ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - There may be only 11 more games left in Mike Shannon's legendary career as "The Voice of the Cardinals." Unless the St. Louis Cardinals make the playoffs, Shannon will call it a career at the end of the regular season and set down his KMOX headset for the final time.
The 81-year-old was a two-time World Series champion with the Cardinals as a player (1964 and 1967) and then called three more championships from the radio booth (1982, 2006 and 2011). He announced at the beginning of this season that it would be his last.
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At every home game throughout the season he has been honored with special video tributes from current and former players and coaches, broadcasting colleagues and other baseball icons.
"The fans are really the tribute," Shannon says of the touching appreciation he's been shown by fans. "They come first and they always have."
In retirement he says he plans to play a lot of golf and do a lot of fishing.
He told KMOX Sports Director Tom Ackerman on Monday morning that he knows exactly how many games he has left.
"I've had 50 years of it and I'm counting down to my last 11," Shannon says.
In recent years he's reduced his travel and broadcasting schedule to only home games and in this final season he's calling about 50 games total.
Mike was inducted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame as part of the inaugural induction class in 2014 and was named a finalist for the Ford C. Frick Award in 2014 and 2020. He's only the sixth 13 announcer in baseball history to serve at least 50 years with one team. His current is the fourth-longest active tenure among Major League Baseball announcers behind Jamie Jarrín (Dodgers, 1959), Denny Matthews (Royals, 1969) and Bob Uecker (Brewers, 1971).
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