Area Author Pens Cardinals Book, Will Hold Signing Today

Florissant resident Keith Schildroth previously held a sports writing position at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. But since then, he’s added City Councilman, Customer Service Representative and freelance writer to his resume with one more new addition – author.

Schildroth recently co-authored a book, “St. Louis Cardinals: Where Have You Gone?” The book details the lives of players and other St. Louis Cardinals managers or office workers and their post-baseball lives, such as Vince Coleman, John Tudor and Ted Simmons.

Schildroth is going to hold a book signing from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, April 26, at World News in Clayton. 

Writer and author Rob Rains first worked on the book in 2005. When it was bought from another publisher, Rains didn’t have enough time to update it. That’s when Schildroth got the opportunity to update the book.

“I just cranked it out as best as I could,” Schildroth said. The publisher, Skyhorse, gave Schildroth six weeks to update the book and add any chapters he felt was needed.

Schildroth was able to do it, and he added another chapter. He did the chapter on Lee Thomas who wasn’t a player for the Cardinals, but he had an important role on the office side.

“He did a bunch of different stuff,” he said. “It was something different [to add to the book.]”

The book also gave Schildroth the opportunity to write about two of his all-time favorite Cardinals – Ken Reitz and Ted Simmons.

“I just got a special place for Reitz and Simmons,” he said. “It was real rewarding to write about them.”

Even with his previous writing experience, Schildroth said that writing a book was different than anything he had done, but he was happy he did it.

“I don’t think I would ever do something like this,” he said. “People who are Cardinals fans will like it.”

This writing experience has even motivated Schildroth to consider writing another book with an idea that has been in his head for sometime.

The book is available on Amazon, World News in Clayton and Left Bank Books.