RetroSimba

In 2012, Mike Shannon marked the 50th anniversary of his debut with the Cardinals.

Shannon played his first game for the Cardinals on Sept. 11, 1962. Fifty years later, he still was with the Cardinals as their radio play-by-play broadcaster.

When Shannon got promoted from the minor leagues to the Cardinals in September 1962, there was no indication he would become one of the franchise’s most popular and recognizable figures for the next half-century.

Shannon had been loaned by the Cardinals to the Red Sox organization during the summer of 1962. It was from Boston’s Class AAA Seattle farm club in the Pacific Coast League that the Cardinals called up Shannon.

Signed by the Cardinals as an amateur free agent in 1958, Shannon began the 1962 season with St. Louis’ Class AAA Atlanta farm club in the International League.

He started well. After 31 games with Atlanta, Shannon was among the top 10 in the league in batting at .321. He also had 4 home runs and 15 RBI.

After that, Shannon’s production dropped. He played 66 games with Atlanta and hit .260 with 6 homers and 28 RBI.

The Cardinals loaned him to the Red Sox and their Seattle affiliate, managed by Johnny Pesky. The move revived Shannon. He batted .311 with 7 homers and 47 RBI in 76 games for Seattle.

(Atlanta manager Joe Schultz had been under pressure from the Cardinals’ front office because the perception was Schultz was more interested in winning games than in developing St. Louis’ top prospects. Several newspapers reported Schultz would be fired after the season. When he led Atlanta to the league championship, Schultz instead was given a spot on the Cardinals’ coaching staff for 1963.)

Overall, Shannon’s combined season statistics for Atlanta and Seattle were solid: .288 batting average, 13 home runs, 75 RBI in 142 games.

At age 23, he finally got the call to St. Louis.

In his first game, on a Tuesday night at St. Louis against the Reds, Shannon, batting seventh and playing right field, went 1-for-4 in the Reds’ 6-2 victory. Shannon’s hit was one of only three the Cardinals managed against Cincinnati ace Bob Purkey.

After grounding out to second baseman Don Blasingame in the second inning, Shannon led off the fourth with a single to left. Dal Maxvill bunted Shannon to second before Purkey struck out Bob Gibson and Julian Javier. Boxscore

That was Shannon’s lone Cardinals highlight that month. After getting that first big-league hit, Shannon went 0-for-12 the rest of September before singling to left in his last at-bat of the season against Billy Pierce in the eighth inning of a 6-3 Giants victory on Sept. 26 at San Francisco. Boxscore

In 10 games for the 1962 Cardinals, Shannon hit .133 (2-for-15) with a walk and 3 strikeouts.

Shannon also opened the 1963 season in the minor leagues, but by mid-season in 1964 he had claimed the starting right fielder job for St. Louis and played an important role in sparking the Cardinals to a World Series title that season.

Converted to a third baseman for the 1967 season, Shannon was a starter for two more Cardinals pennant winners and another World Series championship team. He joined their broadcast team in 1972 and has been there ever since.

Previously: Cardinals came close to trading Mike Shannon

Previously: The story of how Mike Shannon became a Cardinals catcher

Previously: Ray Sadecki led Atlanta Crackers to 1962 championship