What he did: John Schuerholz likely is headed to the Baseball Hall of Fame some day for his work as a general manager for the Atlanta Braves, but he never played professional baseball. So when his only son Jonathan took the field for the Lovett varsity baseball team in 10th grade, it appeared the skinny, freckle-faced kid would be a solid high school baseball player but his days of playing would likely end there.
It didn’t quite work out that way.
The Schuerholz family came to Atlanta in the winter of 1990, and while John was turning around the Braves, Jonathan was turning 11, attending The Lovett School, and experienced first-hand the excitement and late nights of those teams in the early 1990s, saying, “My grades always suffered a little until baseball was over.’’
Schuerholz made the Lovett varsity baseball team as a sophomore, and his good glove and accurate throws to first base got him the starting shortstop job, but that season he didn’t get to hit much as the designated hitter was always penciled in for him instead of pitcher. It all changed as a junior as Schuerholz became the everyday shortstop and through a lot of work in the offseason realized there could be another level of ball for him. Also, he had attended a baseball camp at Auburn University, fell in love with the place and bought a school baseball cap that he always wore.
As a senior, Schuerholz helped lead the Lions to a Class AA state championship, beating Greater Atlanta Christian in the finals. Also that season, he was being seen by a lot of major league scouts as Lovett played some of the best teams from Class AAAA (highest classification at the time), losing 5-3 to Lassiter, who many felt was the best high school team in country at the time.
Schuerholz was taken in the 37th round of the 1999 MLB Draft but felt college made more sense, signing with Auburn, one of the best baseball programs in the SEC. On The Plains, Schuerholz slowly became a force. The glove was always there, whether he played short or second and as a junior he hit .302 for the Tigers. It was clear he would be drafted. It was also in college when he was playing in the Cape Cod League during the summer that Schuerholz got a tattoo on his right shoulder. The permanent body paint looks like Chinese symbols but actually is, according to Schuerholz, “Auburn Tiger eyes.’’ He kept his father from seeing it for a full year.
After his junior year at Auburn, the Braves took him in the eighth round of the 2002 draft, gave him an $80,000 bonus and he went and finished that season in rookie ball at Danville (Va.) and played in two games in at Single-A Macon. The right-handed hitter then went to the instructional league and started working on becoming a switch hitter, finally becoming full-time two years later.
In 2003, Schuerholz’s team at Single-A Rome won the South Atlantic League and he played in 135 games, hitting .251 with 39 RBIs and was strong defensively.
The next year at Single-A Myrtle Beach was a tough one, his average falling to .207 but he bounced back in 2005 at Double-A Mississippi, hitting .278 in 86 games though he did struggle offensively when he got to Triple-A Richmond to end the season, hitting .175 in 44 games. But Schuerholz continued to show a strong play in the field at both short and second and received his first invite to major league spring training before the 2006 season. He made a good impression there, hitting three home runs (hit just 10 in his minor league career) though was sent back to Richmond to start the season and thought he may get a call up early when starting Braves second baseman Marcus Giles was injured in a midfield collision with center fielder Andruw Jones. But the Braves skipped over Schuerholz and went to Mississippi and brought up the younger Martin Prado.
From there, Schuerholz began to realize that his offensive game was not good enough to play in the majors. He finished hitting .184 in Richmond in 116 games that season and then bounced between Richmond and Mississippi in 2007 before retiring.
His first move was back to Auburn to get his degree and help with the baseball program before taking a roving instructor job in the Braves minor leagues. Two years later, he stepped into his first managerial job in the Gulf Coast League, then spent two years at rookie league Danville and 2014 in Rome.
Where he lives: Now 35, Schuerholz lives in Vinings and has been married to Jennifer for four years. They have a two-year old son named John, but call him Boland.
What he does: He now is fully following in his father's footsteps, as he joined the Braves' front office in 2014 and is the assistant director of player development. He also is a good golfer, with a 4.9 handicap index, but doesn't get to play nearly as much as when he was a player.
On going to Lovett: "I was so fortunate that my parents had the ability to send me there. We had a really good team my senior year, and I had the chance to get a lot of exposure because we played a lot of teams at the Class AAAA level like Walton, Wheeler and Lassiter, who went on to when the state championship, and I think was also the No. 1-ranked team in the country.''
On the early Braves success: "It was so cool coming into a city and seeing the buzz what was going on. The Braves were it, and the entire city was on board. Historically, the town was starved for a championship. I was just one of the fans back then and you live and die by your team.''
On where he was the night the Braves clinched the World Series championship in 1995: "I was in the box with dad. I still look back to joy and sense of accomplishment he had that evening.''
On playing at Auburn: "I wasn't heavily recruited but went to a camp at Auburn and really liked it. Being from Kansas City, we never had a college football team and didn't follow it. When you come down south it is force-fed to you. I had a couple of smaller schools that were interested, but I went and visited Auburn and Hal Baird was the coach, and he said I want you, but all I can give you for a scholarship is books. I said I will take it.''
On not going pro out of high school: "I wasn't ready. I needed to go college not only for school, but to getting ready for the professional game. Auburn did that for me.''
On his father seeing his tattoo for the first time: "My father never came into the clubhouse when I was at Auburn so he never saw it. But we were in Danville and in the clubhouse after a game celebrating a big win and he came in there. I had taken my shirt off and all of sudden he walks to me and I said, 'I guess I got to tell you something.' He was cool about it.''
On his first day in the minors: "I remember it because a Latin guy smoked me in the back of the helmet, and I realized that here the pitchers threw a lot harder, but some times they didn't know where the ball was going. Because I grew up around baseball, I think I adapted a lot quicker to the daily rigors of minor league ball.''
On his minor league career: "There were good moments. Spring training in 2006 was one of them and I hit three home runs. I thought I might get a shot at Atlanta when Marcus went down and they had to decide whether to go with me, the older player, or Prado, the younger one, and they made the right decision. But I realized when I went up to Class AAA it was a different animal, and I kind of floundered with my bat. I couldn't make the adjustment. I pressed and struggled, and I needed to just let go and take a deep breath.''
On going from minor league manager to the front office: "I have always done my best at what I was doing at that point in my life. When I was playing, I thought I would play for a long time, but my statistics were not very good. I enjoyed managing and thought I was going to make it there but made the shift in the fall of 2014 when (president, baseball operations) John Hart asked me to join the front office. I trusted him, and he has been a close friend of my father. It was real easy to say yes. I now see it from a different angle. I was managing 25 guys and in this new role I get to help be a manager of everyone. I am going to just see where the chips fall.''
On how his father is in private: "He is not an emotional guy, but a very passionate one. He cares a lot about the family and holds his relationships very close. He is not a self-promoter and is a true professional. His dad worked in a steel mill, and he does things in a very efficient and organized manner. But he does have fun, and I have seen him do karaoke.''
On following in his father's football steps: "I learned at early age to embrace it. I am living the same lifestyle now he has been living for years. It is not that typical job where you are at home from Friday at 5 until 8 on Monday. My time with my dad when I was young was spent at the park. I had a fantastic relationship with him and still do. But when he came home when I was young I couldn't tell whether he won or lost. He did a good job of being a dad when he came through those doors. Now I have a son and when I go home in the afternoon I play with him and put my mobile device away.''
On his favorite Braves player: "I loved watching Chipper play. I can't call him a role model, but he was super kind to me and always talked hitting with me. Terry Pendleton is another one that I continue to talk to a lot and helped me as well as (Mark) Lemke and Jeff Blauser. They were always very kind to me which meant a lot.''
