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March 26, 2008 Spring Training 08 Joe Janish

Billy Wagner on Michael Kay

Yesterday marked the first appearance of Billy Wagner on The Michael Kay Show on 1050 ESPN Radio — and it won’t be the last.

Wagner will have a regular segment on the show, and I’m having a hard time figuring out how the Mets are OK with this.

As Adam Rubin noted:

“This much is guaranteed: Mets PR guru Jay Horwitz is going to have a weekly coronary, because Billy Wagner will be a weekly guest expert on ESPN radio 1050 AM.”

If you missed yesterday’s segment, you can hear it here.

Billy sort of sounds like a little kid on a farm — in a good way — with his high-pitched voice and slight southern drawl. While he didn’t say anything incredibly controversial, he definitely said a few things that could possibly be misconstrued or twisted by someone hell-bent on stirring up the Mets clubhouse. For example, when asked about “the collapse”, Wags didn’t blame anyone, but he did infer that David Wright and Jose Reyes weren’t making the plays in the field and/or weren’t focused, and that “the team could see it coming.”

Anyone else see Wagner’s regular appearance on 1050 as an accident waiting to happen? Those who regularly listen to Michael Kay might be thinking, “uh oh, another Tiki Barber”.

Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers. Follow Joe's baseball tips on Twitter at @onbaseball and at the On Baseball Google Plus page.
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  1. isuzudude March 26, 2008 at 7:57 am
    I agree that it’s a trainwreck waiting to happen. Billy never needed much prodding to put his foot in his mouth and create controversy. Now he’s a weekly guest on a known pro-Yankee broadcaster’s show? It won’t take more than a 2-game losing streak to encourage Kay to get Wagner to throw the entire team under the bus. For Kay, it’s a great idea. For Wagner, he’s got a public forum to voice his many opinions. For fans, it’s good radio and entertainment. But for the Mets, it’s all bad. Is there anything they can do, though? Do they have the ability to force a player not to talk to a specific outlet? Certainly they can request it, but I don’t think they can force it. Maybe I’m wrong. If I’m Omar or Horwitz, I’m secretly injecting Wags with a virus to give him permanent laryngitis. Problem solved.
  2. Walnutz15 March 26, 2008 at 8:58 am
    ^ And BINGO was his name……o.