Amazing just what a "mis-talk" can do to a career! It says that had nothing to do with the firing, but I'm sure it did somewhere.Wayne Hagin is out after three years in the Cardinals' radio booth because the club quite bluntly thinks it can do better.
Hagin is being replaced by John Rooney, who Cardinals president Mark Lamping called an elite baseball broadcaster, a notch above Hagin. Rooney will work with Mike Shannon.
Hagin and Shannon had a rocky 2004 season and at one point were issued an edict to interact more on the air. Things improved this year, as there was more rapport. But the availability of Rooney, who had been the top choice to replace Jack Buck after he died in the 2002 season before the job went to Hagin, led to Friday's announcement.
"Mike was obviously consulted with this, and I think chemistry between announcers is extremely important," Lamping said Friday in announcing the moves at a news conference at Shannon's restaurant downtown. "If you're going to be living together for virtually six months, if you have a good relationship, I think that improves the broadcasts, and I think people can sense that. I really believe that there's going to be a tremendous relationship . . . in our broadcast booth, and I think our fans will notice that. I think it will be a higher-quality broadcast."
Lamping said he stunned Hagin with the news when he told him Thursday.
"I think blindsided is a very accurate way to look at it," Lamping said.
Hagin said he was shocked.
"I was very surprised," said Hagin, who had been broadcasting the Colorado Rockies games before being hired by the Cards. "I absolutely have fallen in love with St. Louis, with its people, with the baseball fans, and I wanted this to be my final spot. It was the perfect place for me. But events have changed that. I have a family to take care of, and I will take care of them."
Hagin's contract had been renewed for 2006 several months ago, and Lamping said Hagin will be compensated.
Hagin chose not to address his relationship with Shannon.
Rooney, meanwhile, had broadcast the Chicago White Sox for the past 18 years, but a contract squabble led to him leaving after they won the World Series last month. Rooney, who grew up near Kansas City, had two short stints at KMOX in the 1980s and also broadcast Missouri football and basketball on and off for 20 years.
"It is a homecoming, and it is a very exciting moment," said Rooney, 50, who gets a five-year deal. "My heart is really beating in the opportunity to join the St. Louis Cardinals and be a teammate of Mike Shannon's."
Shannon said he is thrilled with his new partner.
"It's going to be more interesting with John around because there's always something you can light a fire to John and he'll just take off with it," said Shannon, who has worked with Rooney on occasion. "I think that's what the fans here in St. Louis are going to enjoy about him, (one of) many, many things they're going to enjoy about him . . . We're going to have so much fun. . . . It's going to be very enjoyable."
Lamping said Shannon had significant input in the decision.
"I absolutely respect Mike Shannon's opinion," Lamping said. "Mike cares deeply about the quality of the broadcasts. After I talked to Mike a little bit, I came to the conclusion that there would be a better presentation of the games with Mike and John Rooney than it was with Wayne."
What did Hagin lack?
"It's pretty simple; we've always liked John Rooney," Lamping said of the man who was the team's first choice before Hagin was hired but was under contract in Chicago. "John Rooney being available doesn't happen, or shouldn't happen. But it did."
Shannon concurred.
"When you have the opportunity to bring someone the caliber of John in, plain and simple you just have to capitalize on that," said Shannon, who is heading toward his 35th season in the booth. "As far as Wayne is concerned, I can verify that Wayne Hagin is as good a broadcaster as there is in the business. He's been around for a long, long time and he will be around for a long, long time. But . . . this is an opportunity that should not be passed up."
The move comes three months after the team announced it is switching its radio broadcasts from KMOX (1120 AM), where it had been anchored for 51 seasons, to KTRS (550 AM). KTRS founder Tim Dorsey worked with Rooney at KMOX years ago, and their relationship also contributed to the move.
"We had a lot of great (times) together at KMOX, and we've stayed in touch," Dorsey said. "We're delighted. I think the best part about it is what it means to St. Louis Cardinals baseball fans. They deserve the best, and I think we have the best now."
Tough decision
Lamping said it was a difficult decision to drop Hagin.
"There's nothing that Wayne did that he had control over that led to this," he said. "Everything Wayne had control over, he did exceptionally well. We believe that John Rooney and Mike Shannon are a better broadcast team than Wayne Hagin and Mike Shannon, no disrespect to Wayne at all. . . . We have that obligation to our fans.
"Wayne handled the situation with as much class as anyone possibly could," Lamping added. "I only hope that if or when I'm faced with a situation like this, I handle it with as much class as Wayne did. I'm not surprised, because that's the way he did everything. . . . I feel good about every aspect of this (move) other than hurting Wayne."
Hagin was solid in his tenure with the Cardinals, describing the action in a conversational, low-key manner. He didn't try to upstage the game or any person.
"I thought Wayne did a great job, and I thought he did a great job in a tough situation, taking over for my dad," Fox broadcaster Joe Buck said. "I don't think Wayne could have done a better job. I feel bad it didn't work out."
Following a legend
It's tough in high-profile professions to replace a legend, and that's what Hagin did.
"It's the age-old line - you don't want to be the guy taking over for the guy, but you want to be the guy taking over for the guy who took over for the guy," Buck said. "That's the nature of it. Wayne Hagin I'm sure is going to have teams lined up to sign him to do their radio. It would have been tough for anybody, I don't care who it was, stepping into that situation. I don't think Wayne could have handled it any better."
Last spring, Hagin was involved in a barrage of controversy over comments he made about Todd Helton, the standout first baseman for Colorado whom Hagin got to know when he covered the Rockies. In an interview with KSLG (1380 AM), Hagin talked about Helton using "the juice," which many people interpreted as meaning steroids.
Helton was enraged and threatened legal action.
Hagin insisted he was referring to a legal supplement, not steroids. The controversy eventually subsided, and Lamping said the incident had no input into the firing, pointing out that Hagin's contract had been renewed. He also noted Hagin's work in the community.
"He did much more than what we expected," Lamping said. "Sometimes bad things just happen to good people."
So why was it necessary for Hagin to fall into that category?
"We're launching a new era of Cardinal baseball next season," Lamping said, citing the fact the club will play in a new stadium and be on a different radio station. "This truly is a once-in-a-lifetime event in the history of the Cardinals that requires us to get everything right. John Rooney's availability on the market was going to be very brief. The feeling between the Cardinals and KTRS was if we pair John Rooney with Mike Shannon, we'll have the best radio team in all of baseball."
Hagin may be out, but the Cardinals not even being on KMOX is a big enough loss right there.
