Mike Shannon obit

Cardinals broadcaster, World Series champ Mike Shannon dies

 He was not on the list.

Mike Shannon, a two-time World Series winner and longtime St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster, has died. He was 83.

The Cardinals said he died Saturday night in St. Louis. The team did not cite the cause of death.

“Mike’s unique connection to Cardinals fans and his teammates was reflected in his unbridled passion for the game, the Cardinals and the St. Louis community,” Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr. said in a statement Sunday.

Shannon spent 50 years in the broadcast booth, starting in 1972. That followed a short stint in the front office and a nine-year playing career with his hometown team, the first two seasons with future Hall of Famer Stan Musial.

Joe Buck, a longtime friend of Shannon’s and onetime radio partner, said Shannon was a big influence on his career.

“I learned broadcasting from my father (Hall of Fame announcer Jack Buck) but I learned baseball from Mike,” Buck said in a phone interview. “He was a loyal and great man. I didn’t know anyone who had more fun. He had the best schedule and always had stuff going on.”

Shannon was the regular right fielder for the 1964 championship team and moved to third base in 1967, when St. Louis acquired Roger Maris and won another World Series.

Buck noted that Shannon had a great eye for talent and trends, but one of the few things he got wrong was thinking Maris’ single-season home run record would stand. Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees hit an American League record 62 home runs last year, breaking Maris’ mark of 61 that had stood since 1961.

“I think he was surprised as anyone because he didn’t think anyone would break the record because of the pressure and attention,” Buck said of Shannon.

Shannon, affectionately known as “The Moon Man” to St. Louis fans who listened to his colorful tales in the booth, retired after the 2021 season. He was owned a pair of restaurants near Busch Stadium before they closed in 2016.

“His close relationship with Cardinals fans demonstrates the unique impact that Baseball has linking generations of fans,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.

Cardinals broadcaster Chip Caray’s family also had a long history with Shannon. Caray’s grandfather, Hall of Fame announcer Harry Caray, called Shannon’s games when he was a player.

“Everywhere he went, he just made people laugh. He was one of the great characters of our game and in our industry, in a business where, frankly, so many people are not allowed to be themselves. Mike was quintessentially Mike and there will never be another one like him,” Caray said at Dodger Stadium before a game between the Cardinals and Dodgers.

Shannon is survived by his second wife, two sons, three daughters, 18 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Shannon attended grade school at Epiphany of Our Lord Catholic School and graduated from Christian Brothers College High School in 1957. He was the Missouri High School Player of the Year in both football and basketball his senior year and remains the only athlete to win both awards in the same year.

Shannon attended the University of Missouri and played college baseball for the Missouri Tigers before leaving in 1958 to begin his professional baseball career after signing with Bing Devine, general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals. Shannon, who believed himself to be a better football player, has said that if football players were paid better during his era, he probably would have stayed at Missouri and sought a professional football career. His former coach Frank Broyles said that had he stayed in school, Shannon might have won the Heisman Trophy.

Shannon began his big league career with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1962. In 1964, he became the team's regular right fielder, shifting to third base (in order to make room for the newly acquired Roger Maris) in 1967. Shannon played in three World Series for the Cardinals. He hit a game-tying two-run homer off Whitey Ford in Game 1 of the 1964 World Series against the New York Yankees, which St. Louis won 9–5.

In 1966, Shannon batted .288 in 137 games played with 16 home runs and 64 runs batted in (RBIs). He was named the National League's (NL) Player of the Month in July (.395, seven home runs, 23 RBIs). For 1968, he batted .266 in 156 games, with 15 home runs and 79 RBIs; he finished in seventh place in voting for the NL Most Valuable Player Award, behind teammates Bob Gibson, Curt Flood, and Lou Brock, as well as Giants Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal, and Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds.

 

In Game 3 of the 1967 World Series against the Boston Red Sox, Shannon hit a home run off Gary Bell. In Game 7 of the 1968 World Series against the Detroit Tigers, Shannon's solo home run off Mickey Lolich was the Cardinals' only run off Lolich as the Tigers clinched. Shannon also hit the last home run in Sportsman's Park in 1966 and the first one for the Cardinals in Busch Memorial Stadium. In 1970, he contracted nephritis, a kidney disease, which ended his playing career.

For almost three decades Shannon was paired with Hall of Fame announcer Jack Buck on AM 1120 KMOX and the Cardinals Radio Network. After Buck's death in 2002, Shannon became the team's lead radio voice, teaming with Joel Meyers (2002), Wayne Hagin (2003–2005), and John Rooney (2006–2021). In 2006, he moved to KTRS (550) which had won broadcasting rights for the Cardinals and ownership of the station. For the 2011 season, KMOX regained the rights for Cardinals broadcasting and Shannon returned to his former employer.

Shannon received a local Emmy Award for his work on Cardinal broadcasts in 1985, and was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1999. He was named Missouri Sportscaster of the Year in 2002 and 2003.

Shannon's signature home run call is "Here's a long one to left/center/right, get up baby, get up, get up...oh yeah!"

During the 1980s, Shannon worked as a backup analyst behind Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek for NBC's Game of the Week telecasts, typically working with play-by-play man Jay Randolph.