when they're struggling. To play hard and them FA the fans will understand. They will know they will sense it, that you're given everything that they have, and they're gonna fall right in line with you. And, uh, you know, that's exactly what happened.

Rusty George: Wow. Well, I have to apologize because I was one of those that grew very impatient at times, uh, as a Royals fan and wondered why, uh, some pitchers stayed on the mound when they should have come out. But now I see it. I understand it. And it paid off. Definitely. You know, I was thinking about the great run that that moose had in 2014 and 2015, especially in 2014, I forgot he was bat ninth for a lot of those games.

And he had such a great post season and obviously a great next year.

Ned Yost: You know, he, he did, he had a tremendous time and it got to the point, I think, you know, Rusty where it really started to affect him. And we had to send him down. We sent him to AAA. He just, he was such, he just plays with such an edge and was such determination.

It was just wearing him down, wearing him down. And, you know, we had to send him back to AAA to, uh, you know, kind of reset his brain a little bit when he came back, um, you know, he was more relaxed. He was more determined. He didn't ever want to go to triple a again. So , uh, that, that ended up helping him a lot.

And you know, it, it was funny, I think, uh, you know, as a group, uh, 2014 was a, the, especially the end of the season was such a special, special time for all of us.

Rusty George: Mm-hmm yeah, it was for us fans too. Well, we'll get to that in just a little bit. I want to hear about your journey with Jesus. Uh, when did, when did Jesus become more than a story for you? When did you, when did you feel like it became more of your faith and not just your wife's faith? Tell me about your coming to Christ.

Ned Yost: Um, well, you know, uh, I grew up in California and, and we, my mom would kind of take. I don't know once every six months to the Episcopalian church and, uh, you know, so there, I didn't really have a, a spiritual upbringing.

And when I met my wife, uh, who was from Jackson, Mississippi had grown up in the Baptist church and, uh, you know, had been to, uh, you know, church every, every Sunday, every Wednesday night supper. And, um, you know, she was a, a great kind of influence on me, but it wasn't an influence like you would think. I mean, I would go to church with her, uh, kind of just because I, I wanted to make a deal, you know, with God, I'll go and sit and listen to the preacher, but I want to hit 300 next year or 2 75. you know, I want to hit 15 homers. And, uh, he, you know, I want 75 80 RBIS and you do your part and then I'll do my part to continue to, you know, to, to, to go to these church services. And, and of course that. You know, totally insane, uh, to try to make a deal with God, you're gonna trade off, uh, you know, RBIS for church service.

So, you know, at that point I kept hearing about, I kept hearing about a relationship with Jesus Christ and I never could understand what they were talking about. And Sal Bando was our chapel leader in Milwaukee at that time. And, um, he was always, you know, kind of mentoring me and guiding me and, um, you know, it just, everything kind of just went over my head.

You know, I came spring training one year and he goes, Hey, how, how, how did your winter go? And I said, great. And he said, did you grow any this winter? Of course, he meant spiritually. And I'm like Sal I'm 20, 25 years old. I think I'm done growing. Yeah. You know, I'm six foot one. I'm not, I, you know, totally missed the point so, you know, as things kind of went along, I kept trying to make deals.

It didn't work. I'm like, okay, I don't understand this relationship thing about Jesus, but I knew that I had a void in my life. I knew something was missing and I couldn't figure out what it was. And I thought to myself, well, you know, maybe it's, uh, you know, um, you know, I always thought, well, maybe it was.

I wasn't a big league baseball player when I made the big leagues, you know, I was really, really excited, but the void wasn't filled. So I'm like, okay, maybe I, I need to go to the world series. And we went to the world series in 82 and lost a tough game, seven to the St. Louis Cardinals. And, you know, it was, it was a great experience, but, you know, I just, I had never felt like that, you know, game seven of the world series, if you can imagine, we took the lead in the sixth inning was the most excited I've ever been in my life.

And then we lost the lead in the bottom of the seventh in, and it was the most dejected I'd ever been in my life. So, you know, the, the difference between the highs and the lows was, uh, uh, you know, I've never experienced that before. So when it was all said and done, I kept thinking to myself, okay, that's it that's that will, that will make my life purposeful if.

Um, I can win a world championship. So, you know, I ended up, you know, going to be a minor league manager. I keep pushing, pushing, I want to be a world champion, go to Atlanta. We go to the world series in 91, we lose, I'm like, ah, go to the world series in 92, we lose, uh, we didn't go in 93 and I'm pushing, pushing, knowing that this is what's gonna make the difference in my life is that I need to be a, a, a world champion.

