Mike Shannon, a St. Louis Cardinal for Life, Dies at 83

Mike Shannon, who performed in three World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals after which grew to become a favourite of the staff’s followers as certainly one of its radio broadcasters for 50 seasons, died on Saturday. He was 83.

The Cardinals introduced the dying however didn’t give a trigger or say the place he died. Shannon had been hospitalized in 2020 with Covid-19 and later suffered from signs of lengthy Covid.

Shannon was one of many few announcers in baseball historical past to spend 50 years or extra with one staff. His longevity was among the many issues that endeared him to listeners, alongside along with his exuberance and his ardour for seeing the Cardinals win.

In 2003, when the Cardinal slugger Albert Pujols hit a house run after being brushed again by the Chicago Cubs’ Kerry Wood, Shannon was ebullient: “Swing and hello, Fourth of July! Take a ride on that knockdown pitch, big boy! Kerry Wood knocked him down and now Albert looks at him as he goes around first. He gives him the glare, saying, ‘Take a whiff of that, big boy!’”

Bob Costas, the previous NBC sportscaster whose early skilled work was in St. Louis, mentioned that Shannon’s roots there have been a key to his success. “He was one of those guys,” he mentioned by cellphone, “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 recognized for his signature dwelling run name, “Get up, baby, get up!” and for odd and idiosyncratic strains: He referred to a pop-up as “a home run in a telephone booth” and to a Cardinal victory as a “monstramental win,” and he as soon as declared {that a} younger fan who had been hit by a foul ball “will leave the stadium with a souvenir today — not a ball but a nice-looking bruise.”

Joe Buck, who, like his father, Jack, was certainly one of Shannon’s radio companions, mentioned by cellphone: “His Shannonisms made for great listening, and some of it was so illogical. But you had to know he was one of the most common-sense 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 grew to become a metropolis prosecutor.

Mike was an excellent athlete at Christian Brothers College High School, the place he was a soccer all-American, and in 1957 he was named the Missouri prep participant of the 12 months in each basketball and soccer. He attended the University of Missouri for a 12 months as a quarterback on a soccer scholarship. But he was additionally a baseball prospect, and in 1958 he signed with the Cardinals for what he mentioned in his autobiography was nearly $100,000, though it was reported on the time as $40,000.

After 4 years within the minor leagues, he performed sparingly with the Cardinals in 1962 and 1963, typically because the late-innings defensive substitute for the good hitter Stan Musial, who was then within the closing 12 months of his Hall of Fame profession.

Shannon didn’t comply with Musial into the Hall of Fame (though he performed with a number of future Hall of Famers, together with Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Orlando Cepeda and Steve Carlton). But he was a stable participant whose two-run dwelling run off the Yankees’ Whitey Ford in Game 1 of the 1964 World Series tied the rating at 4-4. The Cardinals gained the sport, 9-5, and went on to take the sequence in seven video games.

In 1967, Shannon moved from proper subject to 3rd base after the Cardinals acquired Roger Maris from the Yankees. The two grew to become shut buddies.

St. Louis gained the World Series once more that 12 months, beating the Boston Red Sox in seven video games. The subsequent 12 months, the Detroit Tigers defeated the Cardinals, additionally in seven video games. Shannon hit a house run in every of these sequence.

Shannon performed till 1970, when he developed membranous nephropathy, an autoimmune dysfunction of the kidneys, which ended his profession. He had a profession batting common of .255, with 68 dwelling runs and 367 runs batted in, and was elected to the Cardinals’ Hall of Fame in 2014. Two of his teammates died just lately: the shortstop Dick Groat final month and the catcher Tim McCarver, who additionally had a distinguished profession as a broadcaster, in February.

Shannon joined the Cardinals’ promotions division in 1971 and have become a staff announcer the subsequent season. In addition to calling Cardinal video games, he was a part of NBC’s backup crew for its “Game of the Week” within the Nineteen Eighties. He retired after the 2021 season.

His survivors embody his spouse, Lori (Bergman) Shannon; his daughters, Patricia, Peg and Erin; his sons, Michael Jr., Tim and Dan; 18 grandchildren; and 9 great-grandchildren. His first spouse, Judith Ann (Bufe) Shannon, died in 2007.

The ball that Shannon slugged in Game 1 of the 1964 World Series traveled greater than 450 toes and broke the “u” within the Budweiser sign up left subject at Busch Stadium, inflicting $5,000 in harm. At first, he thought he must 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 gravelly voice of his, ‘That’s all right, buddy. You can break the whole sign down.’ And Gussie paid for it.”