Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost goes off on KC fans
Number one on the list of things not to do as a manager in baseball is to not upset the boss, a close second is likely not to make the fans upset either. On Tuesday night, Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost seemed to break both of those cardinal rules in one tirade.
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Kansas City had just gotten done beating the Minnesota Twins 2-1 thanks to a bloop single by shortstop Alcides Escobar and a follow-up home run by all-star Alex Gordon. The Royals remained in first place in the American League Central and everyone should’ve been in a celebratory mood.
Everyone was, except Yost, who took time from his post game press conference to call the fans to task. See, that exciting 2-1 victory was seen by just 13,847 people and that was completely unacceptable to Yost.
Nevermind it being a school night, or temperatures in the mid 90’s in late August—the fans were to be called out for a seeming lack of support.
“I mean, what, 13,000 people got to see a great game?” Yost said in his post-game news conference.
But he didn’t stop his comments there, Yost instead went on to excoriate the fans:
“We’re in a pennant race, yeah. We’ve been working on trying to build this team for the last three or four years to put ourselves in a position where we can contend for a championship. And not only the division, but we want to contend for a world championship. It’s really, really important we have our fans behind us at the stadium.
“I know it’s a school night. But I’ve been through this before in Atlanta (when the Braves first made the playoffs) in ‘91, where it didn’t matter what night it was, that place was packed at the end of August and September. The fans really got into it.”
There was more, which you can fully read via Sam Mellinger’s column in the Kansas City Star.
Yost may want to revise his statements if he were to bother to know his history at all. You know, considering just 12,889 people showed up for the first place Braves on the same night (Aug. 26) in 1991. Or considering the fact that just over 15,000 people showed up at home games all season long for the Braves in their worst-to-first season.
It’s one thing to want the fans support and find ways to connect with them and make them care more. It’s an entirely different thing to try and do that by shaming a fan base that has seen nothing but losing baseball for the majority of the last 30 years.
Taking your fans to task isn’t a smart move for any coach at any level, and with one post-game rant, Yost managed to alienate the fans and tick off the boss. Now that’s impressive.