Happy Birthday Mike Shannon

 68 young years in the world and 50 years in Baseball, Mike Shannon is a true treasure to the St. Louis Cardinals, the state of Missouri and to Sports Broadcasting. 

Born Thomas Michael Shannon, he was the second oldest of six kids, raised on the south side of St. Louis.  His senior year in high school he was, Player of the Year in Football and Basketball (only student ever to win both in the same year) ... but not...? okay LOL  He went on to play football at the University of Missouri but would leave in 1958 to begin his baseball career with the Cardinals.  His former coach, Frank Broyles said that if Shannon had stayed at MU Football, he might have won the Heisman.

With the Cardinals as a player, he helped the team to two World Championships in 1964 and 1967, in July of 66 he was named NL Player of the Month.  Shannon hit the final home run in the original Busch Stadium and then hit the first homerun in the second Busch Stadium, his playing career was cut short in 1970 when he was diagnosed with a kidney disease.  He would go on to be part of three more World Championships as part of the Cardinals broadcast team.

In 1971 he began in the radio broadcast booth alongside the legendary, Jack Buck and was partnered with him for almost 30 years, in 2002 Shannon was named as the lead broadcaster, and he's been there ever since. Shannon was inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2014 and in 2016 he moved to only broadcasting home games, 2021 will be his final season broadcasting for the team.

For many years he was the proprietor of, Mike Shannon's Steak & Seafood House in downtown St. Louis (I've got four of the original dinner menus) and still has two, Mike Shannon's Grill, one in Edwardsville IL and one, that many eat at, in the St Louis airport, I always stop in for a bite when traveling.

Growing up a Royals fan, I missed the last part of the Jack Buck era, but since becoming a Cardinals fan, Mike Shannon has been the The Man when it comes to the radio calls of the Cards games and it's not going to be the same without him.  

Happy Birthday Mike, and Thank You. 💖⚾

My sports collection shelf, dedicated to Mike Shannon, just to the left is a couple of things for Michael Wacha (wacha wacha) 😆

Moon Knight, Marvel's missed opportunity

MOON KNIGHT

This is a missed opportunity by Marvel Comics and a potential smash hit for Marvel Studios in the MCU.

I'll be one of the first to admit that Moon Knight is a ripoff of, The Batman.  Millionaire playboy by day and vigilante at night, there I've said it, but he's still around after all these years, time to use the character right ....

With the craze over supernatural films about vampires, werewolves and other such things that go bump in the night, have Moon Knight be strictly a hunter of those things that, go bump in the night. Stop mixing him up with drug lords, cartels and terrorists, and go another route but use the classic look.

The character is due for a more specific reboot!  The "mental illness" bit just does not seem right, at all, but having one voice in his head he can't shake, one that takes him years to figure out, and turns out to be the voice of Khonshu trying to guide him.

One franchise from outside the Marvel Universe they should pick up, Carl Kolchak : The Night Stalker, it would be a great tie-in with this hero’s adventures and any of them who had run ins with monsters.

Marc Spectre is one of Carl’s two nephews, the other is Dr Cyle Kolchak a mutant with a computer like memory, the ability to “read between the lines” of historical texts to see what really happened in that era and has a sensory perception to historical artifacts.  

Cyle’s partner in adventures is the incredible, Gorilla Man, both are part of the, Agents of Atlas, a group of world adventurers whose organization was founded by Allen Quartermane himself.

Cyle is also been used as a consultant by Dr Strange, Professor Xavier, Tony Stark and many others on historical matters and aid in identifying historical artifacts and their meaning.

They need to stick with him as, The Fist Of Khonshu but tweak it so that he hunts down the creatures of the night.  His powers rise and fall with the lunar calendar, like most of what he hunts, his powers would be at their peak when the moon is fullest.  He's got some good allies and I like the idea of the aliases, perhaps a history with some secret spy agency could be developed, to explain all of his back alley connections around the world.  Unlike Bruce Wayne, who mostly trained himself, Marc Specter could have had formal training, but only hint to it, leave the overall a mystery.

A team up with Dr Strange is a given, but also team up with Spider Man, believing that The Man Wolf was one of his prey only to find that it's something else, this also allows The Man Wolf to be introduced to the MCU for later use, he's another missed opportunity character.  A team of Moon Knight, Man Wolf & Blade could make for an awesome film, he's really got a ton of potential and possibilities.

This also opens the potential for, The Midnight Sons, led by Dr. Strange and teams him up with, Ghost Rider, Blade, Manwolf, Whistlers Daughter (3rd Blade movie, one of the very few good things about it), among other darker heroes of the MCU.