That's gonna fill that void. So sure enough, in 94, we went on strike 95. We come back and. We ended up winning the world series and I'll never forget that night, celebrating thinking, all right, my life is complete, you know, I've, I've done it. I've won the world series. That's gonna feel, you know, what was missing that that's gonna feel what had driven me so hard all these years was to become a world champion.

And, uh, that world series feeling was, uh, uh, tremendous for about 10 days. Mm. And then it's like, I hit rock bottom because that void is still there. And I mean, it's, it's there gaping as, uh, you know, as much as it's ever been. So actually after winning the world series in 95, which was, should have been a great winner, was the worst winner that I've ever had.

Hmm. And now I'm stumped because I'm like. What is wrong with me? You know, I just, I, I, this, this void is I, I, I have nowhere to go. I have nowhere to turn. I have nothing to do. Spring training came along and I ended up, you know, leaving. I think my wife and kids were really, really fired up when I left, because, you know, I was just miserable the whole, the whole winter long, and wasn't much fun to be around and got to spring training, Florida opened up my suitcase.

And I, you know, there was a book on Christian marriage in there that my wife had continued to put in there for years, and I never opened it, never looked at it. I would just throw it off to the side and a letter, a big thick letter that she had written to me. And I'm like, oh man, I can't deal with this right now.

So, you know, two days later I finally opened up the letter and I thought it would be, you know, a letter about how. You know, big a jerk I am and you know, I need to shape my life up. And, but it was 11 pages of, of, of how much she loved me. And I'm like, man, how did she, how did she do that? I don't understand.

So I grabbed this book on Christian marriage and I opened it up. And of course it went straight to the page where it said, when, when you're married, God cleaves two people into one, you know, when you're married and I'm thinking to myself, man, I mean, I I've been so focused and driven on trying to become a world champion.

And I don't feel like we're one. I feel like, you know, uh, you know, I have, I haven't upheld my part of the bargain and you know, I just felt terrible on that. And I hit my knees in that hotel room and I, I, I just simply said, Lord, you know, my whole life I've been trying to make a deal. My whole life I've wanted something.

From you that doesn't make any sense. I said, I'm coming to you bear right now. The only thing I want is, is for your son, Jesus, to come into my life, into my heart and to fill this void with his spirit Lord. And it felt like somebody hit me over the head with a bat. And I mean, uh, a thousand pounds was lifted off my shoulder and I'm like, holy cow, what just happened?

I jumped up and I'm like, I can't, I can't believe what had just happened right here. Cuz my now all of a sudden I felt totally different. Well, there was a Christian bookstore right around the corner. I jumped in my car and I went and started, you know, buying books, trying to figure out what, what had happened.

Well, you know, I, I, I figured out real quick and I, I had listened, but I'd never heard that we're all born spiritually dead. And until you get to that point where you ask Christ into your life to be spiritually reborn, it changes your whole life. Now, all of a sudden, instead of being lost, now you're a child of God.

And, and if your faith and your focus is on him, everything else is taken care of. It's the greatest decision that you'll ever make. And I, and I got to the point where thinking to myself, okay, it's not great. It's black or white either. You're serving Satan in this world, or you're SA you're serving God in this world and through a son, Jesus Christ.

And when you accept Jesus, all of a sudden, boom, it changes everything. Mm. And that was back in 1996. And my world has never been the same since.

Rusty George: That's awesome. Thank you for sharing that with us. I'm curious how. I mean, you, you, you always seem like a guy that, you know, you can handle criticism. Okay. Um, but now being a Christ follower, knowing what he thought of you, what he has done for you, did that change the way you handled winning and losing.

Did it change the way you handled, um, the ups and downs of the season or even criticism that you would face?

Hey, I want to interrupt just to say, thanks to growmentumgroup.com. Growmentum is sponsoring the podcast and they can help your church go further, faster. So make sure you check out growmentumgroup.com.

Um, the ups and downs of the season, or even criticism that you would face.

Ned Yost: Yeah. I mean, no doubt. It, it changed it dramatically and it got to the point where I, I would sit there and wonder how do other managers do it without becoming christians. How do you live with that? Uh, you know, that every single day, everybody in town thinks they're a better manager than you. Every mother, every grandmother, every dad, you know, my mom thought she was a better manager than me.

I call her and she's like, why did you put that guy in the game?. Right. But I got to the point, you know, after that situation, especially as a manager, realizing every single day that my whole life was spent, trying to please millions of people, you know, by winning, by making the right decisions, you know, by, by, you know, taking these kids and hopefully building them into champions and to good fathers and to good husbands and.

Now my focus was, I didn't have to please millions of people I had to please one person. Hmm. And that was God, that was it. That was my whole focus was that, you know, Lord Jesus today, alls I want to do is please you through my actions and through, uh, what I do on this field. And there were many times where I didn't and, you know, yes for forgiveness because, you know, I would get thrown outta games and my wife would read my lips and , you know, I would like, I'm sorry, I lost my mind.

