Yost said he was blindsided when the Brewers dismissed him as manager on Monday, the first morning since Aug. 2 that the team's players, coaches and front office officials woke up without sole possession of the National League Wild Card.

The Phillies pulled into a tie with the Brewers atop those standings on Sunday by finishing a four-game sweep in Philadelphia that ultimately cost Yost his job. Dale Sveum was tabbed to manage the final 12 games of the regular season.

"I put my heart and soul into this for six years and I sure wanted to see it through, but on the other side of it I know that I am walking out of here with my head held high and I don't care what anybody says," said Yost, who decided to take part in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday morning, about 24 hours after he joined the unemployment ranks.

"We're 16 games over .500 at this point and there wasn't anybody who could tell me we weren't going to make the playoffs," Yost said. "Maybe it hasn't sunk in all the way yet, but I don't feel, like, horrible about it."

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only two teams in contention had changed managers during the season's final month. In the 1981 season interrupted by a strike, the Yankees reached the playoffs by virtue of their first-place standing in the AL East before play was halted. During the second half, manager Gene Michael was replaced by Bob Lemon with 25 games to go.

The other instance came in 1930, when the Cubs -- three games behind the Cardinals with four to play -- dismissed Joe McCarthy and turned the team over to star Rogers Hornsby. The reigning NL MVP guided the Cubs to four straight wins, but the Cardinals won three of four to clinch the pennant.

The decision to replace Yost with Sveum came hours after the Brewers' Wild Card lead had vanished in a four-game Phillies sweep that outfielder Ryan Braun called, "a complete and total disaster."

Braun's candid comments conjured memories of May 18 in Boston, when the young left fielder, three days removed from signing a new eight-year contract, chided the Brewers for "not expecting to win" any of their three games against the World champion Red Sox.

Internet-fueled rumors flew the following morning that Yost was out, though they proved untrue and the Brewers immediately rebounded. They won 12 of their next 16 games, went 16-10 in June, 16-11 in July and 20-7 in August to take a commanding lead -- 5 1/2-games through Sept. 1 -- in the NL Wild Card standings.

This time, he didn't make it through. Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio flew from Los Angeles to Chicago overnight after the Phillies series, met with general manager Doug Melvin and then called Yost to Melvin's hotel suite at 10:30 a.m. CT to deliver the news.

According to Attanasio, Yost was asked to provide answers for the team's slide and had none. That's when the decision was made to dismiss him.

"That's not what happened," Yost said. "When I walked in, I hadn't even sat on the couch and Doug said, 'We're going to make a change.'

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"Over the course of the next 15 minutes of our conversation, I did mention that I had no idea what had happened the last two weeks. I had no answers. But the thing that came out was, 'We are going to make a change.' They didn't ask me any questions, what did I think? What do we need to do? There was none of that, no."

Did he feel wronged by thee organization he helped resuscitate?

"I don't agree with the decision, but I respect Doug Melvin's decisions," Yost said. "I don't understand a lot of things, I don't accept the decision, but I respect the decision."

Yost refused to criticize his players during their September swoon, insisting even after Sunday's discouraging doubleheader that, "I chalk up today to how well [the Phillies] are playing," and that he was "counting on" the team being able to suddenly turn things around beginning Tuesday night against the Cubs.

"You make yourself see it," Yost said Sunday night in his final public comments as manager. "You don't sit in a dark room. ...

"I look at it as we're driving down a bumpy road, and bumpy roads are never endless. You may just pass into a new state and they have more money to spend on roads and all of a sudden they get smooth. We just have to wait until that bumpy road gets smooth."

Privately, some players said they saw through Yost's newly-sunny demeanor. They described a divided clubhouse between those who supported Yost and those who were frustrated with Yost because he was perceived to be unwilling to change an opinion once it was formed.

One player said earlier this season that when he walked into Yost's office to ask for the manager's thinking on a particular decision, he walked out sorry he had ever walked in.

Yost denied that he had any problems with any players.

"My door was always open and when we had issues, we talked about it," Yost said. "I think you can in that clubhouse and ask everybody. Did they agree with everything I did? No, that's not going to be the case. But did we have issues with each other that's not conducive to chemistry on the club? No way."

He also vehemently denied the notion that he got nervous when the team started to swoon, and that nervousness rubbed off on players.

"When we were 20-7 [in August], was I tight then?" Yost asked. "No, we were winning ballgames. I've always been a fierce competitor and I never have settled for mediocrity, ever, in my life. When I see us at times not fulfilling our potential, it does get me a little upset. Did I handle that? Yes. Did I scream, rant and rave? No. Did I ever thrown anybody under the bus because of it? No. ...

"If you think that I'm going to sit by and watch what we've done the last two weeks in a chair and laugh and eat sunflower seeds, then you don't know me very well. A lot of this stuff gets a little blown out of proportion and a little ridiculous, but that's because people have to watch from afar and make judgments."

He did concede that it's no fluke that the Brewers have struggled in the second half under his watch. That's one of the issues he will mull during his unwanted down time.

"It's my job to get those guys to play the game the way they are capable of playing," Yost said, "and for the last two Septembers, that hasn't happened. I take full responsibility for that and I'm going to have to delve real hard and long and think this thing out. Why is this happening? It can't be coincidence, because two years in a row, it shows to be a trend. I'll figure out what my part was in that and go from there."

Attanasio wouldn't say Monday night whether his next manager would be someone with big league experience.

"We're nowhere even close to being there yet," Attanasio said.

Ditto for Yost on the future of his own career, though he vowed, "I will manage again." He was groomed by Atlanta skipper Bobby Cox, who has already announced he will return next season and will turn 68 in May. Yost still lives in the Atlanta area and remains close to Cox, who called Monday night and was upset with the news.

Yost hopes to be remembered in Milwaukee for the positives. He inherited a 106-loss team after the 2002 season, and by 2005 led the Brewers to an 81-81 record, snapping a streak of 12 consecutive losing seasons. They went 83-79 in 2007 for their first winning season since 1992, set a record with 41 sellouts, including 22 in a row in one stretch, and will set a club record by drawing three million fans before the year is out.

There's only one regret.

"I pretty much accomplished everything I set out to do except for getting this club to the playoffs, and I still feel strongly I would have done that," Yost said. "Now all my best wishes and my hopes are with them, with Dale Sveum and that group, and I'll go home and watch the last two weeks and watch them make it to the playoffs."

He added: "I'll be celebrating with them wherever I'm at. If anybody thinks I have sour grapes and don't want this club to succeed, they're crazy. I'm going to be rooting them on every inch of the way."