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Combining talent with a relentless commitment to learning his craft and creating his own breaks, Dan McLaughlin earned one of the best jobs in baseball, becoming the signature voice of Cardinals telecasts.

McLaughlin, a St. Louis native, began his professional career with KMOX Radio in 1997. Two years later, at 25, he was doing play-by-play of Cardinals road games on TV.

McLaughlin’s annual charity golf tournament in St. Louis has raised millions of dollars for children with disabilities.

On March 23, 2017, McLaughlin consented to an interview with me in Jupiter, Fla. He was gracious with his time and with his insights.

Here is an edited transcript of that tape-recorded interview:

Q.: Of all the major-league broadcasters, you’re the best at interacting with your audience, especially through social media. What made you decide to be so accessible?

McLaughlin: “Two things. One, I felt people didn’t really know who I was. I’m kind of a smart-aleck, like to have fun, definitely don’t take myself too seriously. When I burst on the scene, a young guy, I think the perception was for a long time that I was buttoned up, no personality. That’s the furthest thing from the truth.

“No. 2, I’m involved in a lot of charities in St. Louis, including my own golf tournament, and I thought if I could promote that, maybe get a following on Twitter, maybe I could raise some more money and it would be a good thing.

“Those were the two main reasons I did it. As I got more involved, I found it to be really helpful for what I do. It was great to see the opinions _ good and bad _ of fans. It’s important to get the feel of the fan base.”

Q.: Who were the broadcasters that influenced you?

McLaughlin: “I was making $4 an hour to do producing at KMOX. I would listen to those guys on KMOX intently to see how they got in and out of commercial breaks, or how they were able to build off the anticipation of what might be a big moment.

“Those guys were, in no particular order, Jack Buck, Mike Shannon, Ken Wilson on hockey, Mike Kelly on Mizzou games. Another guy who really helped me was Randy Karraker, who was a talk-show host at KMOX. He gave me a lot of time and listened.

“All those guys, all those experiences, are what shaped what I am today.”

Q.: Can you share a story about something you learned from Jack Buck?

McLaughlin: “Jack Buck was phenomenal to me. One day in the baseball season, it was a Saturday, there was a rain delay in a game between the Cardinals and Dodgers at Busch Stadium. They knew they were going to get the game in, but it was going to be a long rain delay.

“So I get a call from KMOX and I’m told that Mike Shannon has to leave the ballpark and go to his Night at the Races show and can I fill in and work with Jack. Yeah, I’ll be there. I was doing yard work. So I shower real quick, race down to the ballpark.

“The weekend before, in Los Angeles, I had done Cardinals and Dodgers on TV. So I had all these little notes with anecdotes on all these players. I could tell you everything about every player on both sides.

“I walk into the booth and _ (McLaughlin launches into a spot-on impersonation of Buck’s comforting, gravelly growl) _ Jack says, ‘Dan, how are you?’ I said, ‘Mr. Buck, I’m excited. I’m ready to go.’ He said, ‘What are those?’ I said, ‘These are my notes. I am ready.’ He said, ‘Oh, really. Let me see those.’

“He takes them and tears them up into about a thousand pieces and slams them into the trash can. He points at the trash can and says, ‘That’s not the story.’ Then he points at the field, ‘That’s the story. Tell them what you see, kid.’

“He walked out on purpose and left me alone for a few innings to do the game. I’ll never forget it _ the story is on the field. Never forget you’re the eyes and the ears of those who can’t be there.”

Q.: You’re carrying on a Cardinals tradition of broadcaster excellence _ Harry Caray, Joe Garagiola, Jack Buck and others. Do you ever reflect on the importance of that role?

McLaughlin: “It will hit me during a game in the middle of the season. I’m sitting next to Tim McCarver, who has done 24 World Series, and I’m talking about the team I grew up cheering for, in the city I grew up in and love, and it’s like, ‘How did this happen?’

“This is a great responsibility. That’s how I look at it. This is more than a job. This is a responsibility to carry on a legacy and a tradition for these fans. I better bring my A game, at least try to, every single night because they deserve that.”

Q.: What makes Tim McCarver such an outstanding analyst?

McLaughlin: “When his playing days ended, he didn’t just say, ‘I’m a former player.’ It was the close of a chapter in a long book of his life. He wanted to be the best broadcaster he could be. He took that on just like he took on being a catcher for the Cardinals. He looked to advance the story and didn’t just settle for being a former ballplayer.

“In my mind, he’s the best baseball analyst that’s ever lived. It’s not even close.”

Q.: Mike Shannon is the Cardinals radio voice. You’re the Cardinals TV voice. Do you two interact at all?

McLaughlin: “All the time, but especially when I was younger and Mike was on the road more. We had a lot of fun together.

