Brewers extend Yost's contract

02/25/2006
PHOENIX -- The Brewers rewarded manager Ned Yost on Saturday with a contract extension that could keep him in Milwaukee through 2009.
Yost, 51, a former Brewers backup catcher who is entering his fourth season as manager and the final season of his current contract, got a two-year deal through 2008. The team holds an option for 2009.
"Everybody is very, very excited for Ned," said outfielder Geoff Jenkins, who has played for five different Brewers managers. "Nobody deserves it more than him. Nobody works harder and wants more for this organization than Ned."
The Brewers originally hired Yost on Oct. 29, 2002, after general manager Doug Melvin and assistant general manager Gord Ash took over in a major organizational shake-up. They inherited a franchise coming off its worst season, a 106-loss debacle that featured a managerial firing, clubhouse infighting and fan disgust.
The Brewers went 68-94 in Yost's first season and 67-94 in his second, but improved to 81-81 in 2005, snapping a 12-year losing streak. Attendance has risen in each season and will improve again in 2006 if Saturday's record-setting sales are any indication.
"The first time, I just signed whatever they threw at me," said Yost, who handled his own negotiations. "I just wanted an opportunity to prove myself. I had a pretty good idea that I felt like I could do it, but I wanted to prove it to myself and to everybody else."
The Brewers picked up Yost's 2006 option in August, and talks on an extension began in December, when Yost was in Milwaukee to unveil the team's retro Sunday uniforms. Melvin, who got a three-year extension during the offseason, made a first offer in early February and the deal was finalized Saturday morning, when Yost agreed to the 2009 club option.
Players were informed a few hours later, just before Yost delivered his annual address in the first full-squad meeting.
"We still have a young team, but it's really good for them to hear at the beginning of the year that the baseball management is set," said Brewers owner Mark Attanasio, who flew in Saturday and also addressed the team. "If you look at well-run companies on Wall Street, they don't have a lot of changes. And if you look at well-run baseball teams like the Atlanta Braves, they don't either."
Before Attanasio purchased the team in 2004, Melvin did a study of teams that have succeeded despite having limited budgets. Most, like the Minnesota Twins and Oakland A's, have enjoyed relative stability.
"When you're a team like ours that has to build, the one thing you need is stability," Melvin said. "You need that with your front office, your manager, your scouts for good things to happen."
Yost insisted that he "never entertained for a second" the idea of asking for an "out" clause in his deal. He cut his coaching teeth in the Atlanta Braves system under manager Bobby Cox, and some have speculated that Yost may be enticed back should Cox, 64, retire.
"When I said three years ago that I wanted to be the Brewers manager, I wasn't lying," Yost said. "I love Milwaukee, I love these kids, I love this team, I love Miller Park. I would never do that."
Yost played his first four Major League seasons with the Brewers from 1980-1983 and was part of the 1982 club that won the American League pennant. He hit only one of that team's 216 home runs, but it was a three-run, ninth-inning shot over Fenway Park's Green Monster that beat the Red Sox on Sept. 29, 1982, and gave Milwaukee a four-game lead over Baltimore with five games to play. The Brewers won the AL East on the last day of the regular season.
Milwaukee GM Harry Dalton traded Yost to Texas before the 1984 season, and Yost played with Montreal in 1985 before finishing his career in the Braves Minor League system. Yost was hired to manage the Braves' Class A Sumter affiliate in 1988, the year after he retired from playing, and later spent 12 season as the Braves' bullpen and third base coach.
Along the way, he learned about focus and determination from legendary NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, a hunting buddy. Yost worked on Earnhardt's pit crew during the 1994 Major League Baseball strike and wears No. 3 in honor of Earnhardt, who died in a racetrack crash five years ago.
"He's a great communicator and motivator," current Brewers backup catcher Chad Moeller said of Yost. "You know he's got your back. You know if he has something to do with you, it's going to be done in an office instead of in public. He's not there to embarrass you. He's got your back, and for that reason, you've got his."
Yost and his wife, Deborah, have three sons and a daughter. Yost's oldest son, Ned IV, is entering his second season in the Brewers Minor League system.

Source: http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/