You know, but, uh, you know, it just made a huge, huge difference. And, um, you know, every single day I would walk into that locker room and I was always early to the park. If we played at seven o'clock at night, I would be always the first one. There I'd be there by nine 30 or 10. And my day consisted, I would get up, you know, I would drink a cup of coffee or two, I had two or three little Bible, uh, programs that I would read or B you know, Bible, um, uh, things that I would read.

Uh, and then I would get dressed and go to the ballpark. I'd open up that door. The locker room would be completely black. I would turn the lights on that. I would walk around that locker room and stop in front of every locker and just say a little prayer for every player that was in there, you know, that they continue to stay focused, that they continue, uh, you know, to play hard and be, you know, can just please develop into a good dad and our fans, somebody that our fans can, uh, you know, be next to and cheer for and be the right person for the Kansas city Royal.

So this went on, I mean, for years and years and years, and I remember, um, It was funny because we had, this was 13 when we were, or, or excuse me, this was 2014 when we were battling for the wild card, uh, at, at that time. And it got late the season and the Boston red Sox came in and we played 'em four games and they were really, really bad.

So I'm like, okay, we need to make up some ground here against these guys. We ended up losing three outta four. And I was really, I, Sunday night was, uh, you know, we played a Sunday day game, which we lost and, and we'd lost three outta four. I went home and I was really upset and I got up the next day and I was still really, really upset.

And the funny thing about it was I was, I was upset with God, you know, why do you let this happen? So I start reading my Bible program and all of a sudden, I just like, Lord, why does this happen? Why we have been faithful in everything that we've done, we stay focused on you. Everything between Dave Moore, my GM and myself, we we're building this organization, you know, to, to, to bring glory to you and everything that we do, you know, we feel that this is a great city that they deserve more yet.

We continue to stumble. We continue to fight. We continue not to have success. When are we gonna have success? We work too hard. We pray too hard to you. We're and I'm like letting that go. Right? So all of a sudden I stopped and I'm sitting there and it was amazing. This little voice came in my head and, and the little voice said, do you know who I am?

And I sat there and I go, yeah, I know who you are. Well, who am I? Well, I'm the creator. The creator of the heavens and the earth and everything that goes with it. You created everything, you know, everything you're sitting on high, you see everything that happens from the beginning of our life to the end of our life.

And he goes, do you believe that I have a plan for your life? And I'm thinking to myself, of course, I believe you have a plan for my life. Of course I do. And then it very simply said, then start acting like it. and I went, oh my goodness. And that was when I understood the meaning of faith. that? Yes. Okay.

Now I have to have faith in you, no matter what Lord, that you're deleting us, that you have a plan. Not only for me, you have a plan for every player in that locker room. You have a plan for date Moore in his life. You have a plan for our city. You have a plan for our organization. Now for me, what I need to do is get out of the way, stay focused on you and let the plan play out.

And I mean, from that point, all the pressure and everything that went with it was gone in, in my life. It was like, okay. And it was amazing cause once we made the playoffs, uh, we ended up, you know, having meetings when we had the, we went to the. Division series. And then the National Championship Series, we would have meetings with all the umpires and the opposing managers and the opposing managers would walk in there.

They'd be so nervous, you know, they'd be back and forth. So nervous that I was as calm and collected as I could be knowing that, Hey, you know, there's a plan here in place and whatever the plan is, I don't know, but I'm gonna enjoy every second of it while we're going through this. And we went on an 8-0 run, uh, to get to the world series.

Uh, and it was just a phenomenal feeling to have that much fun in a crucial situation. And I mean, a lot of these games were extra inning games. They were, you know, tie ball games, you know, a play here, a play there. Uh, but for me, it was just the utmost fun because I could lay back knowing that God had a plan for my life and I was gonna let it develop.

Rusty George: I think that that answer kind of answers my next question, but I, I want to ask it anyway and that as we have a lot of people that listen to this show that they are the only Christian at their workplace. And here, here you were, you were privileged to work around some other Christians, but it's still, it's a cutthroat business.

It's really difficult. Uh, you're dealing with players that have a lot of temptations. So, you know, you're, you're staring a lot of this stuff in the face. What would you say to somebody out there that's in a, in a business that they feel like they are all alone and they're the only light in the darkness.

Ned Yost: That's a tough one because I was never all alone. I, my general manager day Moore, my owner, uh, David Glass. Um, you know, we were all in this together with the same values, the same morals, the same thoughts. Uh, so it was never something, you know, that I had to try to, you know, talk to somebody else about mm-hmm , you know, day.

