Diamonds & Scribes Podcast: Paul Hagen – Philadelphia Baseball Review
The first football game he ever covered wasn’t close. East Aurora got steamrolled by Hamburg, “about 30 to nothing,” as Hagen remembers it. Inspired by a TV ad for a cleaning product marketed as a “white tornado,” he opened his gamer with a riff on a “purple tornado” tearing through East Aurora.
The line was clever. It was also a little too honest for a high school paper that wanted boosterism more than journalism.
“The coach, who was also my gym teacher, was very happy to come up to me the next time we had gym class and inform me that I would no longer be covering the team,” Hagen says.
It turned out to be an early lesson: context matters. So does understanding what your outlet expects of you. And yet the bug to tell the truth about games and the people inside them never left. Hagen would go on to major in journalism at Ohio University, hustle his way into the Reds’ press box as a student, and ultimately spend decades covering the Rangers and Phillies, becoming one of the most respected beat writers in the game and a Spink Award winner in Cooperstown.
In this episode of my baseball journalism series, Hagen pulls back the curtain on a job fans think they know — but rarely see up close.
We talk about:
What it felt like to walk into a big-league press box for the first time and try not to “call any attention” to yourself.How to handle criticism from readers, editors, and players — including the moments where you realize the reader has a point or the player is right to be upset.Why most players can live with criticism, but won’t tolerate being mocked.How the Phillies beat turned into a daily competition among writers who battled for scoops at the park and then shared beers afterward.The evolution of the clubhouse — from small rooms where writers and players couldn’t avoid each other, to today’s controlled scrums and group interviews.Why Hagen believes that if you can cover a baseball beat, you can cover anything.Hagen also shares some of his favorite dugout and press-box stories — from Lenny Dykstra’s tabloid obsession to a too-honest headline about Darren Daulton, from Terry Francona’s deadpan one-liners to the night he learned Mike Schmidt was going to retire and had no paper to print the scoop.For anyone who loves baseball, writing, or just wants to know how the sausage is really made, this conversation is part oral history, part masterclass — and a reminder that the beat isn’t just a job. As Hagen puts it, “covering a baseball beat isn’t a job, it’s a lifestyle.”
Listen to the full conversation with Paul Hagen below.
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