Lib Shildt circled the date, but didn’t live to see her son win NL Manager of the Year

When you speak to Mike Shildt often enough, you develop a clear understanding of the unique places that two driving forces in his life hold in his heart – his mother, Lib, and the history and tradition of St. Louis Cardinals baseball.

It’s then both fitting and tragic that he would seize such a firm hold on his place in one so close to losing the other.

Shildt was named the 2019 National League Manager of the Year on Tuesday night, edging out Milwaukee’s Craig Counsell and Atlanta’s Brian Snitker. His mother passed away late last week in Charlotte at the age of 85, following a long pulmonary illness.

The Redbirds’ skipper received 10 first place votes for the award from members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America – three fewer than Counsell – but won the award by seven points by virtue of receiving eight more second place votes than the Brewers’ bench boss.

Snitker received three first place votes and Los Angeles’s Dave Roberts received four to finish in fourth place. Shildt becomes the only winner in the award’s history to have never played professional baseball at any level and is the third Cardinals manager to win, following Whitey Herzog in 1985 and Tony La Russa in 2002.

“It’s really just surreal to think… on a daily basis think about the company that you keep in the history of our organization,” Shildt said Tuesday night. “To think I’m a part of that group and to share this award with two people like Tony and Whitey is really something quite honestly that I haven’t got my head around. It’s very special, that’s for sure.”

Most of the Cardinals’ field staff celebrated in Jupiter, FL on Tuesday night at a gathering arranged by Shildt’s girlfriend and her twin sister. Third base coach Pop Warner was prevented from traveling to Florida by snow and assistant coach Willie McGee is with his family in California, but the rest of the uniformed coaches were there to celebrate what, ultimately, Shildt deemed a “staff award.”

“This is an award for first of all having a good team and having a bunch of players that are doing what they can do,” Shildt explained. “No award gets accomplished in this regard without a good team. The ability to have a staff that is cohesive, that is supportive, that works in concert with each other is very important.

“We were able to have a group of a bunch of guys that really just pulled together. I just happened to be the guy that had the ability to be in quote unquote charge of that, but reality is everybody here is together.”

The Cardinal coaches were gathering at the team’s facility in Florida this week as the general managers’ meetings took place in Scottsdale, Arizona. Shildt will return to his home in North Carolina next week for his mother’s funeral services, but emphasized that, “this industry doesn’t slow down. It’s not going to slow down for anybody.”

Lib Shildt knew that reality better than most.

Mike’s introduction to baseball came as a clubhouse attendant for the Double-A Charlotte O’s while his mom worked in the team’s front office. She was a constant presence throughout his baseball career, often engaging him in long phone conversations about lineups and strategy. On occasion, he would sheepishly report that he had been upbraided for profane language that may have been captured by television cameras.

Even as she entered a Charlotte-area hospital toward the end of her life, she had her eyes on Mike’s big prize. Though unable to verbally communicate, she would consistently push her nurses and caregivers to write November 12th – the date of the award presentation – on the informational board containing her vitals and other medical data.

“She looks to the nurse and she goes, ‘5-5-2,’” Shildt recounted Tuesday. “And the nurse is like, ‘we’re playing charades?’

“Later I walked in the room, got through some of her stuff, got the transition, and she looked at me and she goes, 5-5-2. The nurse was like, ‘what is she saying? She said something about baseball, I got that part.’ She’s mentioning the 12th. She’s like, ‘how am I supposed to get that?’ And I said, “well, you shouldn’t.”

Shildt said his mother became emotional upon realizing she would likely pass away before the date arrived, but he told her, “you know what, you’re gonna know before I am.”

The two were able to “have some closure” before Lib passed, which Mike said meant a great deal to him.

In the end, the winner of the award did everything he could to deflect attention away from himself. He credited the staff, was proud on behalf of his mother, and expressed his certain gratitude, but as is his custom, saw the accomplishment as ultimately one for others to enjoy.

“My mom was remarkable, and it still hasn’t sunk in in total and I don’t know if it ever will, what that loss is gonna feel like,” Shildt said. “But the fact of the matter is this isn’t a date that I circled.”

“My focus has always been, hopefully always will be, how do we get our guys to get the most out of their God-given ability? How do we serve them? How do we be intentional about doing our part to begin to move things forward?”

“It’s not about me. It never has been.”

This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 7:00 AM.