COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (KMOX) - Two men with St. Louis ties are among the finalists for the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting, museum officials announced Tuesday.

Mike Shannon is in his 41st year of calling St. Louis Cardinals games. His career in the booth follows a nine-year playing career for the Redbirds. The 73-year-old is a St. Louis native who attended CBC High School and the University of Missouri.

Dewayne Staats is in his 15th year of broadcasting Tampa Bay Rays games and has logged a total of 35 years of major league baseball play-by-play. The native of Advance, Missouri grew up in Wood River, Illinois and graduated from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville in 1975. The 60-year-old was once an intern at KMOX Radio in St. Louis.

A 21-member panel will consider the merits of the ten finalists and three online vote nominees, with a decision to be announced at baseball’s 2012 winter meetings.

Previous winners of the Ford C. Frick Award include Jack Buck in 1987 and Harry Caray in 1989.