ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Before St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Mike Shannon is started his 50th season of calling Major League Baseball games on the radio, he says he was fighting for his life. He says he almost didn't make it this far after a near-fatal battle with COVID-19 last year.
Shannon, 81, spent 15 days in the hospital in October and November of last year, and told Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "I was probably going to die."
Shannon's wife, Lori, tells Hummel the frightening tale of the broadcaster feeling the typical effects of COVID-19 and her drive with him to the hospital:
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“Within four hours he went from normal Mike Shannon to ‘I can’t breathe’ Mike Shannon to hanging his head out of the window as I’m driving 80 miles an hour down the highway. We got into the emergency room and it was pretty much like seven liters, 15 liters, 30 liters, boom, we’re out of oxygen. So they moved him into the Intensive Care Unit.
“Within the next hour, he was so agitated about the thing at that point that he was down for the count and they had to put him into a medical coma. The COVID had taken over so quickly.” – Lori Shannon to the Post-Dispatch
Fellow Cardinals broadcast Mike Claiborne, who has been working with Shannon for spring training broadcasts, says he's still feeling the effects.
"This took place some time ago and he’s still trying to recover from it. He readily admits he was down for the count. He thought he was checking out," Claiborne says. "He's steady. He's trying to get better but he's still got a ways to go to get himself back to the Mike Shannon we know.
“We just hope Mike gets better and I think he will. Like he said, he’s trying to get stronger every day."
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Hummel reports, Shannon says he was given a similar cocktail of drugs to what was given to President Donald Trump to help him recover. He's continuing to do physical therapy multiple times a week.
Shannon was on the Garage Happy Hour with Tom Ackerman in July of last year:
The former Cardinals player has called only Cardinals homes games since the 2016. He was a finalist for the 2020 Ford C. Frick Award, which is presented annually to someone for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Shannon's first season on the microphone was in 1972 with Jack Buck on KMOX.
He's been part of the Cardinals organization since 1958, played for St. Louis from 1962 to 1970 and then spent one year in the front office.
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