Mike Shannon

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Mike Shannon
Third baseman/Outfielder
Born: July 15, 1939 (1939-07-15) (age 70) St. Louis, Missouri
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 11, 1962 for the St. Louis Cardinals
Last MLB appearance
August 12, 1970 for the St. Louis Cardinals
Career statistics
Batting average	.255
Home runs	68
Hits	710
Runs batted in	367
Teams
St. Louis Cardinals (1962-1970)
Career highlights and awards
2x World Series champion (1964, 1967)

Thomas Michael Shannon (born July 15, 1939) is a former American-born Major League Baseball player and current radio sportscaster.

Shannon is a radio broadcaster for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was raised in St. Louis, Missouri and played with the Cardinals during some of the team's most successful years. Additionally, he is the proprietor of an area restaurant.

Early life

Shannon was born and raised in South St. Louis. He graduated grade school from Epiphany of Our Lord Catholic School, and he graduated high school from Christian Brothers College High School in 1957. He attended the University of Missouri before leaving to begin his professional baseball career. Shannon has commented that if football players were paid better during his era, he probably would have stayed at Missouri, and sought a professional football career. He believed himself a better football player, and his former coach, Frank Broyles, commented that had he stayed in school, Shannon might have won the Heisman Trophy.^[1]

Playing career

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 the Game 1 of the 1964 World Series against the New York Yankees, which St. Louis won 9-5. In Game 3 of the 1967 World Series against the Boston Red Sox, Shannon hit a key 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 the original Busch Stadium (Sportsman's Park) in 1966 and the first one in the second Busch Stadium (Busch Memorial Stadium). In 1970 he contracted nephritis, a rare kidney disease, which ended his playing career.

Broadcasting career

Shannon joined the Cardinals’ promotional staff in 1971; a year later he moved to the team's radio booth. For almost three decades Shannon was paired with Hall of Fame announcer Jack Buck over station KMOX and the rest of the Cardinals' radio network; following Buck's death in 2002, he was named as the team's lead radio voice, teaming with Joel Meyers (2002), Wayne Hagin (2003-2005), and John Rooney (2006-)as the St. Louis Cardinals and KTRS Radio "The Big 550 KTRS" partnered to be the new home of the Cardinals on the airwaves.

Shannon received an Emmy Award for his work on Cardinal broadcasts in 1985, Shannon is a 1999 inductee of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. http://www.mosportshalloffame.com/inductee_detail/Mike+Shannon/181

Shannon also hosts a local sports talk show after each Cardinals home game from his self-titled restaurant.

References

External links

• Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
• [1] Biography - Mike Shannon's Restaurant]
• Shannonisms - Mike Shannon verbal gaffes and funny quotes
• - Mike Shannon's MySpace