Tom Ackerman has been a fixture at KMOX for a quarter of a century, rising from a key behind-the-scenes position to become the station's sports director and a key member of the morning drive program, as well as host of legacy show “Sports on a Sunday Morning.”
Through it all, he has covered play-by-play, locally and nationally, on radio and television. He has even audio streamed some Cardinals spring training games in recent seasons on the team's website.
But Ackerman is about to take another big step, accomplishing a career goal of doing play-by-play of the Cardinals' regular season games. He will call all three telecasts of the club's series this weekend against Detroit, which begins with a contest at 7:15 p.m. on Friday, at Bally Sports Midwest.
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“It fulfills a goal to be able to broadcast a team, and it happens to be my team,” Ackerman said this week at Busch Stadium. “This is my home. I grew up here, on this court and the one before that. This feels like a continuation of what I started from the beginning, which was to do my best and continue to prove myself and also I'm having fun. This is going to be fun. It's so special.”
So special that Ackerman teared up and for a few moments afterward struggled to talk about the occasion as he thought about his father. They had pledged their allegiance to the Cardinals and other area sports teams.
“My dad — that's why I'm in this business,” Ackerman, 47, said. “He was 54 when he died of a heart attack in 1993, when I was in high school. When that news came out (about the BSM games) I had so many people say, “Your dad would be proud of you.” That means a lot. My dad, he'll be with me without a doubt.”
He's also emotional about his relationship with Mike Shannon, who spent 50 seasons as a Cardinals broadcaster before retiring in 2021. He died over the weekend, and Ackerman was instrumental in organizing and participating in the extensive coverage of his life that aired on KMOX (1120 AM).
“I came to KMOX when I was 22, I was young, and I had just gotten this amazing job behind the scenes, making $7 an hour, and Mike Shannon was treating me like I was a major league baseball reporter,” Ackerman said. “He introduced me to people. In his mind, KMOX brought me in for a reason, so he'll put me right on it. This made so much sense to me. It gave me confidence right away just by watching how it worked but also by introducing me to people. It was like, “Here, go do it. Go to the club and talk to guys. You will know what you are doing.' I will think about all this, and I have thought about all this.'
But he insists those feelings for his father and Shannon won't get him on the stand.
“Oh no, I'll be fine,” he said.
The reason he's getting the chance is in part because Bally Sports Midwest officials want to cover for a backup to Chip Caray, the Cardinals' top play-by-play broadcaster, in case he's unexpectedly forced to miss some games. Dan McLaughlin was an ironman when he was BSM's full-time Cardinals play-by-play announcer from 2016-2022.
“It's important for our broadcasters to have an opportunity to rest and refresh and important to have depth ready to fill in,” said Bally Sports Midwest general manager Jack Donovan. “Tom is a St. Louis guy and knows Cardinals baseball very well. We are excited to have him on the team.”
Ackerman is also set to make BSM games May 29-30 (vs. Kansas City) and Aug. 14-16 (vs. Oakland). None of the three series he calls are against any of the Cardinals' biggest rivals — in fact, they're all against American League teams, clubs that like the Cards are some of the worst in the majors.
Ugly team to cover
Ackermann is certainly no slouch in the air and this weekend should speak volumes for a team that has played so poorly that it has been booed at home recently. The Cardinals are 0-10 in the series this season, just swept at home by the Angels and have lost 14 of their last 18 games – all contributing to a National League-worst record (10-22).
He said he will have no trouble pointing out the team's problems despite his debut in its TV booth.
“No, I won't,” he said flatly. “I feel pretty confident that it's going to be me, which means just like I would on the radio when I'm talking about the team I'm going to talk about baseball. When you talk about baseball, you talk about good performances and bad performances. I interview Ollie (Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol) twice a week, I interview 'Mo' (Cards executive John Mozeliak) every week. We talk about a lot of things, they have always been good at answering my questions.
“I feel very comfortable talking about them regardless of how the show goes. Obviously, I want it to go really, really well, so we want to have some fun here. But if the game isn't going well, you have to tell it like it is and the analyst should too.”
Jim Edmonds is the commentator Ackerman will be working with this weekend.
The long wait
It's been more than a month and a half since it was announced that Ackerman was going to play some games, so he's had plenty of time to prepare. So he'll be happy when he arrives on Friday night.
“I feel very comfortable here,” he said. “I always felt comfortable with this team. I'm happy when I'm in the booth. Spending time for so many years around Jack (Buck) and Mike (Shannon) and everyone else in the booth. I'm familiar with this environment.”
This was done with the radio crew. Now, he'll be on TV, but he'll be reuniting with a former colleague, BSM Cards producer Bryan Schapiro, and that should help smooth the transition.
“We've worked together in college basketball for several years, so it's a familiar voice in my ear,” Ackerman said. “I'm a consumer of TV shows, I've watched a lot of them.”
Ackerman has had quite a bit of television work in the past, especially with Missouri Valley Conference basketball. He's also covered a few major events on national radio, including a Virginia-North Carolina basketball game, so he's not worried about the moment being too big this weekend. And he has what he estimates to be 50-60 Cardinals spring broadcasts on his resume. While these weren't high-profile productions, they helped establish his foundation.
“Putting that headset on for the first time and saying, 'Welcome to Cardinal baseball,' was a big deal for me,” he said. “This is a bigger stage but I have the same mentality. If I hadn't done TV before, that might have been a thing. But having done a lot of television, on the college basketball side, and a lot of national radio assignments as well, there have been some big stages, big games, big venues. This is entertainment.”
Ackerman said at this point in his life he's not looking for a career change to become a full-time baseball broadcaster.
“I'm really happy where I am now,” he said. “I love KMOX. It's such a great place to be, I get to be in a leadership role. And I get to spend time with my kids (16 and 12 year old daughters). It fits very well.”
His moonlighting assignments this weekend will fit into his schedule.
“I'm just excited to get it going,” Ackerman said. “This opportunity is a situation that every kid growing up in St. Louis would want to be in.”
Tom Ackerman, sports director at KMOX (1120 AM), is at Busch Stadium on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. Three days later he did the play-by-play of the first of eight Cardinals telecasts that he called that season at Bally Sports Midwest .
Christian Gooden, Post-Dispatch
In today's video “Ten Hochman” at 10 am, from Siteman Cancer Center Studio, Ben Hochman honors the legacy of late Cardinals broadcaster Mike Shannon, who has died at 83. Also, a happy birthday to David Backes! And as always, Hochman picks a random St. Louis out of the hat. “Ten Hochman” brought to you by St. Louis Window Nation!
