Ned Yost and the plight of the major-league red(bass): old-school against new-school

Most of the time, Royals manager Ned Yost appears to cherish time with the media the way most of us cherish time with our dentist. But ask him the right question and he doesn’t mind talking.

During a recent interview, a question about the baseball term red-(bass) got Yost rolling.

Red-(bass) is baseball slang for a guy with a temper. Yost said he wasn’t sure where the term originated, but freely admitted he used to be one. He then supplied a more elegant way of saying the same thing: “An ungracious out.”

Those are guys who make an out and then express their displeasure by testing the aerodynamic qualities of their helmet or seeing how many times they can whack a bat against a bat rack before one of them breaks.

When we see Yost with one foot on the top step of the dugout, staring stoically at the field, he’s sometimes also hearing an ungracious out doing his best to remodel the dugout bathroom with a Louisville Slugger.

The manager understands the impulse, but also said being a red-(bass) never worked well for him. Once he got angry, he couldn’t control his effort. And so he would go to the plate and swing out of his shoes or bounce throws to second base.

Once Yost got mad, he was a runaway train.

A game in transition

Talking about guys who have a temper led to talking about old-school guys who hustled, wouldn’t take crap from anybody and went about the business of baseball with a hard-nosed attitude.

When Yost was a player, a runner on first base was expected to hustle down and flip the pivot man on a double-play ground ball. The pivot man was expected to drop his arm down and whistle a baseball in the general vicinity of the runner’s head, which was a good way to convince the runner to slide early and give up the idea of flipping the pivot man.

A runner on second base was expected to knock the catcher on his backside if that’s what it took to score. The catcher was expected to knock the runner on his backside if that’s what it took to prevent the run from scoring.

If a hitter made too big a show of digging in, certain pitchers could be expected to throw one high and tight just to remind the hitter he shouldn’t get too comfortable. If the hitter took exception, he might put down a bunt near the first-base line and knock the pitcher into next week when he bent over to pick up the baseball.

If the pitcher decided the hitter needed to be drilled, most of the time the hitter took his punishment and his base and not much was said about it. The hitter would just remind himself that if he ever got the chance, the pitcher deserved some payback.

It was a tough brand of baseball, but everybody played it and expected their opponents to do the same.

When asked if the people currently in charge of big-league baseball would allow that kind of play today, Yost said no, that kind of play is gone.

In Yost’s opinion, baseball has changed more in the last 15 years than the previous 150. And that rapid transition has set up conflict between the old-school guys still hanging on and the new-school guys who’ve just arrived.

When you hear an old-school guy talk about “respecting the game,” he means respecting the game’s traditions: This is the way baseball was played before you got here and the way it should continue to be played.

But some of the new-school guys don’t give a darn about the game’s traditions. They’re starting traditions of their own.

The old-school guys say act like you’ve been there before; the new-school guys think it’s OK to flip their bat, yell, grab their crotch or express themselves by doing a celebratory rain dance.

Yost believes these conflicts will continue until the old-school guys are gone from the game and the new-school guys take over completely.

And the new school style of play is everywhere you look.

These days, runners peel off early to avoid contact with a double-play pivot man, catchers set up three feet out in front of home plate so there won’t be a collision, and if a pitcher decides to drill a hitter and the hitter takes exception, there are fines and suspensions designed to ensure nothing so barbaric happens again in the future.

When asked if the game was worse for these changes, Yost said it was only his opinion, but then offered, “of course.”

Eliminating exciting plays from the game isn’t the only reason paid attendance has dropped six years in a row, but there’s a real good chance it hasn’t helped.

Fear factor

Ned was asked if there was less fear in the game today and after some Yostian wrangling over the definition of fear, it pretty much came down to this: There’s less fear of being physically hurt, but fear of failure still remains.

Yost talked about pitchers who don’t trust their stuff, who think “I’ve gotta be careful here, I’ve gotta hit the corner,” instead of thinking, “I’m coming at you with my best stuff, try to hit it.”

In Ned’s opinion too many players are afraid of making a mistake — and part of his job is giving those players confidence. He says if those players believed in themselves the way he believes in them, they’d be great.

Fans who want to bench or demote any player who hits a rough patch — and spend time on social media saying so — make Ned’s job harder. He’s trying to build the players’ confidence while some fans are busy trying to tear it down.

As Jeff Francoeur once said, he might read an article about baseball but he’d never read the comments: “Why would I want that (stuff) in my head?”

Blending old, new

There’s a new generation of sports fans that finds old school, knock-‘em-on-their-butts baseball primitive and overly brutal — oddly enough, it’s the same generation that’s just fine with MMA fighting — but as Yost talked, it became clear that if they want to succeed, even the new-school players need some old-school attitude.

The new-school guys can greet each other with hugs, avoid contact with opposing players, help each other up if one of them falls down, wear flowers in their hair and believe it’s the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, but when the game is on the line they better channel their inner cave man.

You can’t play scared.

The difference between guys who can handle pitching the ninth inning and guys who can’t is often attitude. Same goes for the difference between guys you want at the plate with the game on the line and guys for whom you’d pinch-hit. And between a guy you want attempting that game-saving catch at the wall and a guy you can’t bear to watch.

No matter what year you were born or what school you’re part of, big-league baseball is still a very competitive sport that favors very competitive people.

Respect is two-way street

In the past, when Yost has discussed his managerial career, he’s made it clear that he had to learn when to back off; sometimes players need a kick in the rear, but other times need a pat on the back.

You can’t be a red-ass every minute of every day.

And by the end of the conversation, Yost sounded downright reasonable. He said he wasn’t saying he was right about how the game ought to be played; he was saying that’s the way he was taught to play the game.

He understands the game is changing and tries to respect other peoples’ opinion. But if he’s going to respect your opinion, he wouldn’t mind it if you respected his opinion just a little bit, too.

Everybody’s got a right to their opinion, even a reformed red-(bass).

This story was originally published April 30, 2019 at 2:28 PM.