Michael Timothy Shildt is an American baseball manager who started
his managerial career in the St Louis Cardinals organisation in 2009, before
working his way up to manage the Major League Baseball team there. He was fired
by the Cardinals on Thursday over what the organisation called philosophical
differences.

Born on August 9, 1968, in Charlotte, North Carolina, Shildt
played high school baseball at Olympic High School and college baseball for the University
of North Carolina Asheville Bulldogs. His playing career ended prematurely as
the coaches felt that he was not able to hit the curveball. Shildt then turned
to coaching.

Shildt joined the West Charlotte High School as a coach and
gave the school their first winning season in 20 years in baseball. Shildt was
then hired by UNC Charlotte to become an assistant coach for the Charlotte 49ers
baseball team, a position he held for five years.

Before managing the Cardinals’ major league team, Shildt was
the manager of the Cardinals AA affiliate, the Springfield Cardinals, where he
was promoted in 2011. He then joined the team’s AAA affiliate, the Memphis
Redbirds, in 2015. He joined the major league coaching staff in 2017 and then
became the manager in 2018.

Shildt replaced Mike Matheny, who is the current manager of
the Kansas City Royals, on an interim basis in August 2018. He then took over
the permanent job the following season in 2019. The Cardinals won 91 games that
season, earning Shildt the National League manager of the year award, and
advanced to the NL Championship Series before getting swept by the Washington
Nationals.

The Cardinals went 30-28 during the pandemic-shortened 2020
season, losing the wild-card game to the San Diego Padres. The Cardinals then
rode on a franchise-record 17-game winning streak to reach the wild-card game
again this season, only to lose it once more against the Los Angeles Dodgers.