An Adieu to a Red Bird Personified

Some critics once called Mike Shannon “the world’s luckiest man since Ringo Starr” when he was hired to work in the broadcast booth as color commentator with the legendary Jack Buck.  Detractors called him “mush mouth” as his early radio voice lacked the refined articulations heard from seasoned broadcasters.   

But the green rookie learned on the job under Buck’s patient tutelage. Shannon’s knowledge of the game, and love for his hometown team soon came through loud and clear.  He defied the odds when he lasted 50 years in the booth, a longevity that no one envisioned back in 1972.

Like Ringo, Mike’s success was based on the good fortune of opportunity, of which both took full advantage.   What John Lennon said of Ringo, could have been aptly applied to Shannon.  “(His) talent would have come out one way or the other…whatever that spark is…we all know we can’t put our finger on it…(but) there’s something there that is projectable…”

Mike Shannon possessed that indefinable talent that made folks like him, which gave him time to find his broadcasting voice. Like Ringo, Mike’s malapropisms only made him more endearing.

Capricious luck comes in forms both good and bad.  Shannon received a big dose of the latter when a rare kidney disease called nephritis ended his ball playing career while still in his prime in 1970.  So ended a long run of athletic prowess, beginning as a local lad who was voted St. Louis’ high school athlete of the year in both basketball and football for CBC.  He may well have become a star quarterback for old Mizzou if the St. Louis Cardinals had not enticed him to sign with the club for an upfront, big money bonus. 

Football’s loss was the home team’s gain.  Shannon made the parent club for good in mid-season 1964 as their starting right fielder, helping the Cardinals win an improbable pennant. His mammoth home run off Whitey Ford in Game 1 of the Series helped win that game as the Cardinals marched on to a World Championship.

Though lacking the luminary stature of players like Tim McCarver, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and Curt Flood, Shannon played a big role for those stalwart Cardinal teams of the 1960’s. His name was most often penciled in the lineup in the sixth slot in the order. 

A team player, the then career outfielder utilized his natural athletic skills to learn to play third base thereby making room for Roger Maris, a key addition to the club. Shannon’s unselfish move helped propel the Cardinals to two more pennants in 1967, and again in 1968, when the team’s third baseman led the club in RBIs. Popular with teammates, Shannon’s clubhouse antics and trippy comments earned him his moniker—Moon Man.  In sum, Shannon played a wide-ranging role on three Cardinal pennant winning teams.

To its’ credit, the Cardinal organization turned their ballplayer’s bad luck into good fortune when they employed Moon Man to work for the club after his career-ending illness.  Shannon grew into his job, and evolved into not just a successful color commentator who knew baseball, but as a play-by-play broadcaster describing the game heard those many years on the radio.

Listening to radio broadcasts of ballgames remains a timeless experience for Cardinal fans as the soothing sound of summer. Many of us took comfort listening to Shannon’s call of the game when we whiled away the time performing tasks or driving on down the road.

Away from the booth, the Red Bird broadcaster successfully owned two restaurants, saw his face on countless promotions, acted as the Cardinal team ambassador, conducted a radio show on Saturday nights after ballgames, played golf incessantly and counted so many friends and associates.  He lived life large.

Shannon was neither a great player nor a great broadcaster. As Whitey Herzog once said:  “I don’t think he’d be a successful broadcaster in a lot of cities.  But he’s a fit here in St. Louis.  He speaks the language of the people in this area.”  Indeed, the local lad was one of us who grew up in our baseball town.   He wore the birds on the bat as a teammate of Stan Musial, and went on to describe the flight of the Red Birds as broadcaster and team ambassador, a combined stint that lasted over 60 years.   

Thomas Michael Shannon holds a unique status in St. Louis Cardinal lore, the breadth of which we shall not likely see or hear again.