Mike Shannon, a lifelong St. Louis cardinal, dies at age 83

Mike Shannon, who played in three World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals and then became a favorite of the team’s fans as one of the radio broadcasters for 50 seasons, passed away Saturday. He turned 83.

The cardinals announced the death, but did not give a cause or say where he died. Shannon was hospitalized with Covid-19 in 2020 and later suffered symptoms of long-term Covid.

Shannon was one of the few announcers in baseball history to spend 50 or more years with one team. His longevity was one of the things that endeared him to listeners, along with his exuberance and his passion to see the Cardinals win.

In 2003, when Cardinal slugger Albert Pujols hit a home run after being hit back by Kerry Wood of the Chicago Cubs, Shannon was effusive: “Swing and hello, Fourth of July! Take a ride on that ruined field, big boy! Kerry Wood knocked him down and now Albert is watching him walk around first. He looks at him and says, ‘Sniff that, big boy!’”

Bob Costas, the former NBC sports reporter whose early professional work was in St. Louis said Shannon’s roots there were a key to his success. “He was one of those guys,” he said on the phone, “like Herb Score in Cleveland, Joe Nuxhall in Cincinnati and Jerry Remy in Boston, where it works because he’s local, he’s one of our guys — and, in his case, grew up in St. Louis and was a three-sport star in high school.

Shannon was known for his signature home run call, “Get up, baby, get up!” and for strange and idiosyncratic statements: He called a pop-up a “home run in a phone booth” and a Cardinal win a “monstrous victory,” and he once stated that a young fan hit by a foul ball “will leave the stadium today with a souvenir – not a ball but a nice bruise.”

Joe Buck, who, like his father Jack, was one of Shannon’s radio partners, said over the phone, “His Shannonisms made for a great listening experience, and some things were so illogical. But you should know that he was one of the most sensible people I’ve ever met. He had a keen eye for the game and would have been a great manager.”

Thomas Michael Shannon was born on July 15, 1939 in St. Louis to Thomas and Elizabeth (Richason) Shannon. His father was a police officer and later became a prosecutor.

Mike was an outstanding athlete at Christian Brothers College High School, where he was an all-American football player, and in 1957 he was named the Missouri Prep Player of the Year in both basketball and football. He attended the University of Missouri for a year as a quarterback on a football scholarship. But he was also a baseball candidate, and in 1958 he signed with the Cardinals for what he said in his autobiography was nearly $100,000, even though it was reported to be $40,000 at the time.

After four years in the minor leagues, he played sparingly with the Cardinals in 1962 and 1963, often as a late-innings defensive replacement for big hitter Stan Musial, who was then in the final year of his Hall of Fame career.

Shannon did not follow Musial to the Hall of Fame (although he played with several future Hall of Famers, including Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Orlando Cepeda, and Steve Carlton). But he was a solid player whose two-run home run off the Yankees’ Whitey Ford in Game 1 of the 1964 World Series tied the score at 4–4. The Cardinals won the game 9-5 and won the series in seven games.

In 1967, Shannon moved from right field to third base after the Cardinals acquired Roger Maris from the Yankees. The two became good friends.

St. Louis won the World Series again that year, defeating the Boston Red Sox in seven games. The following year, the Detroit Tigers defeated the Cardinals, also in seven games. Shannon hit a home run in each of those series.

Shannon played until 1970 when he developed membranous nephropathy, an autoimmune disease of the kidneys, which ended his career. He had a career batting average of .255, with 68 home runs and 367 runs batted in, and was elected to the Cardinals’ Hall of Fame in 2014. Two of his teammates recently died: shortstop Dick Groat last month and catcher Tim McCarver, who also had an impressive career as a broadcaster, in February.

Shannon joined the Cardinals’ promotion division in 1971 and became team announcer the following season. In addition to being named Cardinal Games, he was part of NBC’s backup crew for the ‘Game of the Week’ in the 1980s. He retired after the 2021 season.

His survivors include his wife, Lori (Bergman) Shannon; his daughters, Patricia, Peg, and Erin; his sons, Michael Jr., Tim and Dan; 18 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren. His first wife, Judith Ann (Bufe) Shannon, died in 2007.

The ball Shannon hit in Game 1 of the 1964 World Series traveled more than 140 yards and broke the “u” in the Budweiser sign in left field at Busch Stadium, causing $5,000 in damage. At first he thought he would have to pay for it.

In his autobiography, “Get Up, Baby!: My Seven Decades with the St. Louis Cardinals” (2022, with Rick Hummel), he recalled: “Gussie Busch, our owner, said in that hoarse voice of his, ‘That is everything correct, friend. You can break down the whole board.” And Gussie paid for it.