Living among the Cheeseheads, I can tell you that most Brewer fans did not shed any tears over yesterday's dismissal of Milwaukee Brewers Manager Ned Yost.

Yost's managerial abilities have been called into question for several years by both fans and large headed sports talk radio hosts named after fire dogs. Now, they'll all see how the Brewers will do without him.

In listening to and reading all the local information available, it's never what they tell you when someone gets fired. "He was a hard worker, had a great work ethic, was passionate about the team" is code for "nice guy, good company man, hate to fire him, but he's killing us."  They dance around any specifics because they've already moved on and they want you to move on too. 

General Manager Doug Melvin, in his comments last night in a televised news conference said he asked Yost directly Sunday night why the team was losing and said Yost responded that he didn't know.  At this point, one can assume that Melvin felt that Yost was quickly turning into Captain Queeg and that removing him was probably best not only for the team but for Yost himself.  If the Brewers were to collapse for a second year in a row, Yost might be found in the corner of his office in the fetal position following the last game of the season.

The fact is, when the shooting starts, Yost gets tight and that gets passed down to his team.  Melvin, in what many see as a desperate attempt to unpucker everybody, felt that removing Yost from the equation for the lower key Sveum was the only answer.

This does not excuse the poor play of Ben Sheets, Ricky Weekes, Cory Hart nor the malformed Brewer bullpen which earlier this season rested their hopes on Eric Gagne.  The fact that there is some culpability on Melvin's part seemed to be swept under the rug.  Nobody at the press conference had Melvin address the state of the bullpen, a key problem with the Brewers all year.

The debate is on as to whether it was, Melvin, an astute and respected baseball man who pulled the trigger or owner Mark Antinasio.  If it was the Brewers owner (as the local media suspects) then he won't take responsibility for it.  In a press conference last night, he danced around the question saying that everything the Brewers do is part of a continuous dialog and that Melvin has the final call.  Of course when the boss says "him or you", it's a fairly easy call.  For most people, anyway.  My gut tells me it was Melvin's call and Antinasio signed off on it.

One other thought: Sometimes in the wake of bad news, organizations create distractions to control the news cycle.  Firing Yost is now the top story in Milwaukee this morning and it's more about the Brewers firing their manager than the fact that they just had their asses handed to them in Philadelphia and blew a four game wild card lead.  With tongues busy wagging about Yost, the losing part is contained for the moment.  If Sveum can rally the troops, all will be well behind the Cheese Curtain and the fact that the Brewers took out a manager that had his team 16 games above .500 will become a footnote to the team's first playoff appearance since 1982.