Mike Shannon, former St. Louis Cardinals star, broadcaster, dead at 83

Mike Shannon, who played on three World Series teams with the St. Louis Cardinals but made a bigger impact as the voice of his hometown team for 50 years, died Saturday. He was 83.

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The Cardinals confirmed Shannon’s death in a tweet on Sunday. He died three months after his former teammate, Tim McCarver, who enjoyed a Hall of Fame broadcasting career.

Shannon was born and raised in St. Louis, where he graduated from Christian Brothers College High School in 1957, KDSK-TV reported. He signed with the Cardinals in 1958 and broke into the majors in 1962, according to Baseball-Reference.com. He played his entire nine-year major league career with St. Louis, retiring after the 1970 season because of nephritis, a kidney ailment that nearly ended his life, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

“They were throwing dirt on me,” Shannon said in an interview several years ago. “I made a pact with The Man Upstairs. I had five kids and my wife was only 29 years old. I said, ‘If you’ll let me live until the kids are grown, then I’ll do the best I can.’”

Shannon joined the Cardinals’ promotional staff in 1971, according to the Post-Dispatch. A year later he embarked upon a 50-year broadcasting career on KMOX Radio with another broadcasting legend, Jack Buck, punctuating home run calls with his signature phrase, “Get up, baby! Get up!”

Shannon was known as “The Moon Man” to St. Louis fans, who reveled in his colorful yarns. He retired after the 2021 season.

As for his legacy, Shannon said in 2021 that it was pretty simple.

“The biggest compliment I get is from the visually impaired,” Shannon said in 2021, according to KSDK. When they come to the ballpark and bring a radio and say, ‘The picture is painted for me.’ That’s the greatest compliment because they can’t see what’s going on.”

“I don’t think he’d be as successful a broadcaster in a lot other cities,” Cardinals Hall of Fame manager Whitey Herzog once said. “But he’s a fit here in St. Louis. He speaks the language of the people in this area.”

Shannon also owned Mike Shannon’s Steaks and Seafood, had two downtown restaurants that were within walking distance of either of the two Busch Stadium sites, according to the newspaper.

He was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2021.

“Mike’s unique connection to Cardinals fans and his teammates was reflected in his unbridled passion for the game, the Cardinals, and the St. Louis community,” Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr. said in a statement Sunday.

“My dad’s life was encapsulated by his devotion to his family, his friends, the Cardinals organization and the St. Louis community,” Tim Shannon, Shannon’s son, said in a statement on behalf of his family. “My dad lived his life to the fullest, and he squeezed every drop from it.”