Tony La Russa has nothing but praise for current Cardinals manager Mike Shildt

As expected, Tony La Russa has nothing but praise for St. Louis Cardinals skipper Mike Shildt.

After spending a decade out of baseball, 76-year-old Tony La Russa’s Chicago White Sox will welcome his former employer in Mike Shildt’s St. Louis Cardinals to the South Side on Monday night.

La Russa became a Hall-of-Fame manager mostly because of his great stints with the Oakland Athletics and the Cardinals more than what he did with the White Sox previously. However, he inherits a team that is absolutely loaded and ready to win the AL pennant. But before the White Sox can do any of that, La Russa had to praise Shildt like he should … instead of Yermin Mercedes.

Shildt may be able to out-manage La Russa these days, but if so, why did the White Sox hire him?

Tony La Russa showers St. Louis Cardinals skipper Mike Shildt with praise

Given all of his success with the Cardinals, there was no way on planet Earth La Russa would say anything negative about his former club. St. Louis won a pair of World Series with him serving as their skipper in 2006 and 2011. La Russa retired from managing after the last of the two Fall Classic victories. St. Louis has not won a World Series title since he retired.

As for Shildt, he has made the Cardinals a perennial postseason team in the NL Central. While he is not winning division crowns at the rate that La Russa did, he has emerged as one of the better managers in the senior circuit these last few years. Even if La Russa has all the respect in the world for Shildt, he still needs to manage his team to series victory over the Cardinals this week.

The White Sox have gone 1-4 since La Russa called out Mercedes for being clueless at the plate.