Yost recalls hitless season in high school

CLEVELAND -- Royals manager Ned Yost, doing a little reminiscing, recalled how slow his baseball career was to take off.

"I went a whole year in high school [Dublin, Calif.] without getting a hit, 0-for-36 my sophomore year," Yost said. "I didn't get a hit all year. The next year, I hit like .420 and the year after that, .350 or something like that and was all-conference. I didn't play varsity until I was a senior in high school."

Yost knew what made the difference for him.

"But I got real strong and grew up between my junior and senior years that summer. Kentucky Fried Chicken gave me all my strength," Yost said.

"I went to work for Kentucky Fried Chicken. I was a pot scrubber. I'd sit there and scrub pots all summer long and my arms got strong. And I came back and had a cannon for an arm. I never hit a home run until I was in college."

That college was Chabot Junior College in Hayward, Calif.

"I had no offers to play anywhere so I walked on at Chabot," he said. "The counselor asked me what I was going to do and I said I was going to be a Major League baseball player. She said, 'Do you know the odds of that?'"

Yost beat the odds and reached the Majors as a catcher for six years with the Brewers, Rangers and Expos.

"I always knew all along," he said.