Former Cardinals manager Mike Matheny back in St. Louis, but in the other team’s dugout
The last time Mike Matheny managed at Busch Stadium, the Cardinals which he led came out of a rain delay on a steamy Saturday and proceeded to melt down against a largely non-competitive Cincinnati Reds team.
They fell to 47-46 at the end of a three-game losing streak, and Matheny was dismissed with the ability to narrowly claim that he didn’t have a losing record in any of the seven seasons in which he managed the Cardinals.
The next time he manages here will be on Wednesday afternoon, as his Kansas City Royals arrive to take on the Cardinals in St. Louis’s only exhibition game before the shortened 2020 season opens on Friday.
Given the surreality of all that surrounds baseball and the broader world this year, Mike, where does being back rank?
“I’ve actually never seen this other clubhouse, so this was all kind of new,” Matheny admitted from the visitor’s side on Wednesday afternoon. “It all feels like just another step. It’s great being back here.
“So grateful for the opportunity to wear the Cardinals jersey as a player. Kind of a second career really started for me there, and then the privilege and pleasure of managing here was very special.”
Matheny’s attempts to correct what he perceived to be his flaws in his first managerial stint — resistance to outside opinions, churlishness with the media, disconnects with young players — have been well documented. Given that his charges in Kansas City are expected to build rather than to win, Matheny himself will have time to grow in his process.
The connections to the current Cardinals dugout still run deep.
Cardinals manager Mike Shildt was, after all, a member of Matheny’s staff for a season and a half and the manager of Double-A Springfield and Triple-A Memphis for the five years preceding. Those professional connections don’t sever with a contract.
“I have respect for Mike,” Shildt said Tuesday. “Grateful for the opportunity. I’m here for a lot of reasons but Mike was the one who put me on a big league staff, and I’ll always be grateful for that...It’ll be good to welcome Mike back to the ballpark.”
President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak has ties to Matheny which run even deeper. Mozeliak was climbing through the team’s scouting department and then front office as Matheny joined the organization as a player in 2000.
It was Mozeliak who saw in Matheny a leadership quality that gave Matheny the opportunity to seize his first managing position — first of any sort, at any level higher than little league.
“I’m very happy for Mike,” said Mozeliak about Matheny’s return. “Had a really positive relationship with him. Would call him a friend.
“I’m very happy for him to get back into baseball and get back into managing. It’s obviously an exciting time for him. I’m sure like everyone, everybody wants normal but we’re all adjusting in this pandemic. I’m sure just getting back to baseball and actually returning to Busch Stadium will feel good to him.”
It does.
“Kind of hit a different level when I got here and I’m looking a little more deeply at rosters and how many guys that I have a relationship with, a deep care for them and their families,” Matheny said.
Royals rookie Brady Singer will start Kansas City’s second game of the regular season. Matheny was asked several questions about the importance of Singer being able to share his debut with his family, and he hearkened back to the connections forged in his first managerial job.
“I was able to go through a number of these same stories and to meet the families and to see the celebrations and to have so many positive things happen, those are things you don’t just wipe out of your memory,” he said. “These are people that I care for deeply and an organization that was beyond good to me.”
Matheny’s return is another type of rarity, given the paucity of managers employed by the Cardinals over the last quarter century.
Not since Joe Torre’s Los Angeles Dodgers left town on July 18th, 2010 has a former Cardinals manager managed against them in St. Louis.
Aside from Torre’s 14 regular season and one postseason game while managing the New York Yankees and Dodgers between 1995 and 2010, the only former Cardinals manager in the last 56 years to manage against the club here was Vern Rapp, who shepherded the Cincinnati Reds to a 1-5 Busch Stadium II record in 1984. The win was Rapp’s last game as a big league manager; he was replaced by Pete Rose the next day.
Matheny’s not concerned about his replacement. He’s still, months later, the new guy on the job himself. And as much as he was gracious about his former club, he was the same old laser-focused Mike in emphasizing that his attention is on the here and now.
“I’ve got a new home here,” he emphasized. “I couldn’t have been treated any better than I’ve been treated in Royal blue right now, and the community and also in this organization. It’s been a nice transition, and this isn’t the first time I’ve made a team change.
“You don’t forget the people and you don’t forget the memories. You learn from them, you become better for all of those, and now you move on and try to do the same thing, if not more and better where you’re going next.”
