82-Year-Old MLB Broadcaster Hilariously Struggles to Learn About Crypto On-Air: What Does NFT Stand for, ‘No Friggin Tonsils?’
A lot has changed in the world during Mike Shannon’s 50 years as a radio announcer for the St. Louis Cardinals. Like cryptocurrency, for example.
During Wednesday’s game broadcast on the Cardinals Radio Network, Shannon had a live ad read for MLB’s recently released NFT Stadium Series, which gives fans a chance to bid on digital collectables from each team’s home ballpark. But clearly, it was the first time the 82-year-old ever saw or heard of NFT.
“What’s an NFT? It’s gotta be somewhere,” Shannon said while asking his broadcast partner Mike Claiborne for help. “It says right there, NFT Michael. We’re gonna find. We may have to turn this place upside down, but we’ll find out what an NFT is.”
Shannon then started to guess what NFT stands for. “No friggin touchdowns. No friggin tonsils?” Shortly after he was finished guessing, Shannon was handed a printout explaining that NFT is short for non-fungible token.
Mike Shannon gets to the bottom of this NFT business 2/2 #stlfly pic.twitter.com/vPeAxiGwDW
— VHS (@VanHicklestein) August 26, 2021
Once the iconic broadcaster finally learned what NFT stands for, he was determined to figure out what a non-fungible token is. “A digital token, that’s a type of a – what is that word?” He asked, referring to cryptocurrency. “Cyp, cypro-uh, cypro-currency, much like a – man they have words in here I’ve never heard before!” the broadcaster continued.
“What’s this word here? Ethereum?” Shannon said, continuing to read his provided printout. “But unlike a standard coin, by-coin, blockchain, NFT is unique and can’t be exchanged for like fungible, that’s what it says here folks. Fungible. And this is as of June 25, 2021. Online thing you can’t sell.”
Then Shannon confirmed what much of his younger audience likely already figured out. “Well I don’t use online, so that’s why I don’t know.”
When Major League Baseball released their Stadium Series NFTs and provided copy for every announcer to read, they probably hoped broadcasters would be able to sell it a little better than Shannon did. Still, he remains an icon in St. Louis. Shannon, who was inducted into the Cardinals Hall-of-Fame in 2014, will retire after this season, his 50th in the booth.
