'A great teammate, a great mentor': Remembering Mike Shannon

This story was excerpted from John Denton’s Cardinals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ST. LOUIS -- Mike Shannon won two World Series, hit the final home run at Busch Stadium I, the first homer at Busch Stadium II and made a position change to accommodate the arrival of Roger Maris, but he certainly wasn’t the greatest Cardinals player of all time.

Shannon was best friends with feared and fearsome competitor Bob Gibson -- during their playing days and beyond -- but there’s no plaque commemorating Gibby’s most trusted confidant in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Shannon was behind the microphone for the Cardinals Radio Network for 50 years but, by his own admission, he was nowhere near as polished or professional as Hall of Fame announcers Jack Buck and Harry Caray.

But an argument certainly can be made that Shannon -- who passed away Sunday at 83 years old -- might have been the most influential Cardinal in the rich history of the organization because of the breadth and depth of his contributions as a player, broadcaster and a believer in the city of St. Louis.

His folksy style on the radio was the soundtrack of the summer for so many generations of Cardinals lovers who relied on his descriptions of games to fuel their fandom. And Shannon’s propensity to laugh at his own jokes, the enthusiasm in his delivery and his giddiness over Cardinals victories, Albert Pujols home runs off a scowling Kerry Wood and Ozzie Smith’s diving catches was always genuine and from the heart.

As an athlete, Shannon might have been the most well-rounded prep star to come out of St. Louis, becoming the first and only Mr. Football and Mr. Baseball in Missouri history. But before he could head to the University of Missouri and contend for the Heisman Trophy that legendary coach Frank Broyles thought he might someday win, he was lured to baseball by a Cardinals franchise he loved before ever wearing the birds on the bat across his chest.

As a Cardinal for nine seasons, he helped the Redbirds win it all in 1964 and '67 and nearly again in ’68 -- three World Series in which he homered. And Shannon had no stauncher of a supporter than the fiery Gibson.

“They were best friends and so close,” said Cardinals radio voice Mike Claiborne, who called the Redbirds' loss to the Dodgers in Los Angeles on Sunday. “Bob would just shake his head and grin when it came to Shannon because he was one of a kind. Just 20 minutes of knowing Mike and you were gold with him forever. Him and Gibby literally were best friends -- to the point where he was Mike’s last living teammate, and they were best friends all those years.”

As a broadcaster, Shannon was something of an accidental participant. A serious kidney disease ended his playing career prematurely, so he spent a year in the Cardinals' promotions office before moving into the radio booth alongside Buck. The legendary Buck was the consummate professional, mixing his dry wit with a commanding voice and a precision that once made him the lead national TV voice for baseball and football -- much the same way his son, Joe, would be decades later.

For as serious and by-the-book professional as Buck was, Shannon was more than happy to be the funny man who brought levity to broadcasts, and he would even poke fun at himself. His style was that of someone watching a game one barstool over and cracking the comments that Joe Everyman would make instead of some stiff shirt behind a microphone.

“A great contrast between the two -- Jack was the polished, professional broadcaster and Mike was the guy you’re sitting next to at a bar and talking about the game with,” said former Cardinals pitcher and current radio play-by-play announcer Ricky Horton. “The combination of the two of them was unique, and it’s something that Cardinals fans loved.”

They loved it so much that Shannon was behind the microphone for 50 years and with the Cardinals for 64 years in all. To know Shannon was to love Shannon because of the way he touched everyone around him. “The Man in Black,” as Shannon was dubbed for his propensity for wearing clothes the same color as his jet-black hair in his younger days, lit up every room he entered. The effect he had on people -- for both those who knew him and those who listened to him -- should qualify Shannon as the most influential Cardinal ever.

“He was the same person every day -- a great teammate, a great mentor and everything you’d ever hope for in a friend,” Claiborne said.

“A few years ago [current Cards pitcher Jack] Flaherty had a no-hitter going and between innings, he says to me, ‘Hey! Have you ever called a no-hitter before?’” Claiborne added. “I told him no and didn’t think anything else about it. The ninth inning rolls around -- and that’s always Mike’s inning -- and he takes the mic and says, ‘Now, for the ninth inning, here’s Mike Claiborne.’

“That says all you need to know about Mike Shannon right there.”