Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan is angry at KFNS radio, saying he was put on the air without his consent by afternoon drive-time host Kevin Slaten and is contemplating legal recourse.

The incident happened Thursday, when they had a contentious conversation that Duncan said he thought was private, but was being broadcast. In it, he called Slaten a "nasty man'' and Slaten accused Duncan of slander.

"It certainly was unethical what he did, and probably unlawful,'' Duncan said Friday via phone. "But that's the way Kevin Slaten is, and that's why I wasn't interested in going on his show. Kevin Slaten over the years has said a lot of things that have made me angry, and this is just typical of how he operates.''

Duncan said he was contacted first by a producer and declined to go on the air, but that Slaten called anyway. In an unconventional move, listeners heard the call being placed and Duncan answering rather than the normal procedure of the person being interviewed already being on the line when the host begins the conversation.

Duncan said he thought Slaten was calling to clear the air about him declining the request to be on the program, that he did not know the conversation was for public consumption and that he is looking into options available to pursue the matter.

"I'm going to listen to the tape,'' he said. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do.''

KFNS (590 AM, 100.7 FM) refused to provide a tape of the interview, but the Post-Dispatch obtained it via other means. Slaten could not be reached to comment, but on the air insisted that Duncan should have known he was on. The tape seems to show some ambiguity in the matter.

Slaten: "Hi, this is Kevin Slaten at '590 the Fan' in St. Louis. How are you?

Duncan: "I'm fine, thank you.''

Slaten: "Good. Could we grab you for a couple minutes to talk a little bit about the (Anthony) Reyes decision?

Duncan: "Kevin, I'm not going to go on your show.''

Slaten: "Why not?''

Duncan: "Because you're a nasty man and I don't like you.''

Slaten tells Duncan he appeared on the show a month earlier, then Duncan says he did not realize it was Slaten's program. Slaten then asks why Duncan thinks Slaten is a ''nasty man.''

Duncan: "You say stuff that doesn't need to be said, Kevin.''

Slaten: "Give me an example of that.''

Duncan: "Like the way you treat Tony (La Russa, the Cards' manager) is unfair. You keep bringing up the DWI and that whole affair.''

Slaten says Duncan is misinformed, that he has defended La Russa in the matter and that whoever told Duncan otherwise is lying. Slaten asks Duncan who told him that, and Duncan wouldn't say.

Slaten: "I'm the only guy in this town who has defended Tony La Russa with regard to that situation.''

He asks Duncan if he'll apologize if Slaten proves he has stuck up for La Russa, then says Duncan is slandering him.

Duncan: "I'm not slandering you publicly. If people talked about you publicly, Kevin, the way you talk about people on our ballclub, you wouldn't be a very happy camper. ... I don't listen to your show, I listen to what other people say.''

Slaten then criticizes Duncan for relying on secondhand information to form his opinions about him.

Slaten: "Dave, how about if I lie about you, would that sit right with you?''

Duncan: "Well, I'm sure that you have.''

The discussion grows even more contentious before Duncan hangs up after apparently realizing he is on the air.

Slaten: "What you're doing right now is slandering me based on other people telling you lies.''

Duncan: "I'm not doing it publicly like you do (to) other people.''

Slaten: "You're not? You're on the radio.''

Duncan: "Well, I hope not.''

Slaten: "Well, sure you are. I told you we were on the radio.''

Duncan: "No, you did NOT.''

Slaten: "Of course I did.''

Duncan: "And If I find out we are, you're going to be in big problems with me.''

Slaten asks what Duncan will do.

Duncan: "I'm not going to sit here and banter back and forth with you. You get paid to talk. Whether it's true or whether it's not true, you run your mouth all the time.''

Slaten: "I tell the truth. You're threatening me.''

Duncan: "No you don't tell the truth. You don't do your research, you never come around the ballpark, you never talk to the players, you never talk to anybody down there about what's going on.''

Slaten counters that he has talked to many people, including Duncan when he was on the show a month earlier.

Duncan: "This better not be on the air.''

Slaten: "I told you already that it was.''

Duncan: "You told me two seconds ago it was, you did not tell that when you called me.''

Slaten: "I told you right at the beginning of this conversation, 'Dave, we're on '590 the Fan,' do you want to talk about Anthony Reyes?''

(The start of the conversation on the tape isn't that clear-cut.) Duncan hangs up. Then a clip of Duncan's appearance a few weeks ago is played, and Slaten tees off.

"He's either a liar or he's the dumbest man on the face of the earth,'' Slaten says. "He either lied when he said he didn't come on, or he's so stupid he doesn't know he was on. ... Does this give you an insight what's going on with this organization? Do you need any more?''

LA RUSSA AND FRIENDS

ESPN assembled three of sports' most successful leaders of the modern era — Cardinals manager La Russa, former college basketball coach Bob Knight and former football coach Bill Parcells — for a panel discussion that airs Sunday.

The three are good friends, with Knight and Parcells going to see La Russa this week at the Cards' spring training facility in Jupiter, Fla., where the ESPN piece was taped Monday. La Russa and Knight discuss the time they met, years ago when La Russa was managing the Chicago White Sox and Knight was coaching Indiana.

"He was by the (batting) cage there and I shook his hand and he told me to get out of the way,'' La Russa says. "He (said he) was busy and when I had enough time in the league I could come back and say hello to him.''

La Russa went on to manage in Oakland, where the trainer was Barry Weinberg (who remains with La Russa).

Weinberg previously had been at Indiana with Knight.

"If I talk to the team and I said something I thought was important and it was something I had learned, I would attribute it to whoever I had heard or read it from,'' La Russa says, adding that he sometimes referred to Knight. "Somehow Barry calls the coach and says the guy that's managing our club keeps referring to you. So one day the phone rings and I pick it up. He says, 'Well if you're gonna quote me, I want to make sure you quote me accurately, and I'm gonna come by.' And ever since then I don't think he's missed one spring since 1988.''

Knight discusses how La Russa once let him help make out the lineup card a day after Oakland was shut out.

"... I'm kinda needling the next morning,'' Knight says. "He says, 'All right, then, you make up the lineup if you know so much about it.' Well I did know one thing, Dave Stewart's pitching that afternoon. So I said, 'Well, I need a pen.' ... I think he thought when he said that it was gonna be over with. I said, 'I need a pen.' Six coaches hand me a pen. And Tony's great. He says, 'All right, I got into this, but here are the eight guys you gotta play. You can bat them any way you want to.'

"At the end of five innings we're ahead 3-0 and I quit. I said, 'It's too easy.' I said, 'Baseball's too easy. I quit.' And of course as I said, Dave Stewart was pitching and I know nobody's gonna hit Dave Stewart.''

Knight says he has that lineup card framed in his office.

"This is one of my greatest thrills in sports," Knight says.

Snippets of the interview have been airing on ESPN shows in recent days, with the full presentation set to run Sunday in "SportsCenter'' shows at 9:30 a.m. and 10 p.m.

dcaesar@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8175