Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Fired Matheny expresses ‘gratitude’ to Cardinals
ST. LOUIS — Deposed Cardinals manager Mike Matheny took the high road Sunday. He threw no daggers at anyone in the organization for his abrupt dismissal after Saturday’s come-from-ahead 8-2 loss here to Cincinnati.
The Cardinals entered Sunday’s game one game over .500 and 7½ games behind the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs and are in danger of missing the playoffs for a third consecutive season for the first time since 1999.
“I’ve got nothing but gratitude,” said Matheny, “and this goes way back. I got two new lives with this organization, first when [manager] Tony La Russa and [pitching coach] Dave Duncan and [general manager] Walt Jocketty gave me a chance to have a second life as a player to play in a place I already called home.”
Matheny was signed as a free agent in 2000 and spent five seasons here. After a few years as a part-time instructor with the Cardinals, he was hired with no professional managerial experience to take over the Cardinals in 2012, the year after they had won the World Series.
During a telephone conversation Sunday, Matheny said he appreciated how Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr., General Manager John Mozeliak and others had “made a decision to really go outside the box to do something that I loved even more than playing, which I didn’t think was possible.
“I saw how good this organization has been to me, regardless of that last game or anything between that and the first day. This was very special to me and something life-changing. I’m an unabashed Christ follower and I do believe in things happening for a reason. Not about me being let go, but me getting the opportunity in the first place.”
Matheny, 47, leaves after becoming the only manager to lead his team to four playoff appearances in his first four seasons and he has never had a losing season, even this one in which the team was 47-46 before Sunday’s game. But while he was in his office after Saturday’s loss, he was visited by DeWitt and Mozeliak, and “they thought it was time for a new voice,” Matheny said.
After the club’s news conference Sunday, DeWitt said that Matheny was “a super guy. Obviously, he’s disappointed and we’re disappointed with the way the team has gone. But he’s a great person.”
This was the Cardinals’ first in-season managerial change since Joe Torre was replaced by Mike Jorgensen in 1995.
Bench coach Mike Shildt will serve as interim manager.
Shildt, 49, managed for eight years in the Cardinals’ minor league organization. He captured league titles with Johnson City (2010-2011) and Class AA Springfield (2012) and most recently managed Memphis in the Class AAA Pacific Coast League in 2016. He has been part of the organization since 2004.
Matheny said he was not totally blindsided by what happened late Saturday.
“This has been in conversation for quite a while,” he said. “We had conversations even last season that if we didn’t improve the way we went about, this would be inevitable.”
Matheny said he had only to look at himself for the Cardinals’ many problems this season. “I realize I have to take the responsibility. When we can’t get things going right, that’s my job,” he said. “When you have a number of good players and you’ve tried a number of things to get everyone going … I know who shoulders the blame. The blame falls on my shoulders.”
Matheny conceded that Saturday’s game, the Cardinals’ sixth consecutive loss at home, might have been the final straw.
“Obviously, you hear all of the so-called ‘noise,’ that something could always happen if it’s not going well,” he said. “But nothing really alerted me.
“Was I knocked off my feet? My answer is no.” Then, Matheny laughed as he alluded to his detractors when he said, “They think it should have happened last offseason — or six years ago.”
Hitting coaches John Mabry and Bill Mueller also felt the axe and Matheny said he did everything he could to spare their jobs, but was unsuccessful. “Their [management’s] decision already had been made,” he said.
Occasionally, when a managerial change is made, it is said the manager “lost the clubhouse,” i.e., didn’t have the respect and/or trust from the players. Matheny said he could understand how this phrase has legs.
“You’re always walking that fine line, trying to keep enough people happy,” Matheny said. “You can’t get them all happy, especially with veteran players a lot of times.
“Keeping the clubhouse and not losing it is a tightrope that you’re always walking. That started from the first day I got here. Communications lines are better with some than with others. Some relationships go really well, like you want them to, and other times not so much. But it’s amazing how going on a nice winning streak fixes all that in a hurry.”
“When we can’t get things going right, that’s my job. When you have a number of good players and you’ve tried a number of things to get everyone going … I know who shoulders the blame. The blame falls on my shoulders.”
— Mike Matheny, former St. Louis Cardinals manager