JUPITER, Fla. — One of the spring training stories Mike Shildt tells from time to time dates to 2008, the first season he was in charge of planning and running a Cardinals minor-league camp.
The current Cardinals manager, then an unproven and somewhat unsure minor-league hitting coach, told Cardinals manager Tony La Russa that he would structure the minor-leaguers’ schedule around the big club’s preferences.
La Russa informed Shildt that it would be La Russa who worked around Shildt.
It was La Russa’s job to adjust.
The reigning National League manager of the year kept that lesson from the Hall of Famer.