[Terry D]

Ned Yost needs little introduction. He has had a long career as a manager, enjoying varying success of which the '15 series was the high point. Before that he was a player, catching in the majors for the Brewers (1980-83) Rangers (1984) and Expos (1985). To tell the truth, he was a pretty poor player. He spent most of his brief MLB career as backup, but unlike most reserve catchers he was not very good defensively. Ned did hit fairly OK in limited duty with the Brewers in 81 and 82 (.856 and .752 OPS), but when Simmons moved out of the catching job in 83 and Ned got more playing time his numbers went down sharply (.595 OPS). Despite this, Yost looked good to Doug Rader. Rader had come to hate Jim Sundberg and wanted him gone, so Sundberg went to Milwaukee and Yost took over Sunny's job as the Texas Rangers' No. 1 catcher. The result was a disaster which ruined Yost's playing career and ultimately helped get Rader fired (yay!). Poor Ned hit just .182 and before the season was out he had lost his job to rookie Donnie Scott (who was no better). The Rangers released Ned the following spring and he signed as a free agent with the Expos. He got into just five games for Montreal in '85, hit .182 again, and was done. A black and white headshot of him with the 'spos has been out there for a while, but here is a much better full body photo I found on picclick. It looks like some sort of team issue item. One thing I do like about Ned, he always seems to be smiling, as he is here. If you've had as many ups and downs in baseball as Ned's had you'd need to learn how to smile your way through too.