2005 Season in Review; Brewing Process; Yost, Franchise Ready to Build On Success

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel › October 05, 2005

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Summary

As Milwaukee Brewers manager Ned Yost sat in the visiting manager's office Sunday morning at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, hoping for one more victory and a winning season that would be denied later that day, he reflected back on close ones that got away.

"You think of all the games that you could have won over the course of the year and wished you could have won one more," Yost said wistfully.

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2005 Season in Review; Brewing Process; Yost, Franchise Ready to Build On Success

The fact that the Brewers were in position for their manager to ruminate over such matters was an indication of how far they had come since the end of the 2004 season. On the final day of that campaign, during which the Brewers suffered the worst second-half meltdown in major-league history, all Yost wanted to think about was going home and starting over.

So, although an 81-81 record this year gave no reason to crack open a case of champagne, it did provide hope for a franchise that had suffered 12 consecutive losing seasons. The won-loss record was tangible evidence that the Brewers were moving forward, not spinning their wheels.

Lessons that were learned the hard way in '04 came without such agony this time around. Young players grew up a bit. Veteran players learned the difference between winning and losing. The confidence level in the Brewers' clubhouse took a quantum leap forward.

Not that any of it was a walk on the beach.

"Last year, they learned through adversity," said Yost, who had his season wrap-up media session Tuesday at Miller Park.

"This year was more a case of learning through the pressure of expectations. You can go back over the year and see how many times we got to .500 and co...

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