And I both believed that God, you know, blessed us with that championship. It wasn't what we did. And that's why people, they come to me all the time say, oh, I want to thank you for getting into the world, get into the world series twice. And I'm like, man, I didn't. I didn't really do that much. You know, I think that, you know, God blessed us with, with that opportunity and, and that experience and, and, uh, you know, for all of us to enjoy.

Um, and it, it, it it's tough. It, it, it's a tough situation to be all by yourself. Mm-hmm so for me, luckily, I don't know how I would've reacted in that situation because, uh, you know, it is a cutthroat world and people, and, and, and especially nowadays, the world is changing so rapidly and mm-hmm, , the morals are changing so quickly and you know, what, what we used to think, uh, you know, wasn't right now, everybody pushes us.

Right? And I mean, you have to stay firm, uh, I think in your belief and stay firm in your faith and, and become an example, uh, to everybody that's around you and people will look because you never know who's searching. You never know who's seeking. And if they see you. Uh, you, you know, and you live out your faith, they're gonna wonder about it and they're gonna ask about it.

Mm-hmm and then that's when, you know, you can, you can start to provide some of that light that, that, uh, you know, has been shown, shown on you, uh, in, in your life. But, um, mm-hmm, , you know, that's a situation, thankfully I've never had to go through.

Rusty George: So tell me a little bit about some, uh, other players of great faith that inspired you. They might have been on your team, or you saw them in the other dugout as well.

Ned Yost: Uh, no, the, you know, There's a lot of guys Mike Sweeney, who was with, uh, the Kansas city. Royals was a great, I mean, great example and a great inspiration, of course, nobody more than day Moore. Right? Uh, I've never met anybody.

That's, um, that is more grounded and players absolutely love date mm-hmm because of who he is and what he believes in. And some of the things that he pushes, uh, for the organization. And not only do the players love him, the families love him because, you know, he treats all of those players, like they were his own kids and he, he treats all of those kids.

Like they, he, you know, like he would want somebody to treat his kids. So, um, you know, he was a tremendous, uh, example and inspiration for me. Mr. Glass was. Uh, through his grace and, and even though he was through competitive, you know, he was the one that was hard to get to, you know, we talked about patience before it was hard to get him to be patient.

Um, you know, because he just felt we should win 162 games a year and I'm like, Mr. Glass, that's not possible. Well, why not? That's just not, you know, it's not. And, but he was always, you know, he was always on board and it was funny because I think after, you know, my experience in Milwaukee, I, uh, I decided that he, you know, I wasn't gonna have to sit and, and deal with an owner, I think constantly.

So, you know, when I went over to Kansas city, um, you know, I told Mr. Glass right off the get go. He came in my office the first week we were there and he wanted a meeting with me and Dayton. And he sat down and he said, look, he goes, I'm very disgusted in this team. You know, I can't stand to watch it. I'm very disappointed in the way that, that this team plays.

And, you know, I just finally, I just finally said, look, Mr. Glass, let me, can I give you some advice if it frustrates you this much to watch this team, and it hurts this bad to watch this team, don't watch don't turn on the TV. , don't read the papers, don't pay attention to what we're doing, but I'm gonna tell you something in the near future, we're gonna be really, really good.

And you're gonna be very, very proud of who we are and what it's about. And, you know, I think Dayton told me later, he goes, he, the thought that went through his mind is now, okay, how am I, who am I gonna replace Ned with? And Mr. Glass looked at day and then he looked at me and he started laughing. And I think from that point on, we understood each other.

You know that we had a goal and nobody wanted to win more than him. And nobody wanted to win more for him than me. Um, because he had multiple opportunities to fire me and, you know, he didn't do it. You know, I could convince him that we were on the right track and that we were going in, in a direction.

And when he would get frustrated, he would come down in my office and he would be scowling and he'd look, walk through the door and he goes, can I have a moment of your time? and I would look at him, I'd say, well, that depends on that. Depends on your attitude, doesn't it. And he would start laughing and sit down.

And by the time he would leave, he would be, you know, he would feel better. He'd understand where we're going. And when he hoisted that world series championship trophy in 2015 was probably the proudest I've ever been in my life of anything that I've done. Because he got to hold that trophy and it was his, and I was really, really proud of that.

Rusty George: Well, that's, that's awesome. I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna shift gears just a little bit. Let's just talk baseball for a little bit. You had a chance to play with, manage and play around some of the greats of all time. Um, I'm gonna tell you a player and you give me one to two words as to what comes to mind first.

The first one, I believe it was your roommate, Robin Yout.

