JUPITER, Fla. — St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt married his fiancé, Michelle Segrave, in a ceremony with close friends and family Friday in Florida.
"Join us in wishing a lifetime of happiness to Mr. and Mrs. Shildt!" the Cardinals posted on Twitter with a photo of the happy couple.
The 51-year-old Shildt squeezed in the wedding during one of his only off days of spring training. On Thursday, he managed two games (a win and a tie), and he’ll be back at it again on Saturday.
“It's definitely a Shildty thing,” second baseman Kolten Wong said. “The guy loves the game. You can tell just how he goes about it every single day. Obviously he loves his fiancé just as much because he's doing it right in the middle of what he loves the most.”
Holding a ceremony during the baseball season, which can run from late March until early November, didn't make much sense to the couple.
Nor did a November ceremony, a traditional wedding month for people in the baseball community, because it would force friends within the Cardinals community who tend to scatter after the conclusion of the baseball season to reconvene only a few weeks later.
Plus, Segrave has family in nearby South Florida.
Several members of the Cardinals organization were expected to attend the ceremony, but Shildt purposefully didn’t invite any players.
“These guys know I love them, but one of the ways you show love is not to feel like they've got to, on their day off, go to their manager's wedding,” Shildt said. “That was my gift to them.”
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