Cardinals’ interim boss began polishing his resume at future stars’ feet in Charlotte
Given Mike Shildt’s background, it seems inevitable that the Charlotte native would end up with an important role in the majors. His biggest job to date started this weekend, but critical early steps in his baseball career came decades ago in North Carolina.
Shildt was named the St. Louis Cardinals’ interim manager Saturday after the club shocked the baseball world by firing Mike Matheny. Shildt gets the reins of the Major League Baseball club at least through the end of the season.
Shildt’s career started in the most humble of jobs — shining shoes and working the scoreboard for the Charlotte Orioles, where his mother worked as an administrative assistant.
In the minor league team’s clubhouse, Shildt didn’t just polish cleats, he learned about the game from coaches and rising players. Among his mentors were future Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr. and Eddie Murray.
“You learn your ABC’s of baseball at a young age,” Shildt told the Observer in 2016 when he was in the city as a manager in the Triple-A All-Star Game. “I learned mine from some really good people.”
Shildt played high school baseball at Olympic High and then went on to letter three time as a UNC Asheville infielder. But as a Bulldogs freshman, he realized he would never make the majors as a player.
“I knew where I stood ... and I realized I was a little more gifted mentally than I was physically,” he said.
So he set his sights on scouting and coaching, working as an assistant for his college alma mater in the early ‘90s before moving to high school coaching jobs.
As a young head coach at West Charlotte in 1995, he led the Lions to their first winning season in 16 years. That was, incidentally, the same year, nearly a quarter century ago, that the Cardinals last made an in-season managerial change.
Shildt was named the Observer’s baseball coach of the year in 1996. But his high school coaching career ended when West Charlotte’s administration replaced him with a full-time faculty member to comply with an N.C. High School Athletic Association rule that discouraged non-faculty coaches.
He landed with the Charlotte 49ers, where as an assistant under Loren Hibbs, Shildt made a name for himself as a hitting instructor.
Shildt served as an associate scout for the MLB Scouting Bureau from 1999-2003 before joining the Cardinals organization, where he began working his way up the coaching ladder.
In eight seasons as a minor-league manager in the Cardinals organization, Shildt won three league championships. He’s in just his second season in St. Louis; he was the Cards’ bench coach before Saturday’s promotion.
Shildt maintains ties to the Charlotte area. The Cardinals’ website says he still has a home in Matthews.
Shildt also founded the On Deck Baseball Academy, which has programs to develop young players, in Pineville. He’s a co-chairman of Baseball For Life, an area nonprofit that sponsors a mentoring program.
John Mozeliak, Cardinals’ president of baseball operations, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that “due diligence” for a search for a permanent manager would take place during the season but the hunt would continue in the offseason.
This story was originally published July 15, 2018 at 10:43 PM.