“He always had a place set up to go play golf. We’d play golf almost every morning on the road. Sometimes he’d have Red Schoendienst or Jose Oquendo or a player with him. They treated me like a peer, but I always looked at it like I was an invited guest. I’d just shut up and listen to what they had to say.

“Mike always has been really good to me. Still is. Very kind. He understood the role I was in as a young guy, 23, and that it wasn’t easy. He always made it easy for me.”

Q.: You’re living the dream for a lot of people. What advice do you have for someone hoping to become a major-league broadcaster?

McLaughlin: “If this is what you truly want to do, go for it. My advice, especially for high school and college kids, is write the informational letters, ask for the internship, get involved immediately and get behind a microphone.

“In this business, there are so many people who start out wanting to be behind the microphone and then wind up being behind the camera. Don’t let people say you can’t. If I can do it, anybody can.”

Q.: You’re at the top of your game now. What else would you like to try to do with your career?

McLaughlin: “I’ve had multiple opportunities to leave for different teams, networks, national stuff. This job is the ultimate to me. This is my dream. I’m where I want to be. I would hope this is the last job I’ll ever have because I really don’t have anything else I want to do.

“The Cardinals are great to me. With the platform we have in the community, you can make a difference in a lot of lives. I know that sounds corny, but I get more out of this than I would doing a national game. That doesn’t resonate with me. What resonates is doing the best job I can for this franchise. That’s clearly the most important thing in my professional life. I love it.”

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At 29, Joe Garagiola ended a big-league playing career and began a big-league broadcasting career, joining Harry Caray and Jack Buck on the Cardinals radio team. Caray had encouraged Garagiola to make the move, but eventually regretted doing so when the pair had a falling out.

In 1955, KMOX in St. Louis became the exclusive flagship radio station of the Cardinals. The 50,000-watt CBS affiliate signed a deal to broadcast the team’s entire 1955 schedule, including spring training games. KMOX hadn’t broadcast a complete Cardinals schedule in 15 years.

Caray, Buck and Milo Hamilton had broadcast Cardinals games on a rival station, KXOK, in 1954. Caray and Buck were recruited to KMOX in 1955. Hamilton was let go. At the urging of Caray, Garagiola replaced Hamilton.

Recruited by Caray

“Harry didn’t get along with Milo any better than he got along with me at the time and we knew he wanted to get somebody else on the broadcasts with whom he was more friendly,” Buck said in his book “That’s a Winner.”

“The man he wanted _ and got _ was Joe Garagiola. He and Harry had become friends when Garagiola was playing with the Cardinals … Harry kept bending his ear about getting into broadcasting … Harry talked the brewery and advertising people into hiring Joe.”

In his book “Baseball is a Funny Game,” Garagiola said, “I made a real effort to become a talk-for-pay guy. Every day I agitated Harry Caray … about what a soft job he had. His answer was that if I could hit like I could talk I wouldn’t have any worries. The kidding got on the square when he kept encouraging me about a future in broadcasting. Harry was a big help to me as a broadcaster.”

Goodwill ambassador

Garagiola, a St. Louis native, was 20 when he made his big-league playing debut as a catcher with the 1946 Cardinals. He played in the World Series that year, hitting .316 with four RBI in five games against the Red Sox.

The Cardinals traded Garagiola to the Pirates in June 1951.

In 1954, Garagiola played in his final big-league season for the Cubs and Giants. In his book “Holy Cow,” Caray implied the Cardinals knew in 1954 that they wanted Garagiola for their 1955 broadcast team.

“The third spot on the team was being saved for Joe Garagiola … Once he was done playing, Joe was going to join up with me,” Caray said.

Garagiola spent the winter before the 1955 season “traveling the banquet circuit in his new role as sportscaster of the Cardinals games and goodwill ambassador for Anheuser-Busch.”

Odd man out

When it came time for spring training, Caray and Garagiola went to Florida to do the games. Buck was left behind in St. Louis.

“It was difficult for me because Joe became Harry’s right hand and I was the odd man out,” Buck said. “I was all set to go to spring training that year, 1955, and Joe bumped me out of the trip. He talked the brewery into sending him instead. He also became the full-time partner for Harry on the road, leaving me at home in the studio to do the commercials and scoring updates of other games.”

Garagiola’s wife, Audrie, became the Busch Stadium organist. She was as popular as her husband. According to The Sporting News, the “ballpark switchboard received several calls complimenting” the musical skill of the organist, while Joe “has made a favorable impression … as a broadcaster of Redbird games.”

Said Buck: “Nobody at the time knew how well Garagiola was going to do in the broadcast booth … He walked right in and started doing it. It helped that Harry liked him, but I give Joe a lot of credit for working at it.”

