Former Royals manager Ned Yost spent first summer of retirement canning vegetables
Last summer was Ned Yost’s first without professional baseball since 1973.
After retiring as Royals manager following the 2019 season, Yost headed to his Georgia farm as planned, but tried his hand at something new: canning vegetables with his wife, Deborah.
During an interview Wednesday with KCSP (610 AM), Yost talked veggies.
“Well, we planted for the first time a bunch of tomatoes,” Yost said. “We planted okra, we planted cucumbers, we planted bell peppers. We planted jalapeno peppers. We planted corn in the garden. We planted squash. You know, I didn’t know, I was like, ‘Why are we planting squash,’ and then you figure out how to make the squash casserole and you figure it out. It was great.
“I learned how to can this summer. So we made our own salsa from the tomatoes. You know, we probably ate bacon and tomato sandwiches four days a week, because the tomatoes were so good. My daughter loves okra and she likes pickled okra. So we pickled okra, we make pickles, we, you know, we did the whole gamut. I’m telling you what, I’m looking forward to doing it again this year.“
Yost, 66, will hold a special place in Royals’ history having been manager when they made World Series appearances in 2014 and 2015, winning the championship in the second try. He was the team’s manager for nearly 10 full seasons.
Those October runs made the offseason even shorter than usual. Even in the winter months, Yost’s mind was on the upcoming season. That wasn’t the case when he got to the farm in 2019.
Life has slowed down in retirement and Yost was asked if he’s enjoying it.
“Oh, we are and it is everything that I could have imagined,” Yost said. “You know, you work hard your whole life and like I said, it was my first summer off, really, to be able to just wake up in the morning and kind of do whatever you wanted to do. It was a little strange at first. Last year during the winter when I got home, like I really didn’t do anything, because I knew that I had time.
“Normally you get home from the baseball season, you hit the ground running, because you only get 2 1/2, three months before you got to go back again and you got so much you want to do. And it’s nonstop and you don’t really get to enjoy it and then bam, you’re back in baseball. So last year when we got home, I didn’t really do much for a couple of months knowing that I don’t have to do anything today. I don’t have to do anything tomorrow. And that’s gonna continue. So waking up every day doing whatever you felt like doing was really kind of fun and nice.“
You can listen to the entire interview here.
