Ron and Kathy Shelton never needed a babysitter. Almost from the first day he could stand, young Derek always was next to his dad, who was a prominent high school baseball and basketball coach in Illinois for 25 years.
“That was our babysitter, the ball,” Derek Shelton said.Ron Shelton was happy to reminisce Wednesday morning at PNC Park about his now-famous son, introduced as the 41st manager in Pittsburgh Pirates history.
“He went to all the games. It wasn’t something we had to drag him to,” Ron said. “From the time he was 3, he had a catcher’s outfit on.”
It was those tools that served Derek Shelton well in his baseball career, defined his personality as a player and led him onto a raised platform inside PNC Park while trying on his new No. 17 jersey. There, he sat next to new Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington, a friend and colleague for 15 years, and talked about his plans as successor to Clint Hurdle, fired in September after nine seasons as manager.
What do you think happened last week when Derek, 49, called his dad with the news?
“I think there were some tears, some genuine excitement,” Derek said.
“There couldn’t be a prouder day,” Ron said. “As a dad, I know how hard he’s worked, how hard he’s persevered, some of the things he’s gone through, knowing that he wanted to be a manager.
“He told us when he got out of college that he never wanted to wear a suit again. He wanted to be on the baseball field.”
Back in the day, Derek Shelton was one of the finest baseball players ever at Warren Township High School in Gurnee, Ill., a northern suburb of Chicago. His uniform No. 8 is retired.
At Southern Illinois, he was a catcher for each of his four seasons, once led the Missouri Valley Conference by throwing out 43% of opposing base stealers, was named to the All-MVC academic team and earned a degree in criminal justice.
And, one day, Shelton made a Wichita State baserunner so mad, he wanted to fight.
When Ron was asked to identify a signature moment from his son’s playing career, he quickly offered every last detail of a Southern Illinois/Wichita State game, even though the game was played three decades ago. The winner would be the MVC’s representative in an NCAA Regional.
“He was as hard-nosed as you can get,” Ron said as a prelude.
“There was a play at the plate where the throw came to the plate, kid from Wichita State slid in. At that point, Derek had made his mind up there was no way he was getting to the plate. It showed the kind of player he was, the toughness he had. He was willing to do whatever was necessary for his team. You see Derek down on all fours, with the glove in front of him.”
The next day, the local newspaper described the play this way: “Shelton applied the tag to the head, and Winslow was not happy.”
These days, Derek Shelton has many thoughts running through his head, but that game quickly comes to mind.
“I may or may not have been a little aggressive on a play at the plate on a tag, and there may or may not have been a little escalation,” he said, feigning a memory lapse. “It was a long time ago. It was fuzzy. I’ve calmed down as my years have gone on.”
From Southern Illinois, Shelton’s minor league playing career was cut short by an elbow injury but not before he compiled a two-year batting average of .341 playing Single-A for the New York Yankees.
He managed the Staten Island Yankees for three seasons (2000-02) when Pirates assistant pitching coach Justin Meccage was one of his players, and they won the New York-Penn League championship in ’02.
He was a hitting coach with the Cleveland Indians and Tampa Bay Rays (under Joe Maddon), took a job as the Toronto Blue Jays’ quality control coach in 2017 just to broaden his baseball knowledge and was the Minnesota Twins’ bench coach the past two seasons.
He’s been doing his homework on the Pirates and already dined at Primanti’s with pitcher Joe Musgrove. Shelton is aware of about welcoming a trade and said he has no problem with them.
“I think he wants to win, and I think that’s fine. We want players who want to win,” he said.
He didn’t promise to keep Hurdle’s staff intact, but some coaches will be offered jobs, he said.
“I don’t think it’s going to be the full staff that returns,” he said, “but there will be guys who are holdovers, guys I have a tremendous amount of respect for who have been on the staff we would definitely consider.”
Of his managerial style, he said it will be “100% relationship building.”
“I’m a person who likes to be out of the office, likes to talk to the guys.”.