Hurt feelings

Caray, Garagiola and Buck formed the Cardinals’ broadcast team from 1955-59. In 1960, Buck departed, leaving Caray and Garagiola as a duo.

“Caray was helping make Garagiola the success he became, but they probably were too much alike to remain partners for long,” Buck said in his 1997 book. “Harry resented the fact that Joe became a national celebrity and never gave Harry credit … The relationship between Harry and Joe fell apart to the point that they’re still not friends today.”

Buck rejoined Caray and Garagiola in 1961 and they remained Cardinals broadcast partners in 1962. Garagiola departed to join NBC on its national broadcasts in 1963 and was replaced in the Cardinals booth by Jerry Gross.

The Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually since 1978 to a broadcaster for major contributions to baseball, has been awarded to Buck (1987), Caray (1989), Garagiola (1991) and Hamilton (1992).

Previously: Jack Buck, Darryl Kile faced same foe in Cardinals debuts

Previously: Think Buster Posey is good? How about Joe Garagiola?

Previously: How Harry Caray survived near-fatal car accident

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(Updated Aug. 2, 2020)

In considering a career path for 1972, Mike Shannon could have attempted a comeback as a Cardinals player or accepted a position on manager Red Schoendienst’s coaching staff. He also could have become a minor-league manager. Instead, he became a Cardinals broadcaster.

Shannon, who helped the Cardinals win three National League pennants and two World Series titles in the 1960s as a right fielder and third baseman, had his playing career cut short in 1970 because of a kidney disease. He spent the 1971 season as the Cardinals’ assistant director of promotions and sales.

In May 1971, Shannon told the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service, “Ever since I’ve been working, since I was 19 years old, I’ve been in the St. Louis organization. On and off the field, I’m a Cardinal all the way. The difference now is I’m trying to sell the Cardinals off the field.”

After one season in promotions and sales, Shannon went looking for another role. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Shannon had bought a 350-acre cattle ranch in central Missouri and was prepared to spend his time doing that if he couldn’t get another position with the Cardinals.

In The Sporting News, columnist Dick Young reported Stan Musial told him Shannon “will try to make a comeback with the Cardinals” as a player in 1972.

A month later, The Sporting News reported “Shannon had been in the picture as a coach” for Schoendienst’s 1972 staff. Years later, Shannon told Dan Caesar of the Post-Dispatch that when he declined the coaching opportunity, “I felt really bad because jobs were really tough to get in baseball, but it just wasn’t the kind of money I needed to get by on with five kids to raise and send to college.”

According to the Post-Dispatch, Cardinals general manager Bing Devine offered Shannon the chance to become manager of the Cardinals’ 1972 Class AAA Tulsa club, replacing Warren Spahn. Shannon later confirmed he rejected the offer.

Instead, Shannon was selected in November 1971 to join Jack Buck and replace Jim Woods on the Cardinals broadcast team for 1972.

Opportunity knocks

In the book “Jack Buck: That’s a Winner,” Buck recalled the position opened for Shannon when Woods, unwilling to make promotional appearances on behalf of the Cardinals and team owner Anheuser-Busch, departed for a job with the Oakland Athletics.

“Woods became ill with a gallbladder attack shortly after he was hired (by the Cardinals), and later didn’t do the things he was expected to do by our bosses,” Buck said. “He thought Anheuser-Busch demanded too much of the broadcasters and (he) didn’t show at appearances they wanted him to make in the community, and didn’t attend luncheons and banquets.

“Woods didn’t like someone telling him he had to be here or there at a certain time, although he knew that was part of the job. He left as soon as he could.”

Swing and miss

Years later, Shannon told Mike Eisenbath of the Post-Dispatch that when he accepted the broadcasting job, “I don’t think I was looking at doing it past one year. I just figured, ‘I think I’ll try this.’ ”

Unpolished, Shannon struggled to adapt to broadcasting.

“Shannon’s delivery at first was about as jagged as a broken beer bottle,” the Post-Dispatch’s Dan Caesar wrote.

Broadcaster Jay Randolph said to the Post-Dispatch, “Shannon was raw, raw, raw. Man, he was chopped meat.” Said broadcaster Ron Jacober: “There were a lot of dissatisfied listeners. I myself wondered how in the world could they have hired this guy. He was just awful.”

Shannon knew it. In 1972, he told the Post-Dispatch, “I have a poor radio voice … I’m not the guy with the golden lungs … I’ll probably be moving out of this business into raising cattle eventually.”

Years later, reflecting on his 1972 broadcast debut, Shannon told the Evansville Courier & Press: “It was like buying a new house. I didn’t know where the bathroom was or where the garage was. I knew nothing about the mechanics.”

