[3] In the early 1920s, as a player and coach, he was the Cardinals' "Sunday manager", relieving skipper Branch Rickey, who always observed the Christian Sabbath.

[1]: 23–25  After Shotton retired as a player, he served on the Cardinals' coaching staff from 1923 to 1925,[4] mainly under Rickey, until he took over as manager of the team's top farm club, the Syracuse Stars of the International League, in 1926–27.

Shotton's first formal Major League managing opportunity came the following year with the NL's then-habitually tailend team, the Philadelphia Phillies.

On July 28, he had a one-game stint as interim manager after the firing of Bob O'Farrell and before new skipper Chuck Dressen arrived from Nashville to take command of the last-place Reds; in that game, Cincinnati defeated the Chicago Cubs, 11–2.

But prior to the 1946 season, Shotton hung up his uniform and settled into a scouting role for the Brooklyn Dodgers, for whom Rickey was now part-owner, president and general manager.

He inherited a contending Brooklyn team that had finished in a flatfooted tie for the 1946 National League pennant before losing a playoff series to the Cardinals.

He also inherited what historian Jules Tygiel called Baseball's Great Experiment — the Dodgers' breaking of the infamous color line by bringing up Jackie Robinson from their Triple-A Montreal Royals farm club at the start of the 1947 season to end over sixty years of racial segregation in baseball.

[10] With Durocher's suspension over, Shotton retired again, this time to a front office post as "managerial consultant" in the Dodgers' vast farm system.

Durocher was still under siege by the Catholic Youth Organization because of his extramarital relationship with, and then quick marriage to, actress Laraine Day.

With the New York Giants also floundering, owner Horace Stoneham decided to replace his manager, Mel Ott, with Shotton.

After his return, the Dodgers rallied to take the lead in the 1948 NL standings by the end of August, before they faltered in September to finish third, 71⁄2 games behind Boston.

But Dick Sisler's tenth-inning home run off Don Newcombe won the pennant for the Phillies' "Whiz Kids", and ended both the Dodger season and Shotton's managerial career.

At his home in Bartow, Florida, Shotton ignored O'Malley's repeated suggestions that he fly back north to discuss his future, saying later, "There was no point coming to Brooklyn to be fired.

[17] (Connie Mack, who famously wore a full suit during his 50 years as manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, also retired on October 1, 1950, but his game that day ended earlier.