A curse-filled clubhouse victory speech by St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt that went viral after a player posted it on social media showed a different side to the usually mild-mannered skipper — and while he was sorry Thursday that his colorful language got leaked, he did not feel bad about the gist of his message.
Shildt had choice words for the Braves and the Cardinals next opponent in the National League Championship Series, including frequent use of the f-word.
"It's regretful that that was able to get out," Shildt said a day before the Cardinals host the wild-card Washington Nationals for Game 1 of the best-of-seven series. "I will not apologize for having passion about how I feel about our team and the accomplishments of our team."
Shildt called the clubhouse "a sanctuary that is very sacred" and said the pep talk to his players after they beat the Braves 13-1 on Wednesday to win their NL Division Series "should have been private."
But the rant was shown to the world by Randy Arozarena, a rookie outfielder for St. Louis.
"I apologize if my language offended anyone,” Shildt said Thursday. “It is not something I like to represent. It’s not to be excused. I will say that I’m flawed. I have my moments. I grew up in a clubhouse and one of the crosses I bear is my language. I’ve done a nice job over the many years of curbing that. Trying to represent always myself and this organization in a positive light with class and dignity. It’s regretful that that was able to get out."
Shildt did not name the Braves but referred to them after ending Atlanta's season.
“What I loved about this series is we played the game hard, we played the game right,” Shildt said in the video. “They started some (expletive). We finished the (expletive). And that’s how we roll. No one (expletives) with us. Ever. Ever. Now I don’t give a (expletive) who we play. We are going to (expletive) them up. We are going to take it to them the whole (expletive) way. We are going to kick their (expletive) (expletive).
Cardinals catcher Matt Wieters later referred to the episode as an example of "when you get conversations out of the clubhouse that shouldn't be out of the clubhouse."
Miles Mikolas, the Cardinals right-hander who will start Friday night against Nationals righty Aníbal Sánchez, spoke about how Shildt's words could help his club.
"When you see your manager getting that excited and that fired up, it feeds into what everyone else is doing," Mikolas said. "It's hard not to get amped up when you got the guy who is kind of leading your team getting super amped up. It's contagious."
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