As you can guess, that’s a setup to another Mike Shannon story. Among the World Series rings and bobbleheads sits a plaque with a golfer sculpted on the front. Every game is a blessing to call and watch and that’s something he did so well.”Īs you can imagine, any former ballplayer could have an impressive collection, and Thompson is no different. The last thing we would want to or Mike would want to is belabor the point. “Regular life can stink sometimes so if you dedicate a couple hours to listen to Mike Shannon, John Rooney, Mike Claiborne, and Rick Horton on the radio or watching us on the TV, it’s an escape.

Thompson said baseball is a release, after all. Thompson said Shannon offered a great outline of how to enjoy the game and how to portray it to the listener. I think there are a lot of people, you don’t have that.” You hear him on the radio, you see him at dinner, that’s what you will get. One of the things I learned was, be myself. I just wanted to be around, watch, and observe. He was awesome to me,” Thompson explained. He said Shannon was always there if you needed him, but the established TV analyst in 2023 says when he was up-and-coming, he was intimidated by Shannon. Thompson, like Shannon, made the move from player to the broadcast booth. He loved baseball and wanted to hear your story of it.” “It wasn’t long questions, he was just like, ‘Hey what about that one.’ And then you just go on, it was so cool to interact with him. “He just has a way of interviewing you where it was free flowing,” Thompson said. He’s just like, ‘Tell me about that one big boy.’” I didn’t play well to get too many of those but, I remember him talking after the game. “You would end up getting a gift card to Shannon’s which was awesome, by the way, as a rookie, you didn’t have to buy a meal that night. “I remember winning the Mike Shannon player of the game,” Thompson explained. Pressed for his best memory while pitching for the Cards, Thompson pointed to getting interviewed by Shannon after a game. Thompson’s admiration for Shannon started in that ‘05 season, where Thompson would get called up to help out the Cardinals in the bullpen. You had Mike Shannon, his personality, his honesty, I’m not sure you can build that bridge the same way today,” Thompson said. I’ll look over here, there is this social media. “I feel like it’s hard to build connections now. Standing in his home’s front office, Thompson said what made Shannon a legend was that he used his iconic voice to befriend everyone he met, and each person who tuned their radio to that day’s Cardinals game. You could smell his cologne from down the hall, too, so you would run into the same room, like, ‘Mike’s here, I gotta hear a story.’ The fact that he went from player to dominating broadcast for 50 years. “Whatever room he was in, you would see people gravitate that way. “To put it into perspective, and see Mike, there, the ringleader holding court,” Thompson shared.

Running Into You by Taylor Love