Ned Yost: Yeah, humble really. I mean, he was the most humble person, um, to be around, you know, he was great hall of Famer. First ball hall of Famer, two time, uh, uh, most valuable player once is short. And once as, uh, outfielder, he as great as he was. He didn't want to, he didn't care if anybody thought he was great, he was gonna show up and give everything that he had for his teammates, uh, every single day.

And he was a great inspiration on what a superstar should be. And, um, and what a superstar is to this day still, uh, you know, one of the people that I'm in most a of

Rusty George: Hmm, okay. Hank, Aaron,

Ned Yost: the greatest, you know, he was just, he was just the, the greatest baseball player in my mind. Um, you know, for me, I don't think I'd be sitting here talking to you today without Hank, Aaron, you know, Hank was the one when I went out of baseball cold and wanted to know if I wanted to get into coaching with the Atlanta Braves.

And he told me that they had some, uh, young pitching prospects in double a, and they were looking for a veteran catcher to come and work with. uh, and I thought to myself, you know, I'm 32 years old. I don't wanna be bouncing back and forth, uh, you know, from the big leagues of triple a anymore. I just wanna, I want to see about this coaching thing and I'll give it a try.

And of course it put me on the road to, uh, you know, becoming a, uh, minor league manager and, uh, uh, a major league coach in two different areas of bullpen coach and, uh, the third base coach. And, uh, and then, uh, 17 years as a major league manager. And if Hank wouldn't have called, I wouldn't have had the ability.

To to work with Bobby Cox for 12 years, I wouldn't have had the ability to be the bullpen coach for eight years and catch every side session that Greg Maddox, Tommy Gladen, uh, John MTZ through during those eight years, understand how to handle a pitching staff, understand pitching mechanics four years as a third base coach, understand how Bobby ran a game and got to where, you know, our thinking was so alike.

I knew what he was gonna do before he would do it. Um, you know, so that all those experiences that, that set me up to become a major league manager came from one phone call from Hank, Aaron, and, uh, you know, I I'll never, ever forget him for.

Rusty George: Hmm, love that. Okay. Uh, let's talk about a couple of Royals. Uh, Alex Gordon.

Ned Yost: Alex Gordon. Oh man. Ultimate competitor. I mean, he was a kid that would just show up every single day and I've never very few, there's very few people that ha- that had Alex Gordon's work ethic. And the two that I can think of actually are, were both Royals, uh, Salvador Perez and, uh, Alex Gordon, they would show up every single day and work their tails off in the cage.

They worked their tails off in, in their respective positions. You know, I had to tell Alex Gordon, he would, he would go out in the outfield and SHA balls for two groups. Like it was seven game of the world series. He'd be running all over diving balls. I'm like, look, I'm gonna have to start giving you some days off.

If you don't slow down, cuz you're gonna wear yourself out. But he was very disciplined in his diet. I mean, guys gave him a standing ovation one time when he took a bite of cake for somebody's birthday. I mean, he wouldn't do it. He was just so disciplined in everything that he did, you know, for his teammates, but he was just a very, very special competitor, uh, and never, never seen anybody as disciplined as him, except for Salvador Perez.

He's right there with him.

It's amazing to me, how much you say Salvador is so disciplined and yet he seems to be having the most fun of anybody in the ballpark. How much did his joy impact your locker room?

Oh, it, it, it was huge part of it huge, a huge, huge, huge part of it. Every day, walk through the, the, when he would walk through, uh, the clubhouse, everybody loved, he had a light about him when he walked through that.

Walk through that, that, that locker room and his ability. I mean, he gets it, you know, he's a superstar that works every bit as hard now as he did when he first came to the big leagues, because he knows that people come every single day and pay good money to watch him play. And he wants to be able to.

Give his best every single day for those people. And that's what he does. He's in blocking balls before the game he's in working on his receiving he's in every pitcher and catcher meeting, talking about how they're gonna, how they're gonna control the game today, not only the running game, but how they're gonna pitch every single hitter he's in the video room, watching video he's in the cage, working on a swing.

Uh, it it's phenomenal, but the, the, the ability to lighten up a clubhouse, um, he has that ability and he's a great leader. Uh, of course the young Latin guys, it's tough on them sometimes, but, you know, he takes every single one of them under his wings and protects him and, and looks out for him. And I think everybody, uh, uh, absolutely loves Salvador Perez.

I knew I do. I wish I could. Uh, you know, I wish he could move here to Greenville, Georgia, and live with me. I would love that.

Rusty George: Okay. One last Royal George Barrett.

Ned Yost: Yeah. Um, It's hard to, it's hard to, um, describe George in, in one or two words because he, you know, he is Mr. Royal mm-hmm . I mean, that's, he set the standard, I think for all of us mm-hmm and his ability.

