Mike was an accomplished player at Christian Brothers College High School, where he was an American football player and was named Missouri’s Prep Player of the Year in both basketball and football in 1957. He joined the University of Missouri as a quarterback on his one-year football scholarship. But he was also a baseball prospect, signing with the Cardinals in 1958, stating in his autobiography about $100,000, whereas at the time he was reported as $40,000.
After four years in the minor leagues, he played sparingly for the Cardinals in 1962 and 1963, often as a late defensive replacement for great hitter Stan Musial, who was in the final years of his Hall of Fame career at the time. played.
Shannon was not inducted into the Hall of Fame following Musial (although she performed alongside future Hall of Famers, including Bob Gibson, Lou Bullock, Orlando Cepeda, and Steve Carlton). However, he was a solid player, and in Game 1 of his series at the 1964 Worlds, Whitey of the Yankees hit a homer for his two runs from Ford to tie the score at 4–4. The Cardinals won his 9-5 victory and won the series in seven games.
In 1967, Shannon moved from right field to third base after the Cardinals acquired Roger Mullis from the Yankees.
St. Louis won the World Series that year as well, beating the Boston Red Sox in seven games. The following year, the Detroit Tigers defeated the Cardinals in his seven games. Shannon hit a home run in each of these series.
Shannon played until 1970 when he developed membranous nephropathy, an autoimmune disease of the kidneys, ending his career. All-time batting average of .255, He had 68 home runs and 367 RBIs and was inducted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2014. Two of his teammates died recently. Broadcaster, Feb.
Shannon joined the Cardinals’ promotional division in 1971 and became a team announcer the following season. Not only did he call the Cardinal He Game, but in the 1980s he was part of the backup He Crew on NBC’s “Game of the Week.” He retired after the 2021 season.
