Mike Shannon, who performed in three World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals after which turned a favourite of the group’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 power Covid.
Shannon was one of many few announcers in baseball historical past to spend 50 years or extra with one group. 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 Cardinal slugger Albert Pujols hit a residence run after being brushed again by the Chicago Cubs’ Kerry Wood, Shannon was ebullient: “Swing and good day, Fourth of July! Take a experience on that knockdown pitch, massive boy! Kerry Wood knocked him down and now Albert appears at him as he goes round first. He provides him the glare, saying, ‘Take a whiff of that, massive 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 a type of guys,” he mentioned by telephone, “like Herb Score in Cleveland, Joe Nuxhall in Cincinnati and Jerry Remy in Boston, the place it really works as a result of he is native, he is certainly one of our guys — and, in his case, grew up in St Louis and was a three-sport star in highschool.”
Shannon was recognized for his signature residence run name, “Get up, child, rise up!” and for odd and idiosyncratic traces: He referred to a pop-up as “a residence run in a phone sales space” 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 go away the stadium with a memento in the present day — not a ball however a nice-looking bruise.”
Joe Buck, who, like his father, Jack, was certainly one of Shannon’s radio companions, mentioned by telephone: “His Shannonisms made for nice listening, and a few of it was so illogical. But you needed to know he was one of the commonsense individuals I’ve ever met. He had a eager eye for the sport and would have been a nice supervisor.”
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 turned 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 yr in each basketball and soccer. He attended the University of Missouri for a yr 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 virtually $100,000, though it was reported at the time as $40,000.
After 4 years within the minor leagues, he performed sparingly with the Cardinals in 1962 and 1963, usually because the late-innings defensive alternative for the nice hitter Stan Musial, who was then within the closing yr 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 residence 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 collection 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 turned shut mates.
St. Louis gained the World Series once more that yr, beating the Boston Red Sox in seven video games. The subsequent yr, the Detroit Tigers defeated the Cardinals, additionally in seven video games. Shannon hit a residence run in every of these collection.
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 residence 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 group announcer the next 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 Eighties. He retired after the 2021 season.
His survivors embody his spouse, (*83*) (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 (Buffe) 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 register left subject at Busch Stadium, inflicting $5,000 in injury. 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 proprietor, mentioned in that gravelly voice of his, ‘That’s all proper, buddy. You can break the entire signal down.’ And Gussie paid for it.”