Monday, Monday

     Two of the biggest names in Kansas City sports were in part, or in whole, involved in major stories that broke as the week begins. Ned Yost has decided to step down as the Royals manager, and Bill Self is a significant part of the NCAA’s Notice of Allegations handed down on Monday. While each story is quite complicated with many layers, why don’t we start with the more feel-good event.

     At age 65, and after over 45 years directly involved with major league baseball, Yost has decided to retire. His tenure as manager can be viewed in just about any way you choose, but there is one undeniable fact….he presided over the greatest franchise achievement in the past thirty years. Some would say that “presided over” is the best way to put it, and much of the opinion on his impact on two World Series appearances, and one World Series, title tilts mightily on your view of the value of a baseball manager.

     Yost finishes up with almost one hundred more losses than wins, with three winning seasons, five losing years, and one .500 team. He also ends his career with the highest post-season winning percentage in baseball history. He is more than an enigma. In soccer the term “man manager” is used. It denotes the strength of leading people, a separate category from developing strategies. I think that Ned’s strength was definitely in the former.

     Before moving on to a few more specifics, lets do what so many are doing right now….tell you my favorite Ned story, or at least the most illuminating to me. It was the day before the 2014 ALCS in Baltimore. When this series arrived I had covered Ned Yost for five full seasons, five spring trainings, literally hundreds of press gatherings. He was the Ned we were so familiar with early on, prickly, defensive, sarcastic, and with a general disdain for those he really perceived as non-baseball people. It wasn’t all unpleasant, there was some slight undertone of fun, but it wasn’t a picnic either.

     We hadn’t staffed the games in L.A., so the big pre-series press conference after beating the Angels was my first real time to see Ned before the national media as a man who accomplished something. He would often say subsequently that he didn’t really count the Wild Card game, although the amazing rally likely saved his job.

     I settled in and sat almost guppy-mouthed as a relaxed, humorous, engaged, and pleasant Ned Yost fielded questions, and seemed to really enjoy doing it. I went on the air right after, and the first words I said were “Who the hell was that???!!!”. It was a remarkable transformation. Of course, it’s not as if Ned would turn into some media teddy bear after that, but the difference was clear.

     I probably lean to the side that says that Ned Yost was a pretty average manager, who had some magic on his side, and a way to make players feel good about themselves. There is really no case to be made that he wasn’t what he was often painted, a below average strategist. But that probably isn’t the most important things a baseball manager can bring to the table. There are a rare few managers who really seem to combine the two. Terry Francona comes to mind as an example of that.

     Ned could hit Alcides Escobar leadoff against all logic and have it work, to a point, at the most important time he needed it. His bullpen strategy of a clean inning for all worked because he had studs to execute it. But at their height, his teams played with guts and passion, and that is indeed a reflection of their leader.

      I feel great for Ned. He is young enough to really enjoy his farm life. He can come back to Kansas City and be a hero anytime he sees fit. I don’t see him as an active baseball participant. If he wants to be, fine, but I think just the occasional autograph session or clubhouse visit would be just great. He has a big fat ring to flash anytime. Good on you.

     Bill Self will someday come around to Lawrence as a returning hero, even if some very drastic things occur to his program. Kansas has been hit with some big-time, Level One, allegations. They will fight back, and anyone who says with any certainty to know what the end game becomes, is kidding themselves.

     This is really just a beginning, and people will go down the litany of improprieties with their opinions greatly influenced by where their loyalty lies. But I believe I can say a few things clearly that shouldn’t really be very controversial. KU and its staff, in my mind, just fell victim to a culture that became familiar and accepted.

     For quite a few years, Kansas was always in on the very top guys, but they seldom got them. It would appear very likely now that an escalating system of inducements, fueled by third parties, almost exclusively shoe companies, was often in place to land these players. Unless you were a brazen idiot like Rick Pitino, a head coach could easily set up a structure of plausible deniability at the least.

     In the last decade or so, KU started to land some of the top, or THE top players. We now know with virtually certainly there was price tag attached to most, one that had grown over time, to the point where what once seemed a trivial part of the landscape, was now far more unseemly. But it also came in an atmosphere where more and more people were in favor of escalated player compensation, so that likely made it seem a litttle more acceptable.

     But the FBI investigation laid it all bare, and the NCAA was now too embarrassed. The first few schools involved are likely to become examples that things have to change. KU has had the misfortune to be in that group, but any blueblood that gets significant punishment will not have anything to complain about. KU, and their fans, will lament that this school or that school did something worse, or is not getting the same treatment, but trying to put up any kind of veil of innocence is absurd.

     I don’t believe that Bill Self was directly involved in payments, but that’s about the only bit of sunshine I will bring to this mostly cloudy sky. This had become the price of doing business at the very top, and you decided to become part of that in-crowd.

     This will not be decided for a long time, so fiddling with each detail is for others. As I said, much like the current political climate, the behavior of each entity will be viewed based on loyalties, not reason, which is a shame, but a reality.

     The other shame that I have come to grudgingly see as a reality, not an acceptance, is that most fans just hope somehow the penalties aren’t great. They can’t really try and say that things were above board, so they merely don’t want banners down and postseason games lost. They will be fed red meat with strongly worded protestations and appeals.

     It’s just the sordid middle of what will be a long and meandering trail. Pick your victim, pick your villain, if you can really hypnotize yourself, pick a hero.

     Yuck.