Pecas y Pecados
September 13, 2008
In a press conference after Milwaukee's ninth loss in 12 games, Manager Ned Yost confessed to having been confused about which team he was managing.
"I guess maybe it was a combination of the geographic proximity and the similarity of the uniforms," Yost told reporters. He added, "I always wanted to manage the Twins."
Yost's bench coach, Ted Simmons, said he remembered Yost making some strange, even inappropriate comments, but had just ignored the manager at first. "I thought maybe he was blowing off some steam," Simmons said. "One day he said something like, 'What's our plan for the Angels?' and I thought he was just trying to be funny, you know, like if we got to the World Series."
Yost had been baffling both reporters and his own team recently by remaining calm in the face of a serious losing skid and refusing to acknowledge the possibilty of a late-season collapse. The cause of the behavior was finally identified when Yost was asked about the NL Central standings and the toughness of the remaining schedule for the Brewers.
The manager responded by telling reporters that he does not pay much attention to the National League. "No I don't know how the Brewers are doing. I don't have time to watch those guys."
As reporters sat in silence after Yost's seemingly incongruent remarks, he continued, "I've got my own team to worry about. Why don't you ask me about the game with Baltimore and Justin [Morneau]'s 4 hits. Ask me about goddamn Scott [Baker]'s performance. Don't ask me about a team we may or may not play."
At that point, a local reporter pointed out to Yost that he was in fact the manager of the Brewers. Yost removed his cap, looked at the front, and then asked the convened media, "Doesn't 'M' stand for Minnesota?"
Unfortunately for Yost, he is (sort of) managing the Brewers, and for the second season in a row seems to be letting a lead slip away.
After the loss today, the Phillies are a mere 2 games back of the wild card leader, and with 2 games tomorrow in the day-night double-header, there could very easily be a tie for first come Monday morning.