And, and of course, George was that guy, you know, all these, these things, we talked about playing hard every single day mm-hmm . Uh, and that was George. I mean, George never dogged a ball. George always, you know, played hard on every single play. Uh, you know, from the minute he got to the big leagues to the time he ended, I think that's what, you know, everybody appreciates about him and still loves the Royals.

We see him every day, uh, you know, at the ballpark or most every day. Um, but what, what, you know, what better, when you think of the Kansas city Royals, you think of. George, Brett mm-hmm and you know, that's a, that's, you know, that's a great thing to, you know, to, to be that face of the organization. That's what George is.

Rusty George: Okay. So we have a lot of Dodger fans that listen to the podcast. So I have to ask you, who is the greatest Dodger that you ever saw?

Ned Yost: Oh, man. Uh, that's a tough one there. Um, because you know, we, uh, you know, being in the Braves, uh, organization for, for years and years, we were, uh, in the Western division. So we were playing the Dodgers.

We were playing, um, the giants, uh, back in, in those days, you know, like three series home, three series away. So, um, you know, I always thought that Mike Soha was such a, a, a Dodger. Um, I, I thought that, uh, you know, of course Kirk Gibson wasn't there long, but, uh, you know, he was such a good Dodge. Um, Earl Hershe was, you know, was really big and it's fun now, you know, to watch, you know, the Dodgers of today, as good as they are.

Mm-hmm, , uh, you know, it's fun to go back. And I mean, to, to see the Kershaws I remember being in Milwaukee and, and went down for instructional league and they told me, see that kid right there. He said, this is his first year, but he's gonna be a great major league pitcher. And it was Karen, uh, Clayton Kershaw, uh, you know, as a first year pitcher in instructional league.

So to, you know, kind of put, you know, that in the back of your mind, okay, they say this kid's gonna be great. Well, you know, they, they hit it. So, um, there's just so many, so many great players, uh, to sit back and watch nowadays, uh, on that team and so many great players. Uh, you know, uh, uh, in the past, on that team, it's such a storied franchise.

It was always fun because it was a different, it was a different feeling every time you walked into Dodger stadium than walking into most, most stadiums. So that is true. It it's still a cool, cool experience.

Rusty George: Um, out here, there's obviously a lot of west coast biased, but people talk about Mike trout with the angels as the greatest talent they've ever seen.

Uh, is he top five for you as far as talent goes?

Ned Yost: Oh, no doubt. Uh, I mean he's, he's easy. Top five might be top, might be top three. Okay. Um, yeah, I mean, it's hard because you've seen so many, so many great players over over the years, but you know, he's been one that I have really admired and really. Enjoyed watching over the years.

And I've had the, uh, the honor, I guess you would call it of manage him twice in all star games. Oh, that's right. In, uh, 15 and 16, we won, 'em both. He won the MVP in 15, uh, you know, uh, in Cincinnati for us, but he was always a kid that, um, was really humble, really fun to be around. Hmm. Always, you know, when you're around him, you know that you're in greatness, but it's because of his reputation, not, not on anything that he portrays to you.

Mm-hmm and I think the cool thing that, uh, for me, that I always enjoyed, I didn't understand it until later, but these kids, when you manage these kids in an all star game, it's like, they're your manager. They're you're their manager for, even though it's three days, it's it's that you were their manager at one time.

So from that point on every time we would play, uh, these games, every one of these players that you manage would step outta the box, look at you and wave. And I'm like, that's never happened before Mike trout always would do it. Lenora would always do it. Brantley would always do it. You know, all these great players that you, that you managed during this little, this little time.

Huh. Uh, you know, would always, you would always say hi every day. And I always thought that was a cool, cool thing, but love Mike trout.

Rusty George: That's a credit to you. Okay. So for our listeners that don't care about the Royals. You can turn this off, but I gotta just ask you a few questions about the Royals specifically, because it's been such a huge part of my life.

Um, a key model for the Royals in the 2014 - 2015 season was keep the line moving, which was just to get on base. Keep the next guy coming up. Where'd that originate? Was that a strategy or did it just come out of the locker room? The guys chatting?

Ned Yost: Yeah, no, I think it was a strategy. You know, it started in the beginning where, you know, you try to, I think as an offensive unit, you knew you try to see pitches.

You try to get into good hitting counts. And Dale Swain was our hitting our hitting coach, uh, at that time. And he convinced these guys look, we're wasting our time trying to get into good hitting counts. If you see a good pitch, you turn it loose. It doesn't matter if it's the first pitch. Second pitch.

