Ned Yost earned his way into the Royals Hall of Fame with a steady, winning hand | Opinion

When Denny Matthews, the Royals Hall of Fame broadcaster, thinks about what made former team manager Ned Yost, newly elected to the team’s hall of fame, so successful in postseason games, he says it comes down to “consistency.”

“He wasn’t any different postseason than he was regular season,” Matthews says. “And that really relieves pressure off the guys. So they went into the postseason feeling much the same as they did in the regular year. Some guys get overwhelmed with the postseason even though they’re pros. Consistency. Ned was the same guy in spring training as he was postseason.”

Yost, who led the team to back-to-back World Series appearances in 2014 and 2015, and to a world championship in 2015, wound up with a .710 postseason winning percentage (22-9) with the Royals. And that percentage is the best in major league history.

Indeed, Yost’s approach to leadership, which he learned through some bumps on the road — especially when he managed the Milwaukee Brewers for six years (2003-2008) — is one that leaders in many fields could learn from. He was anything but mercurial, though no doubt a few umpires thought differently when he protested some of their calls. But as a manager of highly paid baseball players who rarely lack self-confidence, it took someone of Yost’s even temperament to turn a group of talented individuals into a world-beating team.

Matthews, who has watched every single manager the Royals ever had, says that Yost knew this about his players: “If he didn’t get in their way, they were going to be fine. It was the same attitude I saw out of Whitey Herzog and Dick Howser,” both of whom had successful careers as Royals managers.

So maybe when Yost becomes the 27th inductee into the Royals Hall of Fame before the club’s Sept. 2 game at Kauffman Stadium, the display about him will feature some of his leadership tips. And maybe all of us should invite leaders in other fields, including politics, to stop by and learn something.