Q’s & A’s: Which does manager Matheny create more of?

Back to the future is the vibe with the most recent string of big news coming out of Busch Stadium. After the sudden (yet not completely unexpected) retirement of Tony LaRussa, the St. Louis Cardinals quickly ended their search for a successor by going with a familiar face from TLR’s tenure.

Mike Matheny will be announced today as the new manager of the Cardinals, closing out a coaching search that included a variety of different options and ways the team could have went in. And in going with Matheny, the team will get a world of game experience, but no management (or even big league coaching) experience. This is general manager John Mozieliak’s first coaching hire since taking over control of the team in 2007, and it is a radical departure from the course the team has been on historically.

Take this for the lineage of Cardinal leaders: with the exception of Mike Jorgensen, who briefly stood in as interim manager in 1995, the last three managers of the team are, or will be soon, members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. From Whitey Herzog’s run throughout the 80’s, to Joe Torre who replaced him and finally to franchise’s most winning coach of all-time in LaRussa. Not to mentioned other HOFers such as Red Schoendienst, Frankie Frisch and Branch Rickey, there’s no shortage of expectation that comes with leading the St. Louis’ flagship sporting institution.

Matheny went from darkhorse candidate to heir to a lofty role in the baseball universe in just two weeks time.

Enter Matheny, who’s lack of experience (0 games as a MLB coach in any capacity) is a worry point for many, and justifiably so. There is a lot of nothing here: nothing that says he can’t do it, but nothing that says he can either.

 

 

There’s a lot to consider here with this move. It’s neither doomsday or business as usual. Check me out at St. Louis Sports 360 to see the rest of THIS ARTICLE and my extensive covering of all things Cardinals related here: http://stlouissports360.com/

And follow me on Twitter for more on this and everything else between at @CheapSeatFan.