Third, third pitch. Let's put the ball in play cuz when you put the ball in play, good things happen when you put the ball in play. All of a sudden guys, start moving guys, get on guys, get over guys. Get in. So the goal is to put the ball in play and keep the line moving. And it's, I mean, it absolutely stuck and that's what would drive.

I think opposing teams absolutely crazy was that they could not strike us out in crucial situations. We would always mm-hmm, put the ball in play when we'd always pick up those runs. And, uh, you know, it became, uh, it became a mantra for those guys and, and a focus was that, that that's what they were gonna do.

Mm-hmm so it, it was amazing that we talked a little bit. The end of 2014. Well, we were in the playoffs going into that wild card game in 2014. And we were, we were down two runs going into the eighth inning and our group came off the field and they were down on the other side of the dugout. And I could hear like a murmur started getting louder, started getting louder, started getting louder.

And I looked down there and they were a group of guys down there and they were all kind of like screaming and yelling. This guy's not gonna beat us not tonight. And this is John Lester who we, you know, hadn't beaten in three years. He's not getting us not tonight. We're not gonna let that happen. We're gonna go out and we're gonna win this game.

And I'm like, well, all right, well, they went out and scored two runs and then sure enough tied the game up. And we ended up winning it and they, you know, they score, they scored a run. Then we come back and score a run and finally won. In the, like the 12th and 13th inning, but what had happened was they had gone in that dugout in the eighth inning and all of a sudden that was the second that they believed in their heart, that they were good, that they believed in their heart, that they were unbeatable.

They had always to that point thought that they were good thought that they, they could win, but they got it in the eighth inning of that ball game is when they believed. And that is a huge barrier to get over because once you believe, uh, in your abilities, in your heart, that you're good. It, it, it, it it's Katie bar the door.

Yeah. And that's what happened. They went on that eight, eight, no run, cuz they played to win. They knew that they deserved to be there. They knew that they were ready to win and sure enough, uh, you know, it was an amazing time for all of us. I,

Rusty George: I remember that scene so well. Um, and obviously I loved, I loved winning the world series. I loved all the wins and the playoffs, but for me, the most special win was that wild card game, because it was we'd finally turned the corner and Perez hitting that, that shot down the line. Uh, I don't think I've cried that much in a baseball game since 1985. So it was awesome. Yeah, it was awesome. Okay.

Uh, now this is just outta curiosity. In 2014, you're playing the San Francisco giants. Bum garner is lights out. I mean, it's unbelievable how well he's pitching and your ACE James Shields. He lost game one and we have a special affinity for James because he's from a local high school here. Sure. Um, but traditional wisdom is you start him at the same time.

Bumgarner comes up again, which I believe was in, uh, game five. Did you think about not putting him up against Bumgarner, but using him the next game and moving Ventura to game seven so that you're not having to use your ACE against Bumgarner?

Ned Yost: Yeah, no, we didn't. We didn't think about that. You know, we, um, Baumgartner was on a great run at that time and I'm trying to think we won, we lost game one, won game two, and then I think we won game three mm-hmm and then we ended up losing game four, which was a nail biter.

So I think it was two to two, I think at that time. And we really wanted to win that game five mm-hmm , you know, we were gonna take our best, uh, our best chance at it. And, and, and just see if we couldn't take a three game to two lead going back to going back to Kansas city, knowing that we had Ventura in game six, and we were just hoping to.

We could win game five and win game six and see what would happen, but right. You know, it went back to, you know, trying to figure out what was best at the current time. And I, I remember that Bumgarner was just so, uh, tremendous at that point, but you never knows, hit a home, run off him in game one. And I'm like, okay, you know, he can be off, he's pitched a lot of innings in this world, in these playoffs.

And, you know, we can, maybe we can get 'em, but I'll never forget. He went out and pitched the eighth inning and came in, uh, after the eighth inning at 105 pitches. And I'm like, oh man, I hope they sent him back out. And they did. They sent him back out mm-hmm and he ended up getting us out, but he threw 121 pitches.

So in San Francisco, uh, at the end of the, at the end of the game, I had to go do my national press conference and. I had to walk across the field. You couldn't walk through the tunnels because it was a pedestrian access for all the fans. So I had to walk across the field and walk through the giant dugout.

When I got there, Bumgarner just finished an interview. So I walked up, came up behind him and I said, uh, Hey Madison, man, that was a fantastic game. And you pitched your heart out. And he looked at me and he goes, oh, thanks. N he goes, look, I've seen all your hunting videos. And I'm like, oh, well really? he goes, yeah, I like watching your hunting videos.

I said, well, maybe one day we can get together and go hunting. He goes, man, that'd be great. And I said, well, man. And then I said, the dumbest thing I ever said in my life, I said, man, I'm sure. Glad we don't have to see you again. Oh no. You know, I mean, I thought for sure, a hundred, five, a hundred twenty one pitches game five, I'm like he's done.

