Former Cardinals manager Mike Shildt gets emotional before facing former team

Mike Shildt's time as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals ended on a sad note, with the veteran being inexplicably fired over a 'philosophical difference.'

After losing his position in St. Louis, Shildt became the bench coach of the San Diego Padres and has since become the manager. On Monday, the Padres opened up a series against Shildt's old club, now managed by Oli Marmol.

Shildt discussed the opportunity to manage against the Cardinals and despite how it ended, he had nothing but good things to say about St. Louis as he reminisced about his time with the organization.

"These emotions, I'm not going to kid you. I'm human," said Shildt. "A lot of really good years, a lot of gratitude for my time in St. Louis. A lot of tremendous relationships. A lot of growth took place there."

Shildt reminisces about time in St. Louis

Shildt didn't seem to be too upset about how his time in St. Louis came to an end, and even went as far as to say he owed the organization a lot for what he was able to accomplish there. But still, the former Cardinals manager made it clear he missed being in St. Louis.

"I can't say enough about my 18 years there," he said. "I did all I could to reward the confidence they had and the opportunities."

Firing Shildt turned out to be a major mistake for the Cardinals, who chose to replace him with Marmol. Marmol led the team to a 93-win season in 2022 before a disastrous 71-91 finish in 2023.

Shildt took over as the team's manager in 2018 when Mike Matheny was dismissed. He led the Cardinals to the postseason in each of the next three seasons before the Cardinals chose to move on from him.

The new Padres skipper also reminisced about the winning culture in St. Louis, one that features some of the greatest players to ever play the game.

"I was around a lot of historically good Hall of Fame-caliber players, some of whom were retired - Gibson, Brock, Schoendienst, Musial, and of course George Kissell on the instructional side and Tony La Russa, who won the second-most games of anybody in Major League history," Shildt recalled. "And some other really great players - Albert Pujols, Nolan Arenado, and Paul Goldschmidt."

Shildt got a chance to be around plenty of legendary players during his time in St. Louis, and despite the way things ended, he still holds the team and the organization in high regard.

"I had some people in my life that I can get emotional thinking about them and talking about them because they meant the world to me," the Padres skipper said. "They care about genuinely helping me beyond their own self interests. That's pretty special. All those guys treated me like gold. Dave Duncan was the John Wayne of baseball, true grit."

While he wears different colors these days, Shildt will always be a Cardinal.