Shannon told the Post-Dispatch, “I didn’t become frustrated, but a lot of the listeners may have been.”

That’s a winner

Shannon credited Jack Buck with teaching him on the job.

“My real ace in the hole I had was Jack,” Shannon told the Post-Dispatch. “Good Lord of mercy, I don’t know what I would have done without him. That man helped me so much. I didn’t have to go to broadcasting school. Working with Jack was like having a private tutor on the job training.”

Buck opened his home to Shannon for training sessions.

“We’d have a tape recorder and a stopwatch, and I’d try to coach him on how to do a scoreboard show,” Buck said to the Post-Dispatch.

Shannon became a success and remained a Cardinals broadcaster for parts of six decades. His conversion to broadcasting “turned out to be pure inspiration,” the Post-Dispatch observed. “Shannon has given Cardinals fans years of expertise, laughter, malaprops, insight and frequent doses of uncommon common sense.”

He never tried to be perfect. “Perfection was hung on a cross a long time ago,” Shannon said.

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In search of a late-night drink at a venerable St. Louis hotel, longtime Cardinals broadcaster Harry Caray nearly was killed when struck by a car.

On Saturday afternoon, Nov. 2, 1968, less than a month after he had called the World Series between the Cardinals and Tigers, Caray did the broadcast of the Oklahoma State vs. Missouri football game at Columbia, Mo.

Afterward, he drove to St. Louis and, on a whim, decided to stop by and watch the NHL game between the Blues and North Stars. During the hockey game, Caray, who was estranged from his second wife at the time, called a friend and arranged to meet for dinner.

After dinner, unwilling to call it a night, Caray headed to the Chase Park Plaza Hotel, a landmark in St. Louis since the 1920s and a venue for music and shows. It was about 1:15 a.m., Sunday morning, Nov. 3, 1968, when Caray drove up to the hotel in the rain.

A regular at the Chase Park Plaza, Caray, 54, usually left his car with a parking attendant at the entrance, but, because of the rain, there was a backup of vehicles in the hotel driveway.

Impatient, Caray noticed an empty parking spot along the curb on the other side of the street, directly across from the hotel. He parked, exited the car and started to cross the busy street, Kingshighway.

Sent flying

Midway across, Caray told The Sporting News, “I turned to see if anything was coming from my left. The last thing I remember was, ‘Am I OK out here?’ ”

A car driven by Michael Poliquin, 21, a Vietnam War veteran from Overland, Mo., struck Caray. “He was knocked 40 feet in the air,” The Sporting News reported. “His shoes were found 25 feet south of the hotel and he landed 40 feet north.”

Poliquin, who hours earlier had been engaged to be married, told police he saw a pedestrian step into the street in midblock and wasn’t able to stop on the rain-slickened pavement, the Associated Press reported. Poliquin said Caray saw the car at the last moment and jumped in the direction the vehicle was skidding.

In his book “Holy Cow!,” Caray said, “I was lying in the street … in the pouring rain. People started to gather around. Many recognized me; all were afraid to touch me.

“A Goodwill truck came down Kingshighway. The driver saw a body in the street and … stopped his truck. When he saw I was just lying unattended to in the rain, he pulled a few burlap bags from the back of the truck and covered me with them _ keeping me warm and dry _ then just drove away. I think he saved my life.”

Taken to a hospital, Caray was treated for compound fractures of both legs, a broken right shoulder, a broken nose and facial cuts, the Associated Press reported.

“I had almost died on the street when the rainwater and blood nearly congested my lungs … I was extremely fortunate they didn’t have to amputate my left leg during surgery,” Caray said.

Police cited the driver of the car for failure to display a driver’s license and Caray was cited for crossing a street while not at an intersection, the Associated Press reported.

Party room

Initially, the only visitors permitted in Caray’s hospital room were family members and Robert Hyland, general manager of Cardinals flagship radio station KMOX, according to United Press International.

“We can’t keep Harry from talking,” Hyland said. “He’s full of spirit and already tired of being in the hospital. He’s been pestering the doctors to let him go back to work.”

The doctors informed Caray he would need to remain in the hospital until just before Christmas. Caray convinced hospital staff his recovery would progress if he could have lots of visitors.

“My room became headquarters for off-duty nurses, for kids who wanted to talk baseball, for all my friends,” Caray said. “At night they would send martinis down from the restaurant on the top floor, as well as specially prepared meals, so I didn’t have to eat the awful hospital food. After a while, it was like a nightclub in there. It got so I hated to leave.”

Upon Caray’s release, Cardinals owner Gussie Busch offered the broadcaster the use of Busch’s beach house near St. Petersburg, Fla. Caray recuperated there _ under the care of a male nurse, he said _ and was back in the Cardinals’ broadcast booth for the start of the 1969 season.

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