Yost glad to be alive after injury on farm

Ned Yost spent Monday afternoon in a lounge chair at his farm just outside Atlanta, the pain from a shattered pelvis so unbearable that the only movement the Royals manager could make was to reposition.

He was happy for the pain, though. It reminded him he was alive.

Just over a week ago, Yost was working in a hunting stand on his property when he reached to attach a safety line. The stand somehow collapsed and Yost fell about 20 feet to the ground, and the landing was so hard that he sustained a “massive fracture” to his pelvis and four broken ribs.

He also lost so much blood that surgeons later told him he nearly died.

“I didn’t understand the gravity of the situation until I was through it,” said the 62-year-old Yost, an avid outdoorsman. “I’m just glad I had my phone, I’ll tell you that.”

Yost said he can’t put weight on either leg for at least two months, which means he’s confined to his lounge chair or a wheelchair. There are two rods, some plates and screws holding his pelvis together, and a good number of staples that are helping to keep the incision closed. But he vowed that by spring training, “I should be pretty much full-go.”

Anybody who knows Yost wouldn’t think otherwise.

The curmudgeonly manager prides himself on his toughness, a trait he’s instilled in the Royals over the years.