Right. He can't start again and sure enough, they brought him in, in game seven and yeah, they did, uh, you know, just if it wasn't for Madison Bumgarner, we'd have won back to back world championships, but,

Rusty George: um, well, and if it wasn't for a foul ball injury between MOOCs and Gordon, we would've won three in a row, but uh that's.

Yeah. That's, that's what you get when two guys hustle. Yep. Uh, okay. Last one. About specifics 2015 ER's mad dash home to tie the game will live on in legendary status for Royal's fans. Was that a call he made? Was that a third base call? Was that a call from you as to take the shot and run? yeah,

Ned Yost: no that's, that was all his instincts and, and that was all on him.

We, they had played the infield in at that time and, you know, but we had worked on certain situations, uh, and we did it a lot in spring training where we would trying to get away from, you know, the old school, a little bit, uh, fundamentals of the game, where you have a runner on second base and nobody out where you gotta kind of give yourself up and hit the ball to the right side of the field.

Well, you know, I told our guys, look, I, I want you guys up there. I don't want you taking defensive hacks, trying to hit the ball the other way. I want you guys to get up, to get a good pitch and, and see if you could turn on it and drive the run in. If not once the ball's hit as a second baseman, if you're the runner in second, if you bounce off and then.

The, the infielder will look at you see that you're stopped and then directly throw the ball to first base. Well, when he comes up with his arm, if you start taking a walking lead, you can make it to third, nine times outta 10 mm-hmm. no matter where the balls hit. So we practice that a lot. And that was a situation where ho did a perfect, he bounced off the ball was hit to the third basement.

He bounced off and froze. And then as soon as the first, the third basement looked at. He turned back and looked to first base and you could see ha starting to walk, you knew, right, right off the get go. He was going. Yeah. And then sir, enough, as soon as that ball lift his hand, there goes hos. And, uh, you know, it was, uh, one of those situations where man, you're sitting there thinking to yourself, this team is so much fun to watch.

This team never gives up. This team never counts itself out. Yeah. And, uh, you know, when we finally scored that one run in the 12th inning to give us a lead Christian cologne and got the base hit. Yep. I'm like we had just won the world series cuz I got way Davis down there, uh, you know, ready to come in and we ended up scoring four more.

And it was one of the few times in my life. I was hoping we would make it out and stop scoring runs, cuz I wanted to get that world series over.

Rusty George: I kinda, I kind of understand that. Well, coach, this has been an honor for me. I, I never thought I'd get a chance to say this to you. Um, and I know that you don't wanna take credit for it, but you know, when I grew up in Wichita, Kansas in the seventies and eighties, the thing that my dad had in common was baseball.

And the thing that that allowed us to connect was watching the Royals and going up to Kansas City and watching George Brett and. I, I, I just never thought I'd see him good again. And I wanna thank you for not just winning. That's great, but for creating a team and a culture we're cheering for, um, that, that really meant a lot to me and to my father as well. And, uh, brought a lot of great memories for all of us Royal fans. So thanks for doing it with such class. I so appreciate it.

Ned Yost: Well, I appreciate it. And like I said, it's, you know, that was Dayton Moore's vision from the minute he took over. You know, he said, you know, when I took over this job, I would drive downtown and I wouldn't see one kid wearing a Royal's hat.

Rusty George: Yeah.

Ned Yost: And I want to change that. And by the time we were done, you couldn't see two people that weren't wearing Royal's hats. So yeah, it was a great experience. It was, you know, so much fun to be a part of. And, you know, I appreciate it.

Rusty George: Well, thanks for, so thanks so much for coming on the podcast. Uh, I wanna thank Mike Lynch for introducing us, but, uh, so grateful for you. Enjoy your retirement, enjoy all your hunting videos. And uh, if you occasionally watch baseball, let's go Royals.

Ned Yost: Yeah, I hear you. Let's go Royals. Thank you!

Rusty George: Well, I don't know if you listened the whole time, but man, I was riveted and I could not get enough of my conversation with Coach Yost. He was such a delight and I would love it if you would review the podcast, we're collecting all the reviews. And at the end of these three months of the summer, we're gonna give away something to one of our reviewers. So make sure that you're leaving a review wherever you get your podcasts. Share this with a friend. You've got somebody out there that loves baseball.

You can pass this along to and somebody out there that would probably love to hear a come to Jesus moment like Ned had. Well, we're grateful. You're listening, grateful. You're reviewing and rating the podcast and sharing it with friends. Next week, we'll be back with brand new content. Can't wait for you to hear that we will talk to you next time and as always keep it simple.

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