Here is my Tuesday newspaper column on Wayne Hagin, whom WFAN named Friday to join Howie Rose in the Mets' radio booth.
Hagin and I had long talks about the complicated circumstances of his departure from St. Louis and about his controversial comments regarding the Rockies' Todd Helton before that.
I tried not to dwell on either situation in my column, because neither has any direct bearing on whether Mets fans will enjoy listening to Hagin.
His greatest challenge, I think, will be fitting in despite no New York-area background. Listeners can't expect the kind of local ties and memories the likes of Bob Murphy, Gary Cohen and Rose brought/bring to the gig.
We'll see. The guy is a pro's pro and a safe choice, much like the personable Tom McCarthy was the past two seasons.
Hagin said he attended his first Mets and Yankees games as a fan in 1979, and was there the night Rich Gossage was injured in a fight with teammate Cliff Johnson. He said he teases Gossage, a follow Colorado resident, about that episode.
Comments (5)
Tom McCarthy may be "personable" (and may be a Gary Cohen "sound-alike") but he knows nothing about baseball.
Here's hoping the new guy knows something beyond batting average and pitcher wins. I don't want a stat geek, but geez it would be nice if the guy WHO I LISTEN TO ANNOUNCE BASEBALL GAMES EVERY DAY FOR SIX MONTHS, understands the simple concept of "on base percentage".
Why not long time Mets beat reporter and announcer, Ed Coleman ?.
Though Hagin has passed the Helton controversy and rightfully so doesn't want to go back I remember him explaining "on the juice" for Todd Helton was creatine. He says his source was Don Baylor. It could be true. Who can explain Helton's power outage in recent years?
I feel bad for him in the whole Mike Shannon ordeal. Shannon's a total homer and horrible on radio. I thought he was replaced by John Rooney, a Missouri native who was inexplicably let go by the new station that was going to carry to White Sox. I guess he got it worse that I thought.
didn"t wayne hagin give out nfl picks on late night television?(for money)
CMG: It was creatine and it was